Faculty Interview

The interview with Dr. Marie C. Jipguep was something that I found interesting, and was able to apply to our assignment. It was interesting to learn the difference between the foreign language system that is in place in the United States, and the systems in other nations, like Cameroon. Dr. Jipguep’s reaction to the fact that students in the United States could actually stop taking foreign languages at a certain level was interesting. She found the fact that this nation does not put enough emphasis on learning these languages to be a bit negative, and even chalked a bit of it up to the arrogance of some Americans, who would see learning another language to be unnecessary since many people spoke English. This view could also be seen as related to the fact that, despite the fact that most of the people in the United States speak English, there is such a difference in all of the different regions of the country, that each region seems to have its own culture. She also mentioned the fact that people would want to pick languages to learn based off of the prevalence of a language in an area. People put more emphasis on what is around them and what is affecting them at the moment. I do know that this seems to be a problem with many people, probably myself included. Most languages are taught because of the prevalence in a certain area, and then the students might only want to put forth effort to learn the language if they feel that it actually matters to them. This interview was quite helpful.

Shayna McCormack