To the Editor:

Re: “Future Turkish Classes Available Only on Video,” News, April 15.

As a former student of Turkish and as a language instructor at Cornell, I read about the transition to video only Turkish courses with great disappointment. I started studying Turkish at Cornell when a Fulbright scholar taught the course. At the same time, a language teacher-training program prepared me to teach French at Cornell. Cornell invested in me as a teacher and both my future students and I benefited from it. I questioned, however, if my Turkish instructor benefited from the same training. Nonetheless, we, the students of Turkish, accepted that this was a fledgling program, full of flaws and excitement. The following year in the video course through Syracuse, the frustration was palpable not only from the students, but from the instructor as well. I dropped after two weeks. The Near Eastern Studies department did respond to the frustration by placing the Fulbright instructor of that year in the classroom. Again, the students accepted the nascent program and looked to the future. We all welcomed Cornell’s decision to hire a language instructor (Osman Balkman) dedicated to Turkish the following year. Although pleased that Turkish will continue at Cornell in 2009-2010, I think the move to video courses is a regression for us all. Programs such as Turkish, Swedish and Dutch benefit not only the handful of students enrolled in the courses, but each of us who comes to Cornell in search of a thriving diverse international community of teachers and students.

Cory Browning grad