Living in a country home to the fifth largest Spanish-speaking community in the world, it comes as no surprise that the department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese is one of the largest departments at the University.
"Spanish has become de facto the second language of this country, and people have started to realize this," department Chair Randolph Pope said. "So there is a lot of interest in our Spanish major."
Fourth-year College student and Spanish major Katie Ergen said she did not find the number of students studying Spanish to be extremely high.
"I think for the amount of students we have at U.Va., we don't have that many majors or minors," Ergen said. "Spanish is really important in our society today in America, and as the world gets smaller and smaller everyday it is really important for us to be aware of that fact and pay more attention to it."
Pope said the qualities of Spanish and Latin American culture help attract students to the major.
"Spanish is a very fun and practical language with a large variety of cultures embedded in it," Pope said. "When you look at Mexico and Chile, you see that they are as different as Italy is from Sweden, despite [their people] speaking the same language."
Pope added that it is the goal of the department to infuse the cultural aspects of the Spanish language in its students.
"The Spanish culture is a friendly one," Pope said. "Latinos are welcoming and warm, and we try to bring that to the department. My mantra is that we are not only teaching a language but also a culture."
Pope said the affability of the culture is reflected in faculty members.
"I came here six years ago, and one of the things that attracted me was the friendliness of the professors and the graduate students," Pope said. "We are not just colleagues, but also friends. Every Monday we have lunch, and that is something you cannot find very frequently. And I think this friendliness and community atmosphere is reflected in our academic work as well."
Pope said another way in which the department tries to teach the culture is through study abroad programs in Spain and Peru.
Ergen said she thinks there should be more emphasis upon study abroad programs -- she found the study of both language and culture to be equal, but said going outside the University would encourage students to learn more.
The University's department was ranked fifth among other Spanish, Italian and Portuguese departments throughout the country by the Chronicle of Higher Education this year.
Pope said although the major focus at the University is on Spanish, there is much interest in Italian as well.
"The Italian program has four professors right now, and we unfortunately cannot provide enough sections of Italian for the demand that is out there," Pope said. "I think people love the culture, the art, the music and just the beauty of the language associated with Italian. And we offer study abroad programs in Florence and Siena for our students to be able to study Italian in its home country, which is very vibrant and very fun."
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