Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!vsi1!bitbug
From: bitbug@vicom.COM (James Buster)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: foreign language requirements for PhDs
Summary: Japanese? Ha, right...
Message-ID: <1571@vicom.COM>
Date: 16 Mar 89 19:05:50 GMT
References: <7287@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <2851@eos.UUCP> <401@rb-dc1.UUCP> <21572@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <1280@wpi.wpi.edu> <134@cs.columbia.edu> <1304@wpi.wpi.edu> <1989Mar14.165213.204@utzoo.uucp> <267@celerity.UUCP>
Reply-To: bitbug@vicom.COM (James Buster)
Organization: Vicom Systems, Inc.
Lines: 37

In article <267@celerity.UUCP> dave@whoops.UUCP (Dave Smith) writes:
-In article <1989Mar14.165213.204@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
--In article <1304@wpi.wpi.edu> lfoard@wpi.wpi.edu (Lawrence C Foard) writes:
---It would be nice to know a foreign langauge but it would also be nice to know
---a computer langauge, relativity, electonics...
--
--Actually, for computer science and electronics-type electrical engineering
--it would make sense to require Japanese.  Not just any foreign language,
--but specifically Japanese.  (The test of whether the requirement is
--there because it makes sense, or just to be another hurdle to jump, is
--whether you're allowed to choose a totally useless course to meet it.)
--
--Of course, the faculty should be required to learn it first. :-)
-
-The faculty should have to learn English, first.

Touche! But on the subject of Japanese...
I presume, Henry, that you know how f^&*#%$ hard Japanese is to learn.
Even people that you otherwise might think were pretty smart can
take several years of *full-time* study to read Japanese at a level
sufficient to read the simplest technical article, let alone one on
complex, state-of-the-art subjects. By that time, you would think
you would be done with your PhD, not just finishing your language
requirement. So while Japanese may make sense, I think that its
difficulty precludes making it a *requirement*.

-David L. Smith
-FPS Computing, San Diego
-ucsd!celerity!dave
-"Repent, Harlequin!," said the TickTock Man

--------------------------------------------
	     James Buster
	Mad Hacker Extraordinaire
    	...!ames!vsi1!bitbug
	   bitbug@vicom.com
--------------------------------------------