Will There Be Spanish at Laval?

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Clarissa

February 6, 2015

Université Laval, Canada’s oldest educational institution, is phasing out Spanish. The French-speaking university has a very good and prestigious program in Hispanic Studies but it’s being destroyed.

I don’t know what excuse is being used to do this. There is no economic crisis in Quebec. Quebec is about to explode because of the insane amounts of money in the province. Economically, the province couldn’t be doing better.

Of course, there is a possibility of the McGill University scenario repeating itself here: the department might have just imploded because of internal dramas. Canadian Hispanism is notoriously fractious and mafia-like.

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9 responses to “Will There Be Spanish at Laval?”

cliff arroyo

February 7, 2015

You know, making the case for taxpayer supported higher education would immensely easier if so many supposed professionals in the field weren’t such ranging and dysfunctional drama queens who seem to delight in sewing destruction and leaving broken programs behind them (as proof that the sun won’t rise tomorrow without their personal involvement).

I don’t know if that’s what’s going on here but it makes much more sense than cutting a program in one of the most important languages in the world (and those with knowledge of French have a big advantage in learning Spanish over English speakers but who cares about comparative advantage when some tenured twit can settle some personal scores?)

In other news, in the coming week I’m going to be doing my best to support the Spanish economy by dropping a few euros on a very windy island (and getting away from the snow that arrived here a few days ago and is showing no signs of leaving).

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1. Clarissa
  
  February 7, 2015
  
  I know, I know this only too well! I happen to know the university in question very well, and oy. The intrigue, the rencillas, the chismorreo, it’s all hopeless.
  
  What’s the windy island? I’m kind of slow today.
  
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  1. cliff arroyo
    
    February 7, 2015
    
    It’s in the Atlantic in the largest place known on Earth, it’s geographically part of Africa, politically part of Europe and linguistically American (in the Spanish sense of the word).
    
    And since writing that the snow has been 95% rained away amid very strong winds that are usually part of fall or spring (this is the weirdest winter ever). But still I’m cabin-fever-need-sun mode.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      February 7, 2015
      
      I’ve never been but I hear that the food is amazing. Have fun!
      
      And when the Russian Embassy finally manages to renew N’s passport, I will also go to a resort. Which probably means in the next 15 years.
      
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Z

February 7, 2015

The French tend to envy Spanish, though, so that is the source of it.

Canadian Hispanists deserve it though — not all of them, but by far the biggest and most devious and dishonest jerks I know in Hispanism are Canadian. There is one particularly bad one at McGill, and you would never know it to meet the said person.

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1. Z
  
  February 7, 2015
  
  …or to read them.
  
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2. Clarissa
  
  February 7, 2015
  
  I’ve never agreed more with anything you said. 🙂
  
  But you’ve got to give me the hint which one of them you consider the worst at my Alma mater. 🙂
  
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  1. Z
    
    February 8, 2015
    
    I misspoke. It is a Hungarian at UM.
    
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Ol.

February 8, 2015

You know how I agree with you on this. Canadian hispanism is full of provincial, nepotistic, envidious, and intrigant human beings.

That being said, I read on Friday that ULaval will likely phase out their program in Études hispaniques, and I read on Saturday that the minister of education questioned the bonuses voted by and for the ULaval dean,vice-deans,vice-vice-deans, and other assistants-to-the-vice-deans. This money should go to the Spanish program in order to keep it alive, despite the ridiculousness of many Canadian hispanists.

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