DU foreign language courses gaining popularity

New Delhi: The Delhi University (DU) offers much more beyond popular courses like English, Economics and Accounts to aspirants seeking admission to the varsity. Over the years, various foreign languages have also gained immense popularity among those students who want to explore the interculturality of different disciplines.

Besides undergraduate, postgraduate, MPhil and P.hD courses, the varsity also offers part-time courses in Indian as well as foreign languages. There are specific departments that are dedicated to the study of languages.

While the department of Slavonic and Finno-Ugrian Studies (SFUS) offers part time courses in Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, and Polish, the department of Germanic and Romance Studies (GRS) offer part-time certificate courses in Portuguese and Romanian. Similarly, the East Asian Studies department offers full time intensive courses in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese.

The classes for French, German, Italian, and Spanish courses — for all the three levels — are offered at various North and South Campus colleges. To enrol in these part time courses, one must be a student of a DU College.

Many students believe that pursuing language courses broadens ones career aspects and helps one understand a particular culture better.  

“Learning a specialised language course not only helps one explore opportunities in academics but also in the corporate sector. One can think of becoming a translator and interpreter. I personally want to work with the Polish Institute in the national capital,” said Ajit Banerjee, who completed a part-time certificate course in Polish.

In addition to these, the varsity also offers linguistic courses. Indian languages include Bengali, Urdu, and Sanskrit followed by international languages such as French, Persian, and Arabic among others at the UG level. However, admission to all these courses follows a cut-off system.

Similarly, in collaboration with the GRS department, DU offers Master’s programmes in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.