The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures is committed to helping students become informed and liberally educated citizens of the world. Through the acquisition of language skills and cultural awareness, our students prepare for careers that have an international dimension. To that end, we strongly encourage them to spend their junior year abroad in order to immerse themselves in a foreign culture and perfect their language skills. We also run our own study abroad programs: two French programs (“The Paris Experience” and “The Montreal Experience”), one Spanish program ("The Cuban Experience), one in Italy ("The Italian Experience"), and one Arabic program ("The Arab World Experience--Jordan).

We work closely with other university departments and interdisciplinary programs as well as with the cultural institutions of University Circle to provide students with a broad understanding of the many opportunities that language and culture study offer. The department has strong interdisciplinary ties with the college's programs in Asian studies, French and Francophone studies, German studies, international studies, women’s and gender studies, and world literature. Students also gain practical experience in different cultural and language environments through service learning in the Spanish, French, and Russian communities of Cleveland.