Skip to page navigation Skip to page content Site Index | Directory | Contact Us | Search:

Home > Liberal Arts > Language Arts > Foreign Languages

Foreign Languages

Why Study a Foreign Language?

"Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you learn a foreign language, you:

  • develop the practical skills to communicate more widely;
  • improve your knowledge of your own native language;
  • develop your cognitive skills, i.e., mental flexibility, creativity, higher order thinking skills;
  • increase your marketability. Four out of five new jobs in the US are created as a result of foreign trade;
  • develop an understanding of the interrelationship of language and human nature;
  • learn to identify universal aspects of your culture, your community, and yourself;
  • enable yourself to become part of the global community; and
  • expand your view of the world.

Here at Honolulu Community College, you can study Japanese, Spanish, and Filipino, in addition to Hawaiian. If you plan to transfer to UH Manoa, many programs require that you complete two years of a foreign language or Hawaiian to graduate.

"The workplace of tomorrow is a world of many cultures and languages . . . with new forms of global commerce we can't even imagine today."
- Kiplinger Washington Editors

Course Descriptions

Visit the Liberal Arts Syllabus Index for syllabi available online.