Languages

scandinavia_sm

The Nordic languages are all spoken in what most people refer to as “Scandinavia.” The Nordic countries have much in common – when they make the world news they are found among the top five in almost any survey – the happiest countries, the countries with least corruption, most livable cities, the highest levels of income equality, of gender equality, of common tax-covered lifelong educational opportunities, great speakers of English as their L2, getting the best grades (OECD), working on reversing the effects of climate change and high participation in political democratic processes.

The Nordic countries are focusing on internationalization in their higher education and there are many opportunities for undergraduate study abroad, research exchanges and studying at one of their universities – often for free or for minimal tuition.

We offer language instruction in five Nordic languages (Danish, Norwegian (Bokmål variant), Icelandic, Finnish and Swedish) – of which Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are sub-grouped as “Neighbor Languages” – a unique linguistic situation that functions such that knowing one makes you able to communicate with speakers of the other two languages.

Our mission is to foster knowledge of the languages in all five areas of the ACTFL Standards – communication, culture(s), connections, comparisons and communities.

Most of languages are offered in a sequence of four semesters – with the beginning language courses starting in Fall Semesters.