At BYU, it’s not unusual to hear Spanish in the library, French in the Wilkinson Student Center or Russian on the way to class.
Because of missions, classes or experiences living in other countries, students speak more than 127 languages — and BYU offers opportunities to learn 84 of them right here.
“BYU offers the most languages that a university offers in the United States that we're aware of. So 84, it's a lot and a lot of languages that you wouldn't see in other places,” said Mariah Nix, instructional programs coordinator for the Center for Language Studies.
More than 60% of BYU students speak a second language, including Eliza Kunzler, who speaks German and Spanish.
“Every person deserves to be loved in their own language. If I'm trying to have a conversation with someone who speaks Spanish as a native language and I can switch into Spanish, I see a difference in their eyes,” Kunzler said.
While many BYU students speak a second language, there are challenges that come with it.
“One of the biggest challenges is this idea of perfectionism, right? Where we have to really be perfect and we can't say anything until we have it down,” Nix said.
BYU provides many resources for its students to learn languages both in and outside the country, including classes, language student residences, language choirs and study abroad internship programs.
“It's like human connections and then they start spanning the globe and you're like, yeah, I have a friend in Berlin,” Kunzler said. “It makes your life fuller and their life fuller.”
These opportunities, along with many others, enable connections across countries, cultures and languages.
“It really opens up your understanding of people different from you as well as just a better understanding of this language that you're learning,” Nix said.
“You can have a cultural awareness that you really can’t have without a second language,” Kunzler said.
Learning languages can be challenging, but it only takes one conversation to open a whole world of connections.