Languages at UCSB

“As many languages one speaks, as many times one is a human being.”

Language Study at UC Santa Barbara

In today’s global culture and economy, knowing a foreign language is an increasingly valuable skill. Mastering a foreign language will enhance your career options in areas as diverse as international marketing, government service, and teaching (whether here or abroad). A foreign language will expand your horizons and will allow you to think, speak, and write about life from a new perspective. It will open the door to studying the art, music, literature, film, popular culture, and philosophy of other nations and peoples. Immersing yourself in a different language and culture will also enable you to gain a better understanding of your own. Variations of the proverb “as many languages one speaks, as many times one is a human being” exist all over the world.

In that spirit, we invite you to discover the rich foreign language offerings at UCSB. The campus offers a wide variety of programs where you can study one or more languages. You should plan to get an early start, which will make it easier to major or minor in a particular area and to take advantage of UC Education Abroad (a great way of expanding your language training). Also keep in mind that for many languages, the first and second year sequence begins only in the Fall Quarter of any given year. Placement testing is available.

“Knowing another language enriches your personal life, expands the range of professional opportunities open to you, and increases your power to act as a citizen of the world. Exposure to another culture through its language will position you more favorably for success in your career, whatever career you may choose. Studying even one language will dramatically increase your sensitivity to linguistic and cultural differences; it will make you more aware of how you use your own language as well. Many people who study languages and cultures are surprised to find the experience transformative. Students of language discover ways of seeing the world that they did not expect.”
— Source: Modern Language Association, “Language Study in the Age of Globalization: The College-Level Experience.”

Languages offered

Germanic and Slavic Studies
www.gss.ucsb.edu
Languages: German, Russian
Majors: German, Russian & East European Studies
Minors: German Studies, Russian

Religious Studies
www.religion.ucsb.edu
Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, Sanskrit, Tibetan
Minors: Iranian Studies, Jewish Studies


Spanish and Portuguese
www.spanport.ucsb.edu
Languages: Basque, Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish
Majors: Portuguese, Spanish
Minors: Portuguese, Spanish

Classics
www.classics.ucsb.edu
Languages: Ancient Greek, Latin
Major: Classics
Minor: Classics

East Asian Languages and Cultures
www.eastasian.ucsb.edu
Languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Majors: Chinese, Japanese, Asian Studies
Minors: Chinese, Japanese

French and Italian
www.frit.ucsb.edu
Languages: French, Italian
Majors: French, Italian Studies
Minors: French, Italian Studies

The UC Education Abroad Program offers many opportunities for you to immerse yourself in the study of your language.

Languages at UCSB - News and Features

Featured
Bringing Basque Language and Culture to Students
Focus on Faculty
Bringing Basque Language and Culture to Students
Focus on Faculty

Euskara, the oldest language of the Basque Country, is a symbol of cultural survival. At UC Santa Barbara, lecturer Maitane Murumendiaraz Arana teaches students in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese about the language and culture of her own heritage. Through her classes and events, she keeps the Basque spirit alive and growing at UCSB.

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Focus on Faculty
From UCSB to ESPN: Language Education Leads to a Global Career
Alumni All-Stars
From UCSB to ESPN: Language Education Leads to a Global Career
Alumni All-Stars

UCSB alumna Ardi Dwornik has been working at ESPN for over 17 years. Before then, Dwornik got her Masters in Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature at UCSB, and became fluent in both languages. She also studied abroad for a year in Brazil through UCSB’s Education Abroad Program. She says her education and study abroad experience were a pivotal moment in her career, as ESPN was hoping to expand to Brazil when she was hired.

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Alumni All-Stars
For the Love of Language
News
For the Love of Language
News

“HFA Speaks: For the Love of Language” brought together Sabine Frühstück, a UCSB professor of modern Japanese cultural studies, Magda Campo, an Arabic continuing lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, and Laura Marqués-Pascual, the language program director in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese for a panel discussion. Moderated by Jackie Jauregui, the panel had a conversation about the importance of learning languages, and the related struggles of teaching it at a time of dropping enrollment nationally.

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News
Taking Flight with German
Student Spotlight
Taking Flight with German
Student Spotlight

Thomas Heine, a fourth-year student in UC Santa Barbara’s Germanic and Slavic Studies department will be combining his knowledge of German language, culture, and business with his passion of aviation. He is working towards flying for Lufthansa, the largest airline in Europe.

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Student Spotlight
Falling in Love with French
News, Focus on Faculty
Falling in Love with French
News, Focus on Faculty

UCSB French lecturer Marion Labatut sat down to discuss her efforts to build up enrollment in UCSB French courses after COVID-19 related drop. During a Q&A session, she described new ways the department in encouraging students to fall in love with French.

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News, Focus on Faculty
The Mind Between Languages: Translation and its Newest Tools
Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty
The Mind Between Languages: Translation and its Newest Tools
Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty

Meagan Carter, a Ph.D. candidate at UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, developed and taught a course during Summer 2023 that takes on translation and interpreting as professional field, the evolving technologies in use, and ongoing research into what happens in the mind while a professional is at work.

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Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty
On Gender Neutrality in the French Language
Student Spotlight
On Gender Neutrality in the French Language
Student Spotlight

Developing gender-neutral vocabulary in French can be challenging due to the highly gendered nature of the language and resistance from French academics and politicians. But Jordan J Tudisco, a doctoral student in Comparative Literature and French teacher at UC Santa Barbara, looks to provide students with the inclusive vocabulary they need to express themselves. In a recent interview, Tudisco discussed their work, some of the challenges that hinder the use of inclusive language in French, and what they see for the future of inclusive vocabulary.

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Student Spotlight
The Art of Translation: Italian Literature and Race
Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty
The Art of Translation: Italian Literature and Race
Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty

UCSB professor Stephanie Hom is applying her research background in Italian colonialism to probe how the experience of Blackness is translated in literature. In a recent virtual interview, Hom discussed her new course, The Art of Translation, in the Department of French and Italian, and how language and translation can be used to evaluate complex cultural issues.

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Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty

Health Humanities Initiative

Health Humanities Initiative

Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary field of medicine that uses the humanities and arts to explore the human mind and body, as well as the broader human condition.

Civic and Professional Leadership Institute

Civic and Professional Leadership Institute

The CPLI is an exciting, integrated, four-course program dedicated to leadership through effective communication and is linked to UCSB’s Public Speaking Initiative.

American Indian and Indigenous Studies

American Indian and Indigenous Studies

The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Minor provides students an understanding of the ideas, practices, experiences, and issues confronting native peoples of North and South America through the study of their histories, environment, cultures, languages, politics, and economies.

Art, Design & Architecture Museum

Art, Design & Architecture Museum

The Art, Design & Architecture Museum both a teaching museum, committed to the development of critical thinking and visual literacy, and a resource for the wider Santa Barbara community.

English for Multilingual Students

English for Multilingual Students

The English for Multilingual Students Program offers courses for undergraduate and international graduate students for whom English is not the first language.

 

Art

Art

The Department of Art offers a dynamic and challenging learning environment that emphasizes interdisciplinary research as well as artistic production.

 

Classics

Classics

The Department of Classics explores all aspects of Greek and Roman culture -- the fountainhead of the Western experience.

Comparative Literature Program

Comparative Literature Program

The Department of Comparative Literature takes a global approach to the study of literature, crossing national and cultural boundaries -- from ancient to modern times.

 

East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies

East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies

The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies is dedicated to the study of the civilizations of China, Japan, and Korea in all their richness and diversity.

English

English

The Department of English offers a curriculum that traverses historical eras and global boundaries to explore various literatures and critical approaches to them.

Film and Media Studies

Film and Media Studies

The Department of Film and Media Studies is the place for those with a passion for the large screen and the small screen.

 

French and Italian

French and Italian

The study of French or Italian is an intellectual adventure that leads to the core of Western civilization.

 

Germanic and Slavic Studies

Germanic and Slavic Studies

The Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies addresses the highly complex histories and cultures of German-speaking and Slavic countries.

Public History Program

Public History Program

UC Santa Barbara defined Public History as a profession in 1976, with a Rockefeller Foundation grant to train historians for public and private sector careers beyond conventional academic employment.

 

History

History

The Department of History invites students to reimagine the traditional ways we carve up geographical space by examining not just the histories of nations but also those of regions, trade, and cultural exchange.

History of Art and Architecture

History of Art and Architecture

The Department of History of Art and Architecture stresses global perspectives and intercultural exchanges, augmenting its long-established strengths in European and Non-Western creative traditions.

Jewish Studies

Jewish Studies

Our Jewish Studies program is particularly strong in the study of Judaism, including the languages and literatures of the Jewish people, Holocaust, trauma and memory studies, and 20th-century Jewish critical thought.

Medieval Studies

Medieval Studies

Medieval Studies is an interdisciplinary program that explores the many cultures of the European and Middle Eastern Middle Ages from the viewpoints of history, literature, religious studies, drama, art, and music.