This post is part of a periodic series in which we highlight students in French & Italian and how language learning relates to their goals. Are you a student in one of our courses? We'd love to hear from you!
My name is Erin Ingle, I am a student pursuing a master’s degree in global health. My research interests are in women & children’s health and refugee response. I have always been interested in learning languages and have studied a few languages before: Spanish, which allowed me to work as a case manager for unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border; Arabic, which I studied as an undergraduate researching refugee response in Jordan; and Swahili, which I learned as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania.
French is an essential language in global health because of the large francophone world, including West Africa, and the large French-speaking organizations like Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and the United Nations, which is based in Geneva (Switzerland). I hope that studying French expands the geographical bounds of my career and allows me to be a better, more versatile global health practitioner. Additionally, I am studying French to better connect with the people living and working in francophone communities.
I have truly enjoyed French classes at UW so far, especially thanks to my incredible teacher Sarah-Kate Moore! My class is a mix of people from different backgrounds, some who are learning a foreign language for the first time. It has been a lot of fun learning a new language with students that I likely wouldn’t have met otherwise. I am looking forward to continuing in my French studies the rest of this year at UW!