>For the last couple of years, my advisor and I have been proceeding
>under the impression that the work I've done in digital scholarship,
>historical geography, and geographic information systems over the
>course of my graduate career would be acceptable as a substitute for
>the time-worn insistence that graduate students show functional
>knowledge of a foreign language. I'm actually somewhat surprised at this. The second language requirement has/had a particular rationale (1) and I personally don't see how the digital scholarship material (which I am not disparaging) could meet it.
I hope this gets resolved in your favour, them being confused shouldn't affect your ability to graduate.
(1) As an example, Columbia's rationale:
> The foreign language requirement forms part of Columbia College’s mission to prepare students to be tomorrow’s conscientious and informed citizens. Knowledge of another’s language and literature is the most important way to begin to know a country and people. The study of a foreign language:
> Sensitizes students to world cultures, simultaneously making them aware of their own culture within that context;
> Introduces students to the differences in structure, grammar and syntax that distinguish two languages, and to the intimate links between language and cultural meaning; and
> Contributes to the development of students’ critical, analytical and writing skills.
-VR
I learned more about English grammatical structure in my French classes than I learned in my English classes.
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."