Harvard University to offer Tagalog language course for the first time in 400 years

Harvard University in Massachusetts, USA will be offering a Tagalog language course, starting in the 2023-2024 academic year — the first of its kind in the institution’s nearly 400-year history.

According to the university’s official publication, The Harvard Crimson, while Thai and Indonesian are currently taught at Harvard, no courses are offered in Tagalog, the fourth most spoken language in the United States.

Harvard’s Department of South Asian Studies will be hiring preceptors to teach Tagalog, as well as Bahasa Indonesia and Thai for the upcoming academic year.

“We’re very excited and hopeful that these positions will be a game-changer in terms of the Asia Center’s long-term mission to build Southeast Asian studies at Harvard, as well as the university’s engagement with the region,” Harvard University Asia Center Elizabeth K. Liao said in a statement to the Harvard Crimson.

Harvard currently does not have a Southeast Asian Studies department, but offers one course on the Philippines, a survey course of the history of Southeast Asia, the publication said.
Applications are now open for a preceptor (instructor) in Tagalog, according to the Harvard website. The instructor, a native speaker or with near-native fluency, will teach five Tagalog language courses each year.

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