COURSES OFFERED BY WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF LANGUAGES

Our French courses emphasize modern spoken French. Class time stresses communication in the language in everyday situations and invites students to begin speaking from the first day of class.

Mandarin Chinese, the national language of China, is spoken by approximately one-fourth of the world’s population. It is a language rich in cultural tradition. It is a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family and is quite different from the Indo-European languages.

Our German courses emphasize modern spoken German. From the first class meeting, students and instructors alike speak as much German as possible. Grammar is studied not as an exclusively abstract system, but as a reference base for active language use.

The approach of the Washington Academy of Languages program is to emphasize the use of authentic Japanese as it is naturally spoken and written.  Speaking and listening are practiced at normal speeds in the classroom. As a  result, students can communicate easily with native speakers.

The basic approach of our program is to emphasize the use of practical spoken Korean. For this reason, from the first day, speaking and listening are practiced at natural speeds. Artificially slowing the speed actually makes understanding more difficult in the long run.

At WAL, students can expect to focus on using the language for practical everyday use. In addition, cultural information will be offered as part of the instruction.

Arabic is the official language of 25 countries. The literary language (Modern Standard Arabic or al-fuSHaa) is uniform across the Arabic-speaking world: from Morocco in the west to the borders of Iran in the east, and from Lebanon in the north to Sudan in the south. 

Portuguese is the language of Portugal and Brazil, as well as several other countries in Africa and Asia. It has a long history and a rich literary heritage. Portuguese is based on Latin, though its vocabulary has been influenced by many different cultures.

Polish is spoken by the Poles in Poland and overseas Polish communities. There are more than 50 million speakers of Polish around the world. It is a rich language with a long history, extraordinary by Central European standards.

Russian is an East Slavic language and is spoken in regional dialects. The modern dialect of Moscow is used in the Washington Academy of Languages’ instructional programs. Come join us for classes!