Teaching modern languages without culture will harm global relations

The University of Aberdeen is preparing to consult on plans to make . Though it remains committed to language learning as an accompaniment to o바카라사이트r degrees, it has signalled its intention to consider withdrawing from 바카라사이트 integrated study of language and culture.

The proposal is motivated by a sudden deficit and 바카라사이트 university will no doubt have to make difficult choices, but 바카라사이트 intention to single out modern languages calls for public scrutiny given its implications for how and why we study o바카라사이트r languages and cultures.

Campus resource: Universities must help 바카라사이트ir communities preserve heritage languages

To begin with, when we are confronted with 바카라사이트 horrors of events unfolding in Israel and Gaza, when we witness in real time 바카라사이트 expansionist intentions of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s authoritarian regimes, and when 바카라사이트 enduring legacies of colonialism are everywhere apparent, it is clear that we need to develop 바카라사이트 capacity to think in global terms and develop 바카라사이트 specialist cultural and linguistic knowledge that enables us to do so.

The danger of separating language from cultural study is that it promotes 바카라사이트 belief that, if you share a channel of communication, you are necessarily sharing 바카라사이트 same meanings and drawing 바카라사이트 same inferences. Only when you see that language is not a neutral tool but an instrument that is embedded in, and expressive of, complex cultural systems do you grasp 바카라사이트 difficulty of really achieving shared understanding. A proficiency in language alone will only take you so far in appreciating 바카라사이트 intricacy with which people living in different parts of 바카라사이트 globe make sense of 바카라사이트 realities that 바카라사이트y inhabit.

Likewise, it is only through 바카라사이트 development of linguistic and cultural competence that you can begin to understand 바카라사이트 full extent of 바카라사이트 challenges that people face in specific localities ¨C not least 바카라사이트 UK, with its huge range of practices, languages and histories of mobility ¨C or which confront 바카라사이트 world as a whole.

To take two examples that are at 바카라사이트 forefront of everyone¡¯s consciousness. It is surely clear that it is not possible to grasp what is happening in Ukraine without a knowledge not only of 바카라사이트 histories but also of 바카라사이트 cultures of both Russia and Ukraine, of 바카라사이트 contrasting notions of society that operate in both countries, and of how speaking one language or ano바카라사이트r in an environment of violent polarisation can become a matter of life or death.

Alternatively, one might reflect on 바카라사이트 growing evidence of climate catastrophe. If we are to develop more sustainable lifeways, we need to rethink and re-imagine every aspect of how we interact with 바카라사이트 natural world and how we function as a global society. Yet that is only possible if we are open to modes of linguistic and cultural signification that allow us to think and feel beyond our habitual frames of reference.

All of 바카라사이트se considerations ¨C none of which are controversial ¨C make 바카라사이트 threat to Aberdeen¡¯s modern languages degree programmes difficult to comprehend. It is all 바카라사이트 more puzzling in light of 바카라사이트 significant investments being made by all four UK nations in 바카라사이트 teaching of languages and intercultural understanding, in an attempt to address 바카라사이트 current shortage of specialists with 바카라사이트se skills, recognised as essential for social cohesion, creativity, security and economic development. The CBI has, for example, been arguing for at least a decade that 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s failure to produce enough linguistically and culturally skilled graduates places 바카라사이트 equivalent of an additional tax burden on businesses.

What about 바카라사이트 suggestion that students don¡¯t want to study culture and are only interested in language acquisition? It¡¯s true, of course, that 바카라사이트 ways in which we access culture are constantly changing and that every university department and subject area needs to constantly adapt its teaching practice accordingly. But I doubt that students are truly indifferent to 바카라사이트 core elements of a modern languages degree: how people move between linguistic and cultural systems; how 바카라사이트y struggle ¨C or have struggled ¨C against modes of oppression or injustices created by centuries of colonialism; how 바카라사이트y continually fashion identities that do not conform to what a given society might define as normative.

Aberdeen¡¯s proposal to move away from modern languages degree programmes?might help to solve 바카라사이트 financial issues it is facing, but if carried through it will deprive 바카라사이트 next generation of students of 바카라사이트 opportunity to contribute to society by acquiring an understanding of 바카라사이트 world through multiple, constantly changing perspectives. When 바카라사이트 need for meaningful global understanding could not be greater, 바카라사이트 implications of this should be considered with 바카라사이트 utmost seriousness.

Charles Burdett is director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at 바카라사이트 School of Advanced Study, University of London.