English > Spanish

Today, I want to talk about the general education requirements at IPFW. I understand the purpose of general education. It is to make the students well-rounded (a cliché, by the way), flexible, and adaptable. It is supposed to help students find jobs easier and faster, even though the job they may find is not in their specific field of study. It’s a job, either way.

What I don’t understand is why English majors must have four semesters of a foreign language. And not just four semesters of any language, but four semesters of the same language. Therefore, IPFW wants its English majors to be rather comprehensible in another language besides English. Sure, this is a nice thought, but I don’t understand the need for it. Unless I am going to be teaching with my English degree (which is a possibility, but the possibility is higher that I would have gotten an education degree instead), I do not think it is necessary for English majors to have to take so much Spanish.

I transferred from Ball State University a year ago. I had taken one semester of Japanese at BSU. For my degree there, I only needed two semesters of any language. When I transferred back to IPFW, I had already had one semester of Spanish that had been transferred from my high school AP Spanish class. Therefore, I decided to stick with three more semesters of Spanish. However, my semester of Japanese did not transfer, and because of that, I have to take an extra semester at IPFW for that Spanish class. It seems to me to be a waste of my time. I understand that I may encounter people in my life that do not speak Spanish, but I feel that in my chosen career (either working at a publishing company or teaching at the college level), the people that speak Spanish will most likely also speak some English. I do not think that communicating will be a problem.

However, what surprised me the most was a discussion I had with a nursing major. If I remember her correctly, she did not have to have any semesters of a foreign language. WHAT?! So I, as an editor for an American publishing company (publishing books in English) have a higher chance of encountering someone who does not speak English than a nurse in the E.R.? I think not. How is a nurse supposed to help a patient if she/he doesn’t know what the patient is saying? At least, in my case, if I did need to speak to someone in my career and couldn’t understand them, it would not be absolutely critical if I had to spend the time to find a translator. But in the E.R., time matters and the patient could die if the nurse took the time to find a translator.

Well, that rant is over. I sometimes just do not understand the reasoning behind the classes I have to take as an English major. At least I did not have to take more than one semester of Math or Science. 

Wedding Update

As of tomorrow, Gabe and I will have ordered our invitations for our wedding reception. Since we are getting married in Georgia (and only having a reception in Fort Wayne), we have to word our invitations carefully so we do not insult our grandmothers because they aren’t invited to our wedding. It’s definitely frustrating…trying to please everyone. And not easy, either. But, we are trying to enjoy ourselves, even though it can get frustrating and tedious at times. 

We are still looking for a cheap photographer (but a good one!), if anyone has any ideas. We are thinking of contacting the IPFW Photography Department to see if any students would be available to take pictures. It seems to me that it is unnecessary to overpay a professional photographer when we have talented photographers all around us that have not yet succumbed to their egos.