Yale University to Offer Tagalog Courses in 2025
It's about time!
(SPOT.ph) Starting in the fall of 2025, Yale University will be offering courses in Tagalog for the first time ever.
According to Yale Daily News, the new offering is a result of persistent student advocacy led by the university’s Filipinx club, Kasama, which has been pushing for “Tagalog @ Yale” for a couple of years now. After all, Tagalog is the fourth most spoken language in the United States.
It was in 2023 when Kasama gathered over 380 signatures from both students and faculty for more structured language education in Tagalog. This significant show of support ultimately led the Council on Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) to approve the proposal for these courses.
“Yale, like any institution, is an evidence-based place,” CSEAS Chair Erik Harms told Yale Daily News. “So the smart thing that Kasama students did was actually start to generate numbers and things like that to show there’s a strong interest among students.”
Also read: "Result in" or "Result to": Is It Time for Philippine English to be Accepted?
A more structured Tagalog course offering by Yale
Previously, Yale's Directed Independent Language Study program allowed students to learn Tagalog through non-credit interactions with native speakers, but this did not offer a formal instructor or course credit.
“Anecdotally, students have been happy that DILS existed, but also, as they get more into it, they get a little bit disappointed that it’s not the same thing as a regular language class,” Harms said. “It’s hard to have the same motivation versus if there’s a class that’s available, in which case the numbers would be much higher.”
Now, the university plans to hire a Filipino (Tagalog) lecturer who will offer six courses per year starting in 2025. They will be appointed for three years, with the possibility of renewal. This role is not just limited to language instruction but also includes collaborating with lecturers in Vietnamese and Indonesian to enhance Yale’s Southeast Asian Studies programming.
Yale is the latest Ivy League university to welcome our native language. It's following in Harvard University’s footsteps, which introduced Tagalog as a new course offering in 2023. The course is currently taught by a Caviteña.
Other international universities also offer Philippine-related studies on language and country, such as Cornell University (History of Philippine Studies), the University of Hawaii (Bachelor of Arts in Philippine Language and Literature), and the University of California (Minor in Pilipino Studies).
Also read: Harvard, Cornell + More: The International Universities That Have Philippine Studies