A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: Aug. 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, student correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Garrison Reid, special contributor; Lisa Huang, special contributor; Nick Young, photography and layout.
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College opens Strategic Language Institute
Communication is the key to any successful business. In today’s global economy, bilingual employees are vital toward fostering fruitful partnerships around the world.
Collin Continuing Education is launching the Strategic Language Institute in an effort to increase the level of foreign language speakers, with an emphasis on languages important to know for national security reasons, cultural understanding and economic competitiveness.
The Strategic Language Institute will offer classes in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Hindi and Russian – languages deemed “strategic” in helping government and business representatives bridge the cultural and communicative gap and promote understanding. In addition to these “strategic” languages, Collin Continuing Education will continue to offer eight additional foreign languages along with a series of classes designed to improve the communication, conversation, grammar and pronunciation skills of students where English is their second language.
Foreign language training can be a great asset to businesses that are based in, or do business with, clients in foreign countries. The Dallas Morning News recently highlighted the companies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that are subsidiaries of foreign companies. Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc., one of the area's biggest companies, has become a subsidiary of its Japanese licensee. Diakin Industries Ltd., one of Japan’s top air conditioner makers is now based in Carrollton.
Collin offers five levels of Japanese, in addition to grammar and conversation. Sixteen of the top 50 subsidiaries have home offices in French-speaking countries. Collin offers nine levels of French in addition to grammar and conversation.
The Strategic Language Institute is in response to an initiative that President Bush announced earlier this year asking for more students to study foreign languages. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted that our “country made a huge intellectual investment in winning the Cold War” and said that in recent years America has not made similar investments, especially surrounding the teaching of critical languages. She also added that the countries where the critical languages are spoken “will define the 21st century. Nothing is more important than being able to converse with them in their native tongue.”
For more information on the Strategic Language Institute, call 972.985.3750 or visit www.ccccd.edu/ce and click on the heading for “Courses.”
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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