! مرحبا ¡Bienvenidos! 欢迎! Willkommen! 환영합니다! Benvenuti! ようこそ! Bem-vindos! Добро пожаловать! Bienvenue!! שלום Welcome!
Pursue your education on a global scale.
Expand your worldview, develop communication skills, and enrich your life with a degree in world languages and cultures.
Our students acquire advanced language skills, international experiences, and intercultural perspectives, preparing them for success in a globalized world. Immerse yourself in language, literature, and culture courses at UWM, and expand your horizons with study abroad programs and international internships. The department is proud to cultivate graduates who think critically about the world and their place within it.
Knowledge of the Arabic language and its many variations is a high-demand skill in today’s global economy. It can be challenging, but it can also help you stand out from other job applicants since fewer students choose to study Arabic compared to other languages.
China is the world’s second largest economy, and one of every five people in the world speaks the Chinese language. As China has become a big player in the world economy, Chinese language skills are in demand like never before.
Students who become proficient in Chinese language can expect to hold an advantage in many job markets. According to Bloomberg, Mandarin Chinese is the most useful business language after English. While this may come as no surprise, many do not realize that China’s economic rise has also brought about new challenges and expectations for other forms of modernization. China will soon require diverse expertise to help create and implement new sociopolitical, environmental, and infrastructure systems.
In the Comparative Literature minor, students examine literature across languages, geographic location, time periods, and genres. The discipline also explores the relationship between literature and other forms of cultural expression such as pop culture, technology, arts, music, or film, as well as the relationship between literature and other academic disciplines, like anthropology, history, religious studies, or women’s and gender studies. It’s a great minor for anyone who loves to compare, contrast, and explore other cultures.
The UWM French Program allows students to develop their proficiency in French and explore the cultures, arts, literatures, histories, and politics of France and other Francophone countries around the world.
Learn more about the French program
German is a key language in international business, politics, education, communication, and finance. It is the most widely-spoken language in the European Union, and knowledge of German culture and language provides a wide range of career opportunities. It is a pivotal language not only in philosophy, literature, and sociology, but also in STEM fields. Moreover, studying a second language has been shown to increase a person’s reading and listening comprehension, critical thinking skills, reasoning and logic—all of which are valuable and transferable skills across fields of study and careers.
UWM’s Global Studies program offers students a unique blend of courses across disciplines, in preparation for a career abroad or within the U.S.
Hebrew courses can enhance your learning in a wide range of subjects and professions, including Global Studies, international relations, Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Religious Studies, Business, Political Science, Journalism, and more. Courses in Modern Hebrew provide a strong foundation for studying Biblical Hebrew and will enable you to travel more easily to Israel, a dynamic, multicultural society in the heart of the Middle East.
Italian is a Romance language that is the most direct descendent to Latin. It is a language of global communication, business, technology, and the arts.
Courses in Japanese culture, literature, film, and new media both in Japanese and in English are also part of the program. Our classes focus on Japanese topics but in the tradition of the humanities, we ask students to examine how humans live, think, interact, and express themselves.
UW-Milwaukee offers courses in Korean at the elementary and intermediate levels. Students will learn from Hangul (the Korean writing system) and practice Korean by speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Through the courses, students will develop abilities to engage with new cultural experience and knowledge via the Korean language.
Our course offerings reflect and respond to the diversity of our students, who include: heritage speakers, non-traditional students, professionals in a variety of fields, as well as traditional undergraduates. We encourage students to participate in study abroad programs and second-language activities as a means of improving proficiency.
We offer up to six semesters of instruction in Russian language, as well as a host of courses on Russian literature and culture within the program taught in English and/or Russian, as well as a variety of affiliated courses taught in English in other departments.
Through effective communicative instruction, we prepare students to read, speak, write, and understand Spanish. Faculty are actively engaged in advancing knowledge in their respective areas of expertise and striving to link, in the manner most beneficial for students, critical and scholarly work to classroom instruction and advising activities.
Find your path to a career in language services or enhance your readiness for success in another field by building skills as a translator (written) or interpreter (spoken language). Whatever your level—as a graduate or undergraduate student—and whatever your career goals, Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) can help you strengthen and diversify your professional skills.
Get to know us!
Take a virtual tour or view our Undergraduate Admissions info or Graduate Admissions info to start an application today!
Department News
- Boren Awards Information SessionThe National Security Education Program awards Boren Scholarships and Fellowships to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students committeed to long-term overseas study and to federal …
- Bridging Classrooms and Careers in Chinese StudiesCongratulations to Lu Yin and Jue Chen of the Chinese Program, who have been awarded a Lubar Entrepreneurship Center Fellowship for the 2026–2027 academic …
- Remembering Larry BaldassaroIt is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Larry Baldassaro, Professor Emeritus of Italian, passed away peacefully on September 8. The grandson …
- Critical Languages Scholarship information sessionThe U.S. Department of State supports the Critical Languages Scholarship (CLS) program, which provides immersive summer study abroad programs of 7-10 weeks for U.S. undergraduate and …
Department Events
- Oct9October 9, 2026, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
- Oct9October 9, 2026, 3:30pm - 5:30pm
- Oct12October 12, 2026, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
- Oct13October 13, 2026, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
- Oct14October 14, 2026, 10:00am - 11:00am
- Oct14October 14, 2026, 2:30pm - 3:30pm
- Oct14October 14, 2026, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
- Oct16October 16, 2026, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
