Foreign Language and Business. A Lifelong Experience

The Masters Degree in International Business Program at the University of South Carolina, begun in June 1974, has as its unique feature the emphasis on "lifelong experience." This emphasis affects both the student and the department. From the first year of the program (the basic features of which are intensive training in language, culture, and business, as well as internship abroad), students are exposed to facts of life relating to foreign language, culture, and business. It is believed that their learning experience will enable the students to work successfully in multi-national firms in the U.S., to transfer their learning skills to another language, and to adjust to other learning situations. The effects of the program on the Department of Foreign Languages are: to create more jobs, to stimulate cooperation among different departments, and hopefully to heighten interest in the foreign language requirement as a useful tool. For the high school teacher, the program implies: the need to inform students and native speakers of a foreign language of the possibilities for those skilled in foreign languages; the importance of cultural education in high schools; and the need for the student to understand his learning processes. (AM)