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MU fails foreign language pop quiz

Students, staff and faculty received a foreign language pop quiz Oct. 12, and according to Foreign Language Education Assistant Professor Martha Castañeda, the community performed poorly.

Castañeda teaches the foreign language education cohort that created the quiz.

"Our language ambush quiz was quite successful, however, Miami University received a poor grade," she said.

Castañeda said the results indicate Miami students, staff and faculty need to improve their foreign language skills.

The cohort students asked 168 Miami community members, "What time is it?" in a foreign language. The languages used were Chinese, French, German and Spanish. Of those asked, 52 did not respond to the question, 89 responded accurately in English and 27 people responded accurately in the correct language.

The purpose of the quiz was to raise awareness about the importance of foreign language skills.