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danohu ([personal profile] danohu) wrote2006-10-15 10:47 am
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Hindi goes as well

What I didn't mention in the last post - because I didn't believe it - was that Sanskrit isn't the only course going. Cambridge is also closing the Hindi department. This is something like the fourth most widely-spoken language in the world, 400 million speakers (many more if you include urdu speakers, and speakers of hindi as a second language). How does nobody think it might be useful for somebody to be able to speak this language?
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[identity profile] adamdobay.livejournal.com 2006-10-15 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
Woah. Is this only restructuring, I mean will they put part of Hindi / Sanskrit studies into a different department (like they just did with a number of majors at my university ELTE) or will it cease to exist entirely?

[identity profile] mirabehn.livejournal.com 2006-10-15 10:55 am (UTC)(link)
Bloody hell. :-(

[identity profile] rachelfmb.livejournal.com 2006-10-15 11:29 am (UTC)(link)
That sounds bad. However, Sussex were going to close the Chemistry department, but it was stopped due to protest!

[identity profile] hulegu.livejournal.com 2006-10-17 11:16 am (UTC)(link)
Language programmes under threat. Sounds familiar. SOAS, my alma mater, recently announced plans to cease teaching Bengali, but I think they've now scrapped that idea in the face of overwhelming student-led protests. However, I seem to remember reading in Robert Irwin's For Lust of Knowing (his recent splendid defense of orientalists) that Cambridge was having trouble filling its Chair for either Persian or Arabic, due to lack of outstanding candidates? or was it Oxford? I forget which.

ps. found yr lj via your other blog via Registan. Mind if I add you as a friend?
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