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The Pacific Union College Department of Modern Languages equips students with proficiency in a foreign language and an understanding of its peoples and cultures. The department helps students become world citizens and gain a global perspective through programs in German, Italian, and Spanish. (Other languages such as Portuguese and Russian are available through PUC's affiliation with Adventist Colleges Abroad.)
As the United States is increasingly interconnected with other countries through commerce and global agreements, it simultaneously becomes more diverse within its own borders. For these reasons, it's increasingly important for career-bound graduates to know at least one language other than English. The modern languages programs foster cultural learning along with the grammar and vocabulary of each language.
Students broaden their communication skills in ways that are in even more demand in an interdependent, multicultural world. The program goal is to provide effective opportunities for the development of both linguistic and cultural proficiency. Students learn to speak the language, appreciate the culture, and understand the native speaker's perspective. In the process, they become "cultural brokers" – facilitators of comprehension across cultures as they serve in a broad range of professional fields.
Fast Facts
- The ACA orientation gives students who have been accepted to study abroad useful real-world advice from fellow students who are recent participants.
- The modern languages department is among the most diverse on campus, with faculty members who are from and/or have lived in many countries outside the United States.
- The great majority of our Spanish majors participate in a full year of study abroad, which is for most a life-changing experience and the best out of their entire undergraduate experience.
- Modern languages department graduates have obtained employment in state government, education, business, medicine, and many other fields where their language skills and cultural knowledge are a tremendous asset. Many of them participate in mission trips as they practice in their fields.
Modern Languages
Pacific Union College
One Angwin Avenue
Angwin, CA 94508
Phone: (707) 965-6500
Fax: (707) 965-6573
Contact Department »
- Department Update On April 27, Charo Caballero-Chambers and Sylvia Rasi Gregorutti participated in a literary luncheon in Corte Madera with Chilean novelist Isabel Allende (author of House of the Spirits and many others). Allende read from her most recent novel, Island Beneath the Sea, set in Haiti and New Orleans during the 18th century. Among the topics discussed after the reading were issues in translation, bilingualism, and Allende's development as a writer.
In May, Sylvia took students completing the Beginning Italian sequence on the yearly field trip to Little Italy (North Beach) in San Francisco. Their explorations included the Nuova Porziuncola, a jewel-like replica of St. Francis of Assisi's famous chapel; Biordi Art Imports, where they viewed hundreds of colorful Italian maiolica ceramics and participated in a question-and-answer session in Italian with the owner; lunch at the Steps of Rome; the church of Saints Peter and Paul, where Marilyn Monroe married homeboy Joe DiMaggio; and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's landmark bookstore, City Lights Booksellers & Publishers.
- Department Update Sylvia Rasi Gregorutti spoke about Christian higher education to a group of 50 young women at the Northern California Conference Hispanic Women’s Ministries Retreat held at Leoni Meadows, March 26-28.
- Spanish for Health Care Professionals This winter,
Pacific Union College is offering "Spanish for Health Care
Professionals," an introductory course focused on communication in Spanish for EMT and
other health service professionals.
- Mandarin Language Course Offered at PUC Pacific Union College is once again offering language studies in Mandarin Chinese.