Language and Culture

Germanic Studies, Indiana University Bloomington

• Dutch Language and Culture
• Yiddish Language and Culture
• Norwegian Language & Scandinavian Culture
• Minor in German, Dutch and Yiddish
• Return to Undergraduate Programs Menu

Dutch Language and Culture

Dutch Program web page

Dutch is spoken by approximately 21 million people in Western Europe alone and by people in the Dutch Antilles, Aruba and Surinam. Dutch is also an important source language in countries as Indonesia. It is the language spoken throughout the Netherlands and in the northern part of Belgium, where Brussels, the capital of the European Union, is situated. Dutch is also the language of The Hague, home of the International Court of Justice. Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa, grew out of seventeenth-century Dutch and is similar to modern Dutch.

Students at Indiana learn Dutch to achieve a wide range of goals, for example, exploration or cultivation of family heritage, enhancement of qualifications for international business, direct access to a prominent cultural tradition, and skills acquisition for research in academic fields such as European history and art history.

The Department of Germanic Studies offers four courses in Dutch language skills, N100 through N250, and two in Dutch civilization and culture, both taught in English: N350 Dutch Culture: The Modern Netherlands, and N450 Introduction to the Civilization of the Netherlands. By completing Dutch N100, N150, N200, and N250, students can satisfy the 14-credit-hour foreign language requirement for the B.A. degree in the College of Arts and Sciences. Likewise, N350 carries Social and Historical Studies distribution credit in the College as well as B List credit towards its Culture Studies requirement; N450 carries Arts and Humanities distribution credit and B List credit.

The optional minor in Dutch, completion of which is listed on the student’s permanent academic record and official transcripts, requires only the completion of N350 and N450 in addition to N150, N200, and N250. In some cases a major in Dutch may be possible when combined with a second B.A. major within the College’s Individualized Major Program.

Indiana University offers students the opportunity to participate in Certificate Dutch as Foreign Language, an international examination program by means of which their standing in Dutch is certified and accepted all over the world. This exam is administered by only a few institutions in the United States. The coordinator of the Dutch program at IU offers preparation and assistance for the test, which is administered on campus.

Since IU’s Dutch program belongs to the American Association of Netherlandic Studies, IU students who take N200 and N250 can compete in a grant competition to study Dutch language, literature, and culture in a summer program in the Netherlands. The coordinator of the Dutch program also offers assistance to students applying for summer funding or year-long funding from the Foreign Language and Area Studies graduate fellowship program administered by the Department of West European Studies.

For further information and advising about academic opportunities in Dutch, including study in Holland or Belgium, please see the Coordinator for Dutch Language and Culture, Esther Ham, eham@indiana.edu,Ballantine Hall 667, (812) 855-7173.

Yiddish Language and Culture

Yiddish is a High German language, with many words borrowed from Hebrew and Slavic, that is usually written in Hebrew characters and that was once widely spoken, chiefly as a vernacular, in eastern European Jewish communities and by emigrants from these communities throughout the world, including the United States. Currently, the Department of Germanic Studies, in conjunction with the Jewish Studies Program, offers four courses in Yiddish language skills (Y100, Y150, Y200, and Y250) and two courses in Yiddish literature, film, and culture in English translation (Y300 and Y350). The English-language courses, which also carry Comparative Literature numbers (C377 and C378), examine the history, literature, drama, and film of Eastern European and American Yiddish culture.

By completing Yiddish Y100, Y150, Y200, and Y250, students can satisfy the 14-credit-hour foreign language requirement for the B.A. degree in the College of Arts and Sciences. Likewise, both Y300 and Y350 carry Arts and Humanities distribution as well as A list credit towards its Culture Studies requirement.

The optional minor in Yiddish, completion of which is listed on the student’s permanent academic record and official transcripts, requires 16 hours of course work. The required courses are Y150, Y200 and Y250; with six additional hours taken from Y300 (or C377) and Y350 (or C378); Y495; and History D304 "Jews of Eastern Europe".

For further information and advising about academic opportunities in Yiddish, please see Professor Dov-Ber Kerler, dkerler@indiana.edu, Ballantine Hall 670, (812) 855-1951.

Norwegian Language and Scandinavian Culture

Are you interested in oil, fishing, or hydropower industries? How about extreme sports like telemark skiing, sea kayaking, or polar exploration? Maybe you fall for tales of love, death, and adventure, told through the ages by epic poets, Ibsen, or Ullmann? Perhaps you prefer classical, electronica, or black metal music? These assorted topics scratch the surface of the financial, political, and cultural capital of contemporary Norway, not to mention the vivid historical past of the Vikings detailed in mythology, sagas, and runes.

Students study Norwegian to gain an insider’s perspective on the diverse riches of this Northern European country. By learning the language, students build an understanding of the people, the culture, and the history of Norway, and an appreciation for how these factors contribute to make Norway a serious participant in our globalized world. Learning Norwegian will also give students the opportunity to understand Swedish and Danish, as the three languages are closely related.

The Department of Germanic Studies offers four courses in Norwegian language, K100 through K250. Two years of Norwegian will fulfill the foreign language requirement for the BA degree in the College of Arts and Sciences. The department has also offered S491 Scandinavian Language for Reading Knowledge, as well as G350 Vikings and Sagas, an introduction to Viking culture and its reflections in selected sagas. G350 is conducted entirely in English.

Students are encouraged to include Norway in study abroad plans. The Coordinator for Norwegian Language and Culture offers assistance to students applying for summer or year-long funding from the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) graduate fellowship program, administered by West European Studies.

For further information and advising about academic opportunities in Norwegian, please contact Gergana May, Coordinator for Norwegian Language and Culture, via e-mail, or at Ballantine Hall 659, (812) 855-1046.

For a listing of Scandinavian events, please click here.