"New Liberal Arts"

Rachel Leow on "Translation":

Perhaps in no other age has cultural and linguistic insularity been more perilous. We can't afford not to speak to people whom we can't speak to. We can't afford not to read writings that we can't read. We can't, in other words, afford not to understand people whom we do not understand.

I therefore propose that translation should be one of the new liberal arts: translation in its literal sense of transmitting texts from one language to another, but also in a metaphorical sense of a sustained, collective effort towards genuine intercultural understanding.

I like what Leow is getting at here, because it makes taking a language class so much more exciting (and important). However, why stop at a class in translation? Why not translation majors? The way I see it, students could study a different language/culture every year, and at the end of their program, could spend a year abroad in their country--or in this case, specialization--of choice developing a true thesis of transcultural studies and communication. In this way, I think Leow's vision of filling the world with "deeply sympathetic people who would be nodes between cultures" could be more fully realized and utilized.