Indiana University (IU) in the United States will be offering a course in Kinyarwanda, making it the 8th African language the university is teaching under its African Studies Program.
Elementary Kinyarwanda classes will commence next month at IU’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies under the African studies program by the falls of 2019.
“The ultimate goal of the Kinyarwanda course introduction is to teach ENL teachers among Indiana primary and secondary schools to eventually teach Kinyarwanda as one of the main languages,” said Tavy Aherne, associate director of the African Studies Program in IU’s School of Global and International Studies.
Aherne said, one of Indiana’s largest immigrant or refugee populations now comprises Kinyarwanda speakers from Rwanda and DRC.
Talking to Express News, Rwanda’s Ambassador to the US, Mathilde Mukantabana, said, “The decision for Indiana University to start offering Kinyarwanda as a course this fall is as a result of the service learning projects that Indiana University students have had in Rwanda in the last 10 years in Kinigi, Rwanda through Indiana books and beyond Initiative,”
“In addition, student’s service learning projects through books and beyond in Kinigi, Rwanda for the last 10 years have motivated other Indiana University programs to build relationships with the University of Rwanda and Rwanda at large,” she adds.
She said introducing Kinyarwanda language will boost cooperation of higher learning institutions of both countries and Americans and Rwandans in general.
Other African languages regularly offered at IU include Akan/Twi, Bamana, Kiswahili, Wolof, Yoruba, and Zulu as well as Arabic. Kiswahili is also taught as an intensive course during the summer sessions.
According to IU’s website, the education institution teaches on average more than 70 foreign languages a year, the most foreign languages taught by any university in the U.S.
The Express News
