Our core mission is to educate MIT students in languages, cultures, and inter-cultural communication, with the broad aim of advancing their academic, career and personal goals. As MIT students pursue an expanding spectrum of international engagements, our classes and immersive international experiences help prepare them to live and work in the diverse and multilingual context of a globalizing world. Committed to excellence in teaching and pedagogical innovation, we embrace a vision of multilingual literacy founded not just on learning new words, but new worlds. Our program thus serves as a vital component of MIT’s “Global Classroom.”
Whether majoring in the sciences, engineering, management, or other fields, today’s students need to be equipped to work in the global context. Course 21G provides a wealth of classes in international languages, cultures, literature, media, and history that prepare students for this new environment. Through our curriculum, students develop communicative and intercultural competencies, critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity, and cross-cultural understanding—all of which are essential to fostering diversity and cultural awareness. Working in tandem with interdisciplinary area studies faculty across SHASS, our educational program contributes to the broader Institute mission “to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind.”