GVSU Celebrates Languages
Please join us! Everyone is welcome; no language experience necessary.
Established to encourage and assist language students to study abroad and gain life experience in the language they are studying at Grand Valley.
Why language? Language is considered a critical part of a liberal arts education. Part of Grand Valley State University's vision and strategic priorities are to "inspire and equip students to be active life-long learners and global citizens" and to require global learning of all undergraduate majors. This does not mean that we expect all students to become fluent, but instead to have exposure to a second language and culture, which in turn leads to practical language skills. The Modern Languages and Literatures Department's language courses offer not just the chance to study a language, but to actively engage with another culture on its own terms.
Multiple studies link the benefits of language learning to:
The following professions are seeing an increased need for language skills:
Check out our majors, minors, and other language courses. Explore further reading on the importance of learning a foreign language.
Please join us! Everyone is welcome; no language experience necessary.
Danielle is a high school math teacher who has used Spanish to help English Language Learners in the classroom as well as to communicate with her student's families.
After graduating in April 2016, Ryan spent the summer working as a German language instructor at Concordia Language Villages in Bemidji, Minnesota, and then as a hiking guide in the Canadian Rockies for German-speaking tourists.
"Without the great professors in the GVSU German Department, I wouldn't have had the necessary language and cultural skills to start my scientific career in Germany!"
German Reading Circle. Reading German Literature. Allow someone to practice their language skills in the LRC on November 6th 2023
Please join us! Everyone is welcome; no language experience necessary.