Language and Culture

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The forces of globalization are creating cultural, commercial, and political links between disparate cultures that were until very recently isolated from one another. An understanding of other cultures, languages and customs is a valuable commodity in a globalized world. Brown has created these Language and Culture courses to allow high school students to get a head-start on studying foreign languages and cultures that are outside the normal high school curriculum.

Language and Culture courses take a unique approach combining the study of language, culture, customs, and media. The study of a foreign language is much more than the study of grammar and syntax; it is a window into the soul of a culture. The goal of these intensive four-week courses is to build a base from which a student can begin to understand a chosen language and its associated culture and prepare the student for further study in college and beyond.

As a Language & Culture student, you will vary your time between language instructions and work with translations. Through the study of films, novels, newspapers, and, in some cases, weekly forays into Providence’s ethnically diverse neighborhoods, and other explorations, you will see how your newly acquired language, and the culture it shapes, expresses itself in the world around you.

The courses are offered in four-week segments.