The language department changed its name from Foreign Languages to World Languages last spring, reflecting many American schools’ efforts to sound more global by using names that could be more politically correct.

“‘Foreign’ makes it sound like something that I can’t learn because I can’t understand it,” Spanish teacher Robert Roos said.

Many students agree that the new name is better than the old one simply because it is more encompassing.

“I think ‘world’ makes it more broad,” freshman Noel Purnell said.

World Languages department head Stacey Steele previously taught in Tennessee where the language department’s name had also been replaced with World Languages.

“I [thought] we should probably change it here too,” Steele said. “There’s such a push in the US to be more global,” Steele said.

American schools may change their language department names, but it does not necessarily mean students and teachers will change as well.

“Most people are so used to ‘foreign’ language,” Roos said. “That word has been around for 30, 40 [or] 50 years. For people to catch on to say ‘world’ language I think is going to take a bit of time.”