Campus Cosmopolitans

AMONG the Dartmouth undergraduates who returned to the campus last month for the start of the winter term were 21 undergraduates who were speaking French, Spanish or German far more fluently than when they were last here in June 1960.

These 21 upperclassmen, all majoring in the modern languages, had been in Europe for the fall term, and in some cases for the summer as well, concentrating on language study but using the months abroad also for formal courses in foreign universities and for acquiring a familiarity with the daily life, thought, and culture of the countries in which they resided. Eleven of the Dartmouth language majors went to Spain, six to Germany, and four to France.

The Dartmouth Foreign Study Plan in its present form is three years old and is proving to be an increasingly successful part of the majors in French, German and Spanish. The period of residence and study abroad, during the fall term of junior or senior year, is now elected by the great majority of students majoring in the modern languages. After many years of experience with programs involving an entire year's residence abroad, the College has arrived at a preference for the present plan of a briefer and more intensive experience overseas for the student.

Dartmouth's plan is carried out in cooperation with the Experiment in International Living, which has its headquarters in nearby Putney, Vermont. This noted organization, with its more than 25 years of experience, has chief responsibility for such practical matters as transportation, family placement, and finances, while the College has responsibility for all the academic aspects of its foreign study plan. It is a basic policy of the Experiment to place each student with a native family that does not speak English, thus intensifying the daily use of the language and providing an opportunity for a truer understanding of the people of the country. The student not only rooms and eats most of his meals with his host family, but he shares in many of their everyday activities. Families cooperating with the Experiment do so out of a desire to contribute personally to international understanding.

On the academic side, Dartmouth has established valuable and cordial ties with three of Europe's oldest universities - Caen in France, Freiburg in Germany, and Salamanca in Spain. A member of the faculty of each university serves as academic counselor for the Dartmouth men enrolled there as special students. The three university towns were chosen for a special reason: each offers excellent educational facilities and is little frequented by American students, which avoids the pitfall of conducting a foreign study program in a large city where the cosmopolitan atmosphere and the likelihood of large numbers of visiting Americans make it more difficult for the student to feel himself a part of the true native life of the country.

At home base in Hanover, the College's foreign study plan is administered by a three-man committee of the faculty, each member responsible for the student group in one of the three countries. The chairman, Lawrence E. Harvey, Associate Professor of Romance Languages, has primary interest in the French majors. E. Allen McCormick, Associate Professor of German, supervises the majors in his department; and Elias L. Rivers, Associate Professor of Spanish, directs the academic work of the Spanish majors studying abroad.

The Dartmouth program that these professors helped develop and now administer is receiving much attention from other colleges because of its association with the Experiment in International Living and its preference for one term abroad rather than the more usual period of a full year. Last fall Professors Harvey and Rivers took leading parts in a national conference on undergraduate study abroad, and great interest was shown in the Dartmouth plan.

At least ten colleges are now conducting their foreign study programs in cooperation with the Experiment, and the number is expected to grow. The advantages here are quite clear. It is the shorter residence period of Dartmouth's original plan that most interests other educators. In explaining this feature, Professor Harvey points out that aside from the foreign language there are real academic problems for the American undergraduate studying abroad. Some courses in foreign universities are too specialized, the socalled "civilization" courses tend to be too general or superficial, and highly important developments of the last thirty years in literary theory and critical practice have not yet penetrated the curricula of continental universities. "These disadvantages," says Professor Harvey, "are especially grave if the student spends a full year out of his two-year major in a foreign university."

To meet this problem, Dartmouth not only uses the shorter period abroad but also arranges for special seminars in literature, taught by the foreign faculty, in addition to courses attended with the university students; concentrates its program on the study of the language; and provides a list of literary and critical readings to be done while abroad. The problem of re-integrating the student into campus life after his return from European study is also minimized by his shorter absence.

The value of the Dartmouth plan is enhanced, Professor Harvey admits, by having the student add a summer stay to the fall term. This is the ideal plan, he feels, but unfortunately only a minority of the language majors can manage it.

"Our greatest present need," says Professor Harvey, "is for scholarship funds to enable worthy students to spend the preceding summer as well as the fall term in the foreign country. At present only a few students can afford to do this, which creates unfortunate disparities in the preparation of the students in each group. We should have ten to fifteen fellowships of $400 or $500 available each summer." Students receiving regular financial aid from the College can use part of this for the fall term abroad. The College does not charge tuition for the term away.

If successfully completed, the term abroad earns credit for three courses that the student would have taken at Dartmouth. In addition to taking examinations at the foreign university, the student must pass an oral exam upon his return to the campus. His academic program abroad falls into two general parts. Leaving the country early in September, if he is not spending the summer abroad, the student has a period of several weeks before the start of regular university courses, and this he devotes to a special program involving intensive language instruction, a seminar in the literature of the country, reading prescribed by his major department at Dartmouth, and orientation in the life of the country. From the opening of the university until he returns home (in time for Christmas) each student takes language and literature courses, while continuing his prescribed reading. He also sends his Dartmouth professor periodic reports on the art, architecture, or history of the region and on his courses, reading, and personal experiences.

These personal experiences can be just as "educational" as the university courses. Listen to Onno Leyds '61 of Springfield, Vt., who was student leader of the Dartmouth group that went to Caen in Normandy and studied at the university founded there in 1432:

"The program's most fascinating goal is surely that of permitting the student a close view of a foreign way of life and culture. By living with a French family, one discovers that bestsellers, movies and pocket guide books give disastrously erroneous descriptions of what a foreign family is actually like. As an integral part of the family, the young American has a unique opportunity of appreciating aspects of French culture and civilization which are represented by his host family. Obviously, no family is the embodiment of France; yet the adopted family can be of immense value in indicating of what 'the French way' consists. And as valuable as the experience with the family are those at the university with the professors and with foreign and French students.

"Such an 'experiment in international living,' both as student and as family member, is not only worth while for the student majoring in French language and literature — it is vital. It makes one speculate whether similar programs might not be of equal value to students majoring in other areas - in the social sciences, for example."

The same sort of testimony comes from John Edwards '61 of Huntington, N. Y., who was student leader of the group that went to Freiburg im Breisgau, on the edge of Germany's Black Forest, and studied at the university dating from 1457:

"The trip is over now. The final exams will tell to what degree these months of study improved our German, but no exam could measure to what extent our overall education advanced.

"We had crossed the Atlantic in four and a half days on the S.S. UnitedStates and were once again in New York. After going through customs, we crossed the barrier line to greet the families we had not seen in almost four months. Some of us were displaying mustaches, beards, or even Turkish fezzes, and all of us were trying our best to impress everyone with how much of Europe had rubbed off on us. In a few hours some of us were flying by jet for California, others had left Grand Central Station for Chicago, and still others were driving home to Long Island or New Jersey. But without exception, the thoughts of each of us were filled with the past four months.

"Last September as classes were beginning in Hanover, Reit Floyd '61 was traveling through northern Germany on a motor scooter, Steve Bates '61 and Tom Markham '62 were sneaking in and out of East Berlin, while Dave Osterhout '61, Charlie Giersch '62, and I were cruising down the Rhine past old German castles with a flask of the river's famous wine before us.

"After depositing our baggage in Freiburg (a beautiful little city in the Black Forest) we made good use of the information that our lectures would not begin until the first of October by setting out to cover Europe in nine days. Naturally, we could get only a cursory glimpse of each of the cities we visited. Nevertheless, those nine days were among the most exciting any of us could remember. The culmination of the trip was a very active participation in Bavaria's largest beer festival (Octoberfest). We joined seven thousand Germans in emptying liter beer mugs in the Hofbrauhaus, and although not all their songs were familiar to us, 'Dartmouth's in Town Again' seemed to fit into the atmosphere very well. Reluctantly, we returned to Freiburg and the work that awaited us.

"Non-English-speaking Germ anfamilies had been selected for us, and from the moment we entered their homes, German was the only language we heard. At first, everything was a nightmare. We all had enough command of the language to see that our necessary needs were answered, but beyond that limit, communication was anything but easy for us. We went to sleep at night with our minds actually burning with German, and all of us confessed that getting up in the morning was made even more difficult since we knew the barrage of German would begin all over again the moment we left the security of our beds.

"By a gradual process of mental osmosis, however, the strain became less and less. As our fluency increased and our embarrassment decreased, we came out of hiding and began to meet more of the Freiburg people. As would be expected, we learned most of our German not in the university itself, but around the dinner table with our families or over a glass of beer with some young Germans. Charlie still claims, in fact, that he learned ninety percent of his German while washing cars in a Freiburg gas station.

"Except for a few short road-trips on Dave's motorcycle, our wanderings from Freiburg were kept at a minimum by the realization that final exams awaited our return to Hanover. We said good-bye to the city in December and started off for Le Havre where we were to board the S.S. UnitedStates. Although our financial situation was anything but cheerful by this time, we decided that we could not leave Europe without a visit to Paris, even if we had to survive on bread and wine - and that was precisely our menu for four days.

"On the S.S. United States, we learned just how omnipresent Dartmouth alumni really are. Although traveling tourist class, everyone in our group was given very luxurious firstclass staterooms. The most we could ever find out was that it had been arranged by a Dartmouth graduate of the 1920's whom we had met in France. Thank you!"

And from Salamanca, an important center of Spanish cultural life and theology since the late Middle Ages, comes the equally enthusiastic report of John Thees '62 of New Rochelle, N. Y., student leader of the group of Dartmouth Spanish majors:

"The Dartmouth group in Spain, consisting of eleven members of the Class of 1962, was the largest group ever sent to Europe under the Dartmouth Foreign Study Plan. We arrived in Madrid on September 19 for two days of orientation with our Experiment-appointed group leader and other Experiment representatives. Some of us had been in Europe, including Spain, for at least part of the summer. Others, for a variety of reasons, had remained in the United States until September 10, the official sailing date.

"On September 22 we journeyed to the provincial Old Castilian city of Salamanca, located some 130 miles northwest of Madrid. There we were met at the railroad station by members of our respective host families, who took us to our new homes. We arrived at about two o'clock in the afternoon, so we did not have to wait very long for our first taste of Spanish home cooking.

"The objective of the Dartmouth Foreign Study Plan is to familiarize the student with the Spanish way of life, through direct observation and participation, and to give the student the opportunity to learn, to understand, and to speak fluent Spanish through continual exposure to the language. There is no doubt in my mind (and I hope in the minds of my professors) that the plan was more than successful in reaching its objective.

"The first part was destined for success because our families were typically Castilian, and thus we had no choice but to observe, if not participate in, the Spanish way of life. It is no exaggeration to say that every member of the group participated enthusiastically, even to the point of fighting becerros - young bulls which usually weigh between 220 and 250 pounds. Some of the group even bought guitars and took music lessons.

"The second part of the objective was also destined for success because each family was carefully selected in order to assure that none of its members could speak English. Each of us had to speak Spanish or talk to himself. Also, we attended classes in the University of Salamanca, one of Europe's oldest universities (founded 1230), and we dated Spanish girls. The former necessitated a good deal of comprehension, and the latter required a great deal of conversational ability.

"The consensus of the group is that the fall term spent in Spain under the Dartmouth Foreign Study Plan was one of the most important and valuable experiences in our careers as Dartmouth men."

Four of the 21 Dartmouth language majors who studied abroad last term are shown aboard the "S.S. United States." L to r: Glenn Goodale '61, who studied in France, and Charles Giersch '62, David Osterhout '61 and John Edwards '61, all of whom went to Germany.

The chance to participate in the life of the country was one of theimportant values of the foreign study period. Above, John Thees'62 gets a taste of bull-fighting against a "becerro" on a ranch nearSalamanca, and at right, the Dartmouth group has fun with Spanish friends at a songfest during a fiesta.

The chance to participate in the life of the country was one of theimportant values of the foreign study period. Above, John Thees'62 gets a taste of bull-fighting against a "becerro" on a ranch nearSalamanca, and at right, the Dartmouth group has fun with Spanish friends at a songfest during a fiesta.

Onno Leyds '61, student leader of the group that studied at Caen, recounts some of his experiences to Prof. Lawrence E. Harvey, chairman of Dartmouth's Foreign Study Plan.

John Edwards ’61, student leader of the Dartmouth group in Freiburg, Germany, shown with Frau and Herr Birkenmaier, with whom he lived during his stay in the university town.