German's Sandra Alfers appears on radio show to talk about WWU

Sandra Alfers, an associate professor of German in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Western Washington University, appeared on a radio show in San Francisco Oct. 7 with a number of her students.

The show, "Radio Goethe," which is supported by The German Consulate and the Goethe-Institute, airs on 40 radio stations in North America, Europe, Australia and online. The show on which Alfers and her students appeared focused on studying German in the United States. Alfers talked about Western’s successful German program, its faculty and students.

Alfers recently was interviewed about this topic for a newspaper article in the German Nürnberger Zeitung (Sept. 9, 2010), which also featured a picture of one of her Western classes.

To listen to the show, click here. Alfers' interview begins 9 minutes into the clip. Various German songs, requested by Alfers' students, are interspersed throughout the show.

A couple longer quotes from the show, shared by Alfers:

The context for the quote is the discussion of studying foreign languages in times of budget crises.

Around minute 24:00:

Host Arndt Peltner:

"But, I mean, all over the U.S. when I read the news, everybody, the education system, the schools, the universities are all taking about, especially here in California, are talking about cutting funds, cutting programs, professors, cutting students, cutting offers. How is the situation up there?"

Sandra Alfers:

" [...] At WWU, we are fortunate enough to have, I think, a very strong College, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, a strong department, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages. We are part of this department, there are ten languages taught. We also offer, for example, Mongolian.

Arndt Peltner:

"Wow."

Sandra Alfers:

"And we, I think, are in a position where the administration and other colleges on campus realize that this is a fundamental aspect of the liberal arts education at Western. And that, of course, linguistic proficiency is not all we do. We give an international aspect, we bring this to the campus. And, I think, people recognize and realize that. We also do not have a language requirement. No one is required to take a language. All the students we have are there because they want to be there. There is a huge interest among the students. So, I think, that has to do with it. We also have very dedicated faculty. So, I am very happy to work with this German section because everyone knows how important it is to do outreach, to be engaged, to be dedicated to teaching. We teach on all levels of the curriculum. So, we teach 101. Only 50% of other schools do that for undergraduate education. So, you get a professor in all your classes: 101, 400-level classes. And I think the students recognize that. They know what kind of a quality they get in the German section. So, I think it goes both ways. And again, hopefully, then this will be a good omen for the future that the languages won’t be a hard hit as anywhere else."

Around minute 52:00

Arndt Peltner:

"You are describing, somehow, a perfect situation at the university where you have a lot of students, a lot of interest from the students for your program, you have a lot of ideas of how you can teach the language. But how is the situation in the rest of the country? Because I read all the time that programs get cut. Is it just a perfect situation in Washington State? [...] Does it depend on the teachers, on the professors?"

Sandra Alfers:

"I think it’s a very difficult question, and it depends on a number of factors. Again, I think we are very lucky where I am at, that we have a very dedicated program, and I have three wonderful colleagues, and we work very well together. But you never know what the financial situation is like. Washington State is also not in the best situation and we have had drastic budget cuts, and we are going to continue to have them. So, I am confident that it won’t happen to us but, of course, it’s difficult and the languages seem to be on the first list. Just this week, for example, I think an entire program was cut in NY State, in Albany, a French program, so not German [added note: if you would like more info on this, I have received it in the meantime and would be happy to forward it. It's not only French that is being cut, but also Classics, Russian, and Theater] but it does not look very good in many universities even though they claim to be engaging in excellence and in international education but somehow the languages are not valued as much. German programs have been cut, also in Washington State, I mentioned Washington State University before. So, it’s something that’s on everyone’s mind. Numbers are up. The MLA […] publishes statistics and German has been continuously growing for the last couple of years. I think, it’s up by 3,5%, which is small but there is more interest in German, so hopefully this interest will continue to grow and hopefully educators, politicians will realize that foreign language study is vital to the educational system and to the United States, quite frankly. I think there is legislation that is trying to be passed , I think Rep. Holt of New Jersey is trying to pass a language act so that more money is given to language programs. But I think, again, if also the politicians don’t hear from their voters, which are going to be young people, students, parents at high schools, if programs get cut and they don’t do anything, they don’t say anything, they don’t voice their opinion, I think things are just going to happen. So, it’s very important to speak up for the importance of foreign language study. [...]