Language is the key to the world.  When you learn to communicate with other people in their own language and culture, you immediately open up access to new opportunities and a greater understanding of the world we live in. At the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, we teach students to speak, understand, read, and write Spanish and Italian. When you learn another language, you are also learning a whole new culture–another way of thinking, seeing, and being in the world.  That’s why we offer not only courses in language and linguistics, but also a wide array of courses in cultural studies.  Through literature, film, theatre, music, and the popular arts, we help you explore exciting new cultural worlds and learn how to get around in them.

Learning languages is one of the most practical ways you can prepare for life and a career in today’s globalized world. Fluency in other languages and knowledge of other cultures and peoples enhances your opportunities and broadens your horizons. For many careers, a second or third language is an advantage—if not a requirement—and may prove to be what sets you apart from other candidates pursuing a career in communications, journalism, business, the foreign service, government, international relations, social work, the health sciences, education, translation and interpretation, science and technology, travel, tourism, and the hospitality industry. Students graduating with a degree in Modern Languages and Literatures at Laurentian have gone on to careers in teaching (at all levels), translation and interpretation, international law, diplomacy, broadcasting, commerce, business, and marketing, as well as art, fashion, and design.  Others have used their language skills to enhance their careers in nursing, engineering, travel and tourism, and missionary work, and still others have gone on to do graduate studies in Italian or Spanish at the masters and doctoral level. And quite apart from the benefits to your career, don’t forget that studying another language will allow you to explore a whole new world of travel in Italy, Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America.

Come and discover Don Quixote, Pedro Almodóvar, and Gabriel García Márquez, Dante, Michelangelo, and Fellini, and much more at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.  The world awaits you!