Harvard University welcomes Pinay instructor for its Filipino language course
Harvard's Filipino (Tagalog) language courses are taking firmer shape after the Ivy League university announced the hiring of its first-ever instructor for the Filipino language.
The university made the announcement on its official website. In the announcement addressed to the “Friends of the Asia Center,” the university said that Lady Aileen Orsal would be the preceptor or instructor for the Elementary and Intermediate Filipino courses that the university will offer this fall. Orsal will be teaching at Harvard for three years, with a possibility to renew for five additional years.
The announcement also came with a list of Orsal's credentials, which include being a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University. Orsal is a Mass Communication graduate from the Cavite State University and also earned her Master's degree in Philippine Studies from the same university. She is now completing an M.A. in Communication from the Northern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in Philippine Studies at De La Salle University.
Cavite State University congratulated Orsal in a Facebook post.
Harvard University first announced its Filipino language courses back in March, citing Tagalog as the fourth most spoken language in the United States.
In a report by The Harvard Crimson, the course seems to have partly been brought about by criticism from Harvard Philippine Forum and Crimson Editorial chair Eleanor V. Wikstrom, who published a 2021 op-ed in The Harvard Crimson that criticized the university's lack of offerings in the Tagalog language.
Aside from Orsal, Harvard also hired Sakti Suryani as a preceptor for Indonesian. Suryani will be teaching Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Indonesian courses at the university.
James Robson, director of Harvard's Asia Center, said that they are looking forward to working with both Orsal and Suryani to develop, highlight, and showcase the richness and variety of the history and cultures of the Philippines and Indonesia.
MEANWHILE, CHECK OUT THE CELEBRITIES WHO WENT BACK TO SCHOOL.
