BA Italian at The Ohio State University

The Italian language is spoken by more than 70 million people residing all over the world. In this hemisphere there are more than 10 million descendants of immigrants from Italy living in countries from Canada to Argentina, with the United States second only to Italy itself in number of Italian-speaking residents. In addition to studying the grammatical aspects of Italian, students will learn the language and about the culture, history, cinema and literature of Italy, a country that for over two thousand years has been at the center of the artistic and cultural history of the western world.

Faculty: Arts and Sciences  |  Study mode: full-time  |  Location: Columbus, OH, United States

What you will study

Class time is devoted to developing all four language skills — speaking, listening, reading and writing — as well as a strong background in Italian culture. Through their course work, students are prepared to be interculturally competent, able to appropriately and confidently interact with people of different backgrounds and move in the world with ease. These skills are developed through the use of movies, videos, songs, magazines, the Internet, texts and online language practice. As students progress in the major and develop their language skills, they may choose from a variety of intermediate- and advanced-level linguistics, culture, literature, cinema and history courses.

Career pathways

Italian is applicable in a variety of settings in the United States and abroad. Mastery of Italian allows students to consider careers in such fields as education, government, interpreting and translating, international trade (in fashions, machinery, wine and foodstuffs, for example), print or electronic media, or tourism.

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