Language

The mission of the Foreign Language Department at the Lawrenceville School is to support students as they become citizens of the global community.

Our curriculum is designed to develop the capacity to understand other cultures and people through the beauty and power of their languages. It is the capacity for language, for complex symbolic communication that is, arguably, what makes us human. Thus, to learn a foreign language is not only useful, allowing us to accomplish tasks, to coordinate work and play, but it is also deeply personal, giving us the means to share our hidden interior lives with other human beings.

Finally, to learn a foreign language means to see and understand the world in a new way, to adopt, even temporarily, a new perspective. It is only when we encounter and interact with another culture that we can truly understand our own. For many students, learning a foreign language is the first time that they realize what makes their language, their culture, and even themselves, unique.