Timeline for Why do many graduate programs in mathematics (United States) still have foreign language requirements today (in 2010s)?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Oct 11, 2018 at 17:38 | comment | added | Dan Romik | @ChatterOne your description of a “meta-tool” (which I rather like) as a tool that can be used to use other tools also fits mathematics itself. Yet for some reason I don’t see French language grad programs requiring their students to master the meta-tool that is mathematics... | |
| Oct 11, 2018 at 17:19 | comment | added | Alex Kruckman | @JeffE Things like C and "mathematics" certainly have a different status than natural languages. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with ChatterOne's assertion that "from a linguistic point of view mathematics is not a language" - it depends what exactly what you mean by a language. My point was just that I think it's bizarre to take "no native speakers" to be the distinguishing factor! | |
| Oct 11, 2018 at 17:14 | comment | added | JeffE | @AlexKruckman This was exactly the argument that CS PhD programs used to get rid of their foreign language requirements. "Our students already speak C like natives; why do they need to learn French?" | |
| Oct 10, 2018 at 12:57 | comment | added | Alex Kruckman | @ChatterOne The requirement that language have native speakers seems bizarre to me. Many constructed languages have no native speakers - does this mean they aren't languages? If I raise my child to speak Klingon from birth, does Klingon suddenly become a language, when it wasn't before? Does a language lose that status when its last native speaker dies? I'm curious if you have a reference showing that this is a common view. | |
| Oct 10, 2018 at 9:11 | comment | added | ChatterOne | A language is a general purpose tool that can be used to use other tools. A meta-tool if you want. Cooking is a tool in itself, not without its own benefits, but definitely not comparable to a language. You might even need another language to understand recipes. So, I don't think this is a fair comparison. (And just to nitpick, from a linguistic point of view mathematics is not a language, because there are no native speakers) | |
| Oct 9, 2018 at 21:24 | comment | added | PersonX | Also, since cooking is required by most programs, a program that drops that requirement risks damage to its reputation. | |
| Oct 9, 2018 at 21:07 | history | edited | Dan Romik | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 4 characters in body
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| Oct 9, 2018 at 19:55 | history | answered | Dan Romik | CC BY-SA 4.0 |