Vision Statement
The faculty of Germanic and Slavic wonder what kind of person you are going to be and what kind of community and world you are going to live in. Throughout the history of the department, faculty and students have explored what it means to be a thoughtful and engaged member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and how a knowledge of German and Slavic languages and cultures affirms that engagement.
Our enterprise involves language in all of its manifestations and the world’s greatest enduring literary works, whether they be authored by Goethe, Tolstoy, or by a person hardly known to the world at large.
Our endeavor is driven by questions we would like you to ask yourself:
- How will being able to speak, read, and write fluently in a language other than my own make me a better person, better equipped to influence the world for good? How will knowing a foreign language help me in my career?
- How will reading enrich the quality of my life in ways money just can’t?
- Will I be able to tap into current foreign political, social, and religious thought through sources other than the 6 o’clock news?
- As a church leader, will I be able to empathize with those of a different background than my own?
- How will my education affect my capacity to render service in the church? Will I be able to mine history, literature and foreign cultures for all that is virtuous and of good report? How will I be able to confront resistance to my faith?
- Will I be able to see more than one point of view and be able to reason with others who disagree with me?
- How will I recognize great cinema and art? Will it inspire me in my work and at home?
- How will I deal with paradox, disappointment, evident self-contradictions, irony, ambiguity, the tedium of day-to-day life, exquisite joy and the deepest physical and emotional pain?
Germanic and Slavic is interested in engaging you in a conversation about these and similar questions.