Students dreaming of a summer in Italy or Mexico can stop flipping through other colleges’ study abroad catalogs. Instead, they will be able to register for Yale courses abroad, with the introduction of four new summer study programs.
Beginning this summer, Yale will offer study abroad programs in Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Mexico. The new programs join summer courses offered in Germany, Austria, Kenya, Russia and France as part of the University’s efforts to teach languages in their home environment.
The courses will include Italian in Umbria, Polish literature and language in Krakow, a Czech language course and Czech film and literature in Prague, and Nahuatl in a rural village in Mexico.
Jonathan Amith, coordinator of the Nahuatl Summer Language Institute, said teaching the Nahuatl course in Mexico would give the students a cultural context for the language.
“It’s probably a much better way for people to learn the language,” he said. “I just think that the learning experience will be much richer for students.”
The course in Nahuatl had been taught for the past five years in New Haven, Amith said.
The courses offered will be largely language-based, said William Whobrey, director of summer programs. The courses will consist of four weeks in New Haven to get the basics and then four weeks abroad, with the exception of Czech and Nahuatl, which will be five weeks of courses abroad, Whobrey said.
The summer programs offer up to four credits at the price of $1,700 per credit and $3,600 for the four credit program. Students can apply for financial aid as with normal summer programs. Students are responsible for their own airfare, room and board, but the summer programs office will help students find dormitory lodging or home-stays abroad, Whobrey said.
Whobrey said the University may expand offerings in the future.
“The focus at least right now is somewhat more central-European related. That’s not necessarily by design,” Whobrey said. “We look to expanding even more in the coming summers. We might in 2004 have a course in Brazil.”
Anne Ambrogelly, who has taught French 130 for three years in New Haven over the summer, said going abroad would add to an already intense and rewarding experience.
“The very interesting thing about it is that they have the culture course at the same time and we’re going to be doing some reading in both French and English,” she said. “We’ll go around and compare what’s in the book with the different neighborhoods in Paris.”
Amith, who will be documenting use of the language over the summer through a Ford Foundation grant, said he plans for native speakers involved in his project to participate in the teaching of study abroad students.
Betty Yip ’05 said she is looking into summer study abroad courses such as the program in Paris and the Light Fellowship in Beijing.
“I would learn a lot from traveling. It’s just a new experience and after Yale the options would be harder,” she said. “I took French but I’m not taking it now, but I want to continue French. I always wanted to go to Paris — I’m looking at French language programs.”