STARTALK - Summer Language Program
The STARTALK program, featured in The Baltimore Sun, is a five-week intensive summer language program for high school students to learn Arabic or Mandarin Chinese in our World Languages academic program. STARTALK is available to students in grades 9-12, including recent high school graduates. In lively, task-based classes, you will be led by an experienced instructor whose first language is Arabic or Mandarin Chinese. You will acquire both practical and situational language skills, learn about cultural traditions, and benefit from authentic materials in the language. At the completion of STARTALK, you will have earned four college credits and be prepared to enter the next level of language instruction.
The admissions process is selective, and attendance in all classes is essential for success.
Students may apply to take one of the following college-level language courses:
- CHNS-101: Elementary Mandarin Chinese I,
- CHNS-102: Elementary Mandarin Chinese II,
- ARAB-101: Elementary Arabic I, or
- ARAB-102: Elementary Arabic II.
STARTALK is a project funded by the National Security Agency and administered by the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. STARTALK seeks to increase the number of Americans learning critical need languages.