{"id":7863,"date":"2019-12-20T09:55:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T14:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/?p=7863"},"modified":"2019-12-23T09:31:20","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T14:31:20","slug":"julia-al-amir-23-on-majoring-in-global-language-and-area-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/news\/julia-al-amir-23-on-majoring-in-global-language-and-area-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Al-Amir \u201823 on Majoring in Global Language and Area Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Culture is everything. It defines who we are and informs choices we make. And as Julia Al-Amir can tell us, when it comes to studying languages, it is imperative to study culture in order to fully develop understanding and appreciation. This focus on integrative coursework&nbsp;is something she values about her degree path. Al-Amir &#8212; who opted to attend URI because, as she states, \u201cEverywhere you go [at URI] you feel like you\u2019re at home&#8221; &#8212; took advantage of a brand new opportunity recently adopted into the university\u2019s curriculum during her freshman year. She chose to double major in Global Business Management and Global Languages and Area Studies (GLAS). The latter, a new major offered by the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, is a linguistic and culturally immersive program designed to be finished in two years. Students opting to major in GLAS may choose a concentration in either Arabic, Classics, or Japanese.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Al-Amir, the selection of linguistic concentration felt rather obvious. \u201cMy parents are from Syria,\u201d she explains, \u201cSo I can speak Arabic, but I can\u2019t read or write it. I also really wanted to learn more about my culture.\u201d This past semester, Al-Amir found herself enamored with the small class sizes in her courses, as well as the passion her professors displayed for engaging students in Arabic language and culture. \u201cThe professors really want you to do well,&#8221; she says, &#8220;and they make sure you understand everything that\u2019s going on. Every time we walked into class, our professor was playing an Arabic song to expand our knowledge. We also have an assignment every week called a creative portfolio. Our professor gives us a prompt and tells us something like, \u2018Write about an Arabic food, and tell me about it.\u2019 So the program\u2019s not just about the language but the culture as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"cl-wrapper cl-card-wrapper\"><a class=\"cl-card   right\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/languages\/academics\/arabic\/\" title=\"\"><div class=\"cl-card-container media\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1132\/Languages-card.jpg\" srcset=\"\" alt=\"\"><\/div><div class=\"cl-card-container text\"><div class=\"cl-card-text\"><h2>Global Languages and Area Studies (Arabic track)<\/h2><p>This major is designed to give&nbsp;students competency in a language while being immersed in area studies coursework, including culture, history, mythology, art, politics, and more.<\/p><\/div><\/div><div class=\"cl-card-container button\">Visit our website<\/div><\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Al-Amir looks forward to graduating in May 2023 with a B.S. in Global Business Management and a B.A. in Global Languages and Area Studies (Arabic). While her career goals are still in the works, she aspires, for the time being, to do business in Dubai for a year or two in order to expand her linguistic capabilities and business prowess. She notes that her professors inspire her to pursue her passions and succeed in her courses, particularly Dr. Eric Young from URI\u2019s Arabic program. To prospective students following right behind her, or even upperclassmen looking to expand their cultural awareness, Al-Amir strongly encourages students to take on the GLAS major. \u201cJust do it,\u201d she advises. \u201cA lot of people get scared about adding or changing their major,&#8221; she says, &#8220;but GLAS is an easier major because it\u2019s meant to be completed in two years. It\u2019s a good extra to add onto your diploma, and it makes you more global. It puts you out there and separates you from everyone else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>~Written by Chase Hoffman, Writing &amp; Rhetoric and Anthropology Double Major, URI Class of 2021<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Julia Al-Amir &#8217;23 is following the Arabic track of the Global Languages and Area Studies major, enamored with the small class sizes in her courses as well as the passion her professors display for engaging students in Arabic language and culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[146,228,85,297],"class_list":["post-7863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-arabic","tag-global-languages-and-area-studies","tag-languages","tag-modern-and-classical-languages-and-literatures"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7863"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7896,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863\/revisions\/7896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}