Center for Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The certificates program in languages was instituted as a means to allow students who seek formal training in a modern foreign language but who, for reasons of time and other commitments, cannot complete the full requirements toward a major. With its sequence of courses, students in the program will systematically build up proficiency in the language and, in their senior year, will receive from the respective department a certificate officially attesting to their having fulfilled the requirements. Certificates are possible in Arabic, French, German, Russian, Spanish.

C F L L C

At Williams, the Center for Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures has brought together faculty and students in Foreign Languages, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics since 1986. Faculty in all these areas are dedicated to promoting of the study of foreign languages, increasing connections with other cultures on campus and abroad, and encouraging intellectual development across disciplinary boundaries.

NEWS AND EVENTS

Icons of a Border: Photographic Search for Traces in Today’s Berlin
The Center for Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures will be hosting an exhibit and activities on the Berlin Wall in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. See our News and Events page for further details.

French Film Festival - Tournées festival
This year’s Tournées festival will focus on diversity within France by examining the myriad and complex ways that both secular citizens and religious communities—from Catholics to Jews and Muslims—approach the notions of celebration and survival, study and prayer, life and death in contemporary France. The first of five films will be shown on February 8th, 2010. For more information, please see our News and Events page.

Upcoming Films:
February 15, 2010 7pm at Images Theater: Being Jewish in France / Comme un juif en France (Yves Jeuland, 2007) presented by Alexandra Garbarini

MORE NEWS AND EVENTS

STUDENT PROFILE

Katie White '11 - Comparative Literature Major

I was never much interested in languages or Spanish before I spent the fall after graduating high school in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, I definitely struggled to integrate with local “Ticos” (Costa Ricans), because I was not able to speak their native language. Even though many Ticos speak English, I felt like there was a level of intimacy that I could never quite attain without being bilingual. I decided that, over the course of my four years at Williams, I would become as close to fluent as I could get in one language—and that language turned out to be Spanish! (It was a toss up between Spanish and Italian, but ultimately I chose Spanish, because of its wider use and wider travel possibilities! I would still love to learn Italian, though.)

Since my freshman year, I have taken Spanish every semester at Williams and plan to continue all the way through senior year. I spent last summer traveling in Spain and plan to embark on many more Spanish-ey excursions (in Europe and Latin America) after graduating. I also love literature, and being able to finally read Spanish literature is difficult, but a real treat! Thanks to all of my Williams Spanish profesoras thus far (Profesoras Fox, Rouhi, French, and Pérez-Villanueva) as well as Jane Canova, of the Center for Foreign Languages and Cultures, and to all of those great teachers to come!