Students at Yale University will soon be learning Tagalog, as the Ivy League school will offer the course in the fall of next year.
As Tagalog is the fourth most-spoken language in the US, there has been a strong desire among Filipino students at the university for a Tagalog/ Filipino program that would provide them with course credits. Previously, Yale had students study Tagalog by pairing them with native speakers, but no credits were given for that.
And so, driven by this frustration, a Filipino student organization named “Kasama” filed a petition to have Tagalog as one of the university’s international language course offerings. Their efforts paid off, with over 380 students and faculty members signing the group’s petition, according to a report by ABS-CBN News.
Now, the search is on for Yale’s full-time Tagalog instructor, who will be responsible for teaching elementary and intermediate courses focused on reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Filipino or Tagalog.
The college daily newspaper Yale Daily News said whoever secures the position will be appointed for three years, with the possibility of renewal.
They will also teach six courses each year and collaborate with other educators of Southeast Asian languages to enhance their study programs.
This decision by Yale follows Harvard University’s introduction of its first Tagalog course in March 2023.
