Monterey Peninsula College, a two-year institution founded in Monterey in 1947, places an unusually strong emphasis on foreign languages in its curriculum. It offers eight -- not only Spanish, French, German and Italian, but also Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Russian -- and a language laboratory open 50 hours each week with a full-time instructor and audio and visual equipment. About 1,300 of Monterey Peninsula College's 9,000 full- and part-time students are currently enrolled in foreign language courses, with Spanish the most popular.

Allye Hobson-Robinson, chair of the school's foreign language department and a French instructor, believes that its foreign language program is "certainly one of the strongest in the state.''

The school's emphasis on foreign languages dates from its inception nearly five decades ago.

"I think through the last decade or 15 years many colleges have seen their foreign languages erode down to only having Spanish and French, even losing their German program,'' said former MPC President David Hopkins. "Through that entire period, MPC did the opposite. I don't know of any community college in the state, barring one or two others, who were able to retain their languages. This was done very pro-actively.''

He pointed out that Monterey Peninsula College's curriculum not only includes Mandarin Chinese, but offers two semesters of it.

When Hobson-Robinson arrived at Monterey Peninsula College in the fall of 1968 with a master's degree in French Literature from Stanford University and a year of study at the Sorbonne, it offered only four foreign languages. The teaching was based almost entirely on translation. Hobson-Robinson played a key role in changing the curriculum and teaching methods to stress the spoken language, introducing a then relatively new foreign language methodology called the "direct method'' that stressed communication.

The effects were soon apparent.

"With the translation method, there are very, very few students who ever learn how to speak the language,'' she said. "The communicative method makes it possible for a great many more students to have success very early in their language experience. It most closely resembles the way people naturally learn language.''

Reflecting the area's rich Spanish and Italian traditions, Monterey Peninsula College often enrolls students who want to learn their ancestral language to span generations and talk with relatives still in the "old country.''

"I think it has to do with our people already being an international kind of community with more connections to other parts of the world,'' said Hobson-Robinson. "The fact that people are already coming here to communicate with members of their families in other parts of the world shows we are strengthening those connections.''

When asked why Monterey deserves language capital designation, Hobson-Robinson responded, "Its diversity. I don't think anywhere else in the country equals it.''

Monterey Peninsula College's emphasis on foreign languages, said former President Hopkins, "ties into the strong language programs at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Defense Language Institute. These and other reasons prove the validity of making Monterey the language capital of the world. There is no other community college that could have kept the foreign languages we have except for the unique nature of this area.''

If you would like more information about Monterey Peninsula College, visit their Web site.