The language requirement at this university is completely unreasonable. Now, I’m mainly talking in my own school – the College of Arts and Humanities. For those unfamiliar, a student in the school has to take up to four semesters of a language. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a multi-lingual culture. Where my problem lies is in the methods and logistics of the language program here.

First of all, I’m a journalism major, a field that shows more parallels with communication than with literature or any other discipline in my college. Communication, however, is in the Social and Behavioral Science College, which holds the global education requirement. I’ll admit I’m not thoroughly versed in the details of this requirement, but the part that interests me is that those students only have to take two semesters of a language.

My question is this: What’s the difference between the two schools that they have different language requirements? Why do I have to take four semesters, when those students only need two?

Along with global education, students also have to take three additional courses in that language department. This may sound fair, but let’s face it, I can take the introductory level language courses and find three general education courses that somehow pertain to that language and have an easier time than students on the four-tier language plan.

Maybe I wouldn’t mind if the language requirement here actually made sense. Ideally, you would hope that each semester would build on the one before it. In reality, the second year just rehashes the first year with the only difference being that they use bigger words to teach you the same material. How do I know this? They use the same grammar boxes and teach the same material in the same order that they taught the previous year.

Another thing I’ve realized is that the people who want to take the second year of a language are people who want to be fluent. This may account for the stringent reiteration of the first year since these students will most likely travel to those foreign speaking countries. I would love to become fluent in my language of study. But let’s be realistic, as much as I would love to impress my friends and romantic interests with my abilities in foreign tongues, I am going to forget everything I’ve learned.

I, along with most others in my position, feel the same way toward the four-semester language requirement while my friends breeze by with two semesters or don’t even have a language requirement at all. Someone explain why School of Management majors don’t have one? Is it because English is the universal language of business? Hardly.

The one complaint through this is that I would like a better language program that seems reasonable and makes sense. Or at the very least it should be consistent from school to school.

Ben Feder is a Collegian columnist.