Genius Hour Project Proposal

This is a proposal I wrote for Composition II class. It was due today and I am supposed to add it to my blog, so enjoy.

A Proposal for MACC Kirksville Campus to Add a Foreign Language Class

Problem

            The problem with the classes MACC Kirksville Higher Education Center offers, is that it does not include foreign language classes. When I was planning my fall 2017 course schedule with my advisor, I was expecting to choose a foreign language class. Much to my surprise, I found out the Kirksville campus does not offer any foreign language classes. I was so surprised I thought about changing colleges. I think foreign language classes are important. In high school, my favorite classes were Spanish class, Geography, and World History. I love learning about other cultures and foreign languages. When I took Spanish, I saw that the class really brought students together and because of the fun class trips and class activities we really had a fun time learning about Spanish speaking countries. I think that that same energy could be experienced at the Kirksville campus, if foreign language classes were added.

Proposed Solution

            I propose that our community college add foreign language to the course schedule. I think students should be able to have foreign language as a choice to take here at Kirksville. The foreign language available should be an in-demand one such as Spanish, German, French, or Mandarin Chinese. Laura Jelich states is an article on GoAbroad.com, “thanks to our increasingly global economy, foreign language skills are not only an incredible asset in obtaining a job, but may even be deemed a necessity in certain fields.” If this campus adds foreign language classes, I believe that student’s communication skills will increase, students could have a greater chance of getting hired in the future, and students will have a greater understanding of another language and culture.

Justification

            There are students at the MACC Kirksville campus who would like to learn a new language or continue learning the foreign language they took in high school. My Composition II class is doing a project called Genius Hour where each student has the freedom to choose their own project. We are able to choose anything from expressing ourselves artistically, building something, learning a new skill, or even adopting a healthy lifestyle. I chose to learn Japanese and another student in my class chose to learn Spanish. Both of us wanted to learn foreign language. I wanted to learn Japanese because I have always wanted to visit Japan and I might get the opportunity to do that this summer. My classmate wanted to learn Spanish so that she could be more connected with her friend who can speak Spanish. There are many different reasons why a student would want to learn a new language. One of my favorite things about foreign language class is that it brings students from all different backgrounds together to learn about a language and culture. It improves the student’s native language skills because as one learns a new language’s grammar and rules, their native language becomes a frame of reference for comparing the two languages. Knowing a foreign language is also valuable in the workplace and employees can earn more if they know more than one language. People who are bilingual can have more job and travel opportunities. Depending on what a student wants to do in the future, knowing a foreign language could enhance one’s opportunities in business and government jobs because of the ability to communicate in different languages. Learning a new language is fun. When I took Spanish I and II, our class did several fun projects and we even went on a couple fun trips. One of the projects our class did was each student made an authentic dish from a Spanish speaking country. My country was Paraguay, so I made an authentic corn bread recipe. We had a class party and ate all the food we made, as well as tell about the recipe we made. It was a really fun cultural experience and each of us put effort into the recipe we made. I think that if our community college added a foreign language class, we could have fun cultural experiences like that. With fun, creative environments, like the Spanish class I took in high school, students can make new friends and connect with each other. I made a lot of new friends in Spanish class because it was a supportive and positive environment. If my proposal were enacted, I believe students would benefit and be excited to have foreign language as a choice. I would definitely take the foreign language class and encourage other students to join.