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Learning a foreign language at GHS was always a pleasant experience because the teachers were good, engaging, and interested in teaching the material. Without their devotion to the subject, I am sure my experience would not have been the same. Foreign language at GHS has definitely had a significant effect on my career and life. The skills I gained at GHS allowed me to enroll in the Huntsman Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where knowledge of one of ten foreign languages prior to application is required. Mine was Russian. This allowed me to attend Penn and receive two degrees one from The Wharton School and one from the College of Arts and Sciences. I've been very pleased with my experience so far as the structure of the program allows me to take business classes and liberal arts courses, thus fulfilling my goal of receiving a liberal arts education. With my six years of Russian classes in Glastonbury, I was able to place out of four semesters of university-level courses.

Currently, I am enrolled at the State University - Higher School of Economics (SU-HSE) in Moscow. Here, I use Russian on a daily basis as I take almost half of my classes in Russian and I live with a host, an elderly gentleman who worked for the Bolshoi Theater and writes operas. Everything is done in Russian here, so not knowing the language would put me at a significant disadvantage.

The ability to speak one or more foreign languages has many benefits. It makes you a more well-rounded, interesting person and provides you with more opportunities to meet new people and to engage them in conversation. Learning a foreign language means that at one point, you must have learned something new about a different culture. The ultimate experience in learning foreign language is definitely studying abroad. Studying abroad truly allows you to be immersed in the culture and the language. For my chosen profession (financial services), I believe that the knowledge of foreign languages makes a person stand out on paper from other job candidates and usually provides interesting talking points in interviews.

Alexander Chan, Class of 2004
French, Russian
University of Pennsylvania - BA, Russian; BA, International Studies; BS, Economics (2008)