About the FLL - Georgetown College

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About the FLL

A tradition of serious language study

The Faculty of Languages and Linguistics (FLL) of Georgetown College particularly embodies Georgetown University’s long tradition of fostering international understanding and the serious study of foreign languages and cultures. The FLL consists of seven modern foreign language departments, the Department of Classics, and the Department of Linguistics. These departments coordinate their academic policies and collaborate intensively on their curricular planning, admission of students to their programs, extracurricular activities, and educational initiatives, forming a strong community of learning, teaching, and scholarship. With an emphasis on literature, culture, and linguistics, FLL departments play a leadership role in the international character of a Georgetown education and in the scholarly exploration of languages, literatures, and cultures.

The FLL’s curricular offerings are designed to educate students to reach a high level of cultural and linguistic understanding, a level that allows them to evaluate ideas and values within a humanistic and critical context. Understanding language in all its forms, styles, and uses enables our students to function at sophisticated levels of cultural and linguistic literacy that make successful cross-cultural communication and an engaged understanding of language possible. The FLL aims to produce graduates who are sensitive to the needs of the world community, open to exploring new ways to improve life, and ready to approach complex issues from an intercultural perspective. Consistent with Georgetown University’s traditions and its overall multicultural and international commitment, the FLL considers an overseas experience to be a significant component of the curriculum.

FLL Programs

FLL departments offer a full set of academic programs in foreign languages, culture, and literature studies, as well as in Linguistics. FLL departments offer majors in Arabic, Chinese, Classics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish , Linguistics, and collectively in Comparative Literature. In addition, the FLL offers coursework in Catalan, Modern Greek, Hebrew, Korean, Ukrainian and Turkish. Students can combine their major with any other major or minor offered in Georgetown College, including the pre-medical program.

Many students interested in international affairs opt for one of the area studies certificate programs. These certificate programs are the functional equivalents of interdisciplinary minors. They include Asian Studies, African Studies, Arab Studies, European Studies, Islam and Muslin-Christian Understanding, Latin American Studies or Russian and East European Studies. These programs are designed to complement the study of the language and culture of a region with historical, political, and economic perspectives.

Most FLL undergraduates take a Senior Seminar as a culminating academic experience of their studies. Students of particular merit are invited at the beginning of their senior year to write a Senior Honors Thesis. 

The FLL also recognizes that an important aspect of intercultural exchange is linked to economic endeavors. Today’s corporate world places a high priority on developing an interculturally-sensitive and experienced work force with superior analytical skills and the ability to synthesize and present clearly complex and diverse information. To respond to these needs, the FLL offers its students a unique curricular option of combining a language or linguistics major with business coursework (the equivalent of a business major) or with a minor in business.

The exploration of foreign cultures and literatures would be incomplete without the energizing presence of poets, fiction writers, and dramatists. The FLL departments count among their regular faculty members many published creative writers. In addition, distinguished writers of international reputation are invited regularly to contribute to the teaching in one of the language departments. Former writers-in-residence include Mario Vargas Llosa (Department of Spanish and Portuguese), the 2010 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Advising System

One of the distinguishing features of the FLL is its advising system. FLL students select a faculty advisor in their major field before matriculation and work with that advisor from the first day of their studies. The faculty advisor is the primary resource for students as they explore the curricular options and develop their individual academic and personal interests. This personal advising relationship is augmented by the advising available to all Georgetown College students through the Dean’s offices. The size of the FLL programs allows for a particularly intensive and supportive advising structure for all FLL students throughout their undergraduate careers.

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