Tips for efficient searching

Keep in mind that we list only LCTLs (Less Commonly Taught Languages) that are taught in North America. We define LCTL as all human languages other than English, French, German, and Spanish. If you search for English, you will get Old English and Middle English courses.

To search for a specific language you can either type it in or pick one from a list (there's a link above the search field).  Sometimes we specify varieties of a language (e.g., "Arabic (Modern)" or "Chinese (Mandarin)") but in many cases it's better to search by the general name. Most Chinese courses are indeed Mandarin, although that is not always specified by the teaching institution. In a linguistic sense, it is 'unmarked.' (Fewer words in the search find more hits, generally.)

If you get a notice that there are no matching records, you might have asked for a language for which we have no listing (it's probably not taught in North America), or you have misspelled the language's name. You can look at our list of covered languages. Or simply try using the first few letters only, for example "Swa" if you are searching for Swahili courses. Or "Az" for Azerbaijani / Azeri.

When you are searching for a study abroad program or distance education courses, you will get more results if you do not specify state or institution.

To look up a K-12 school or district it is usually sufficient to enter its name.  For example, to search for Denmark High School you can enter:

"Denmark" or

"Denmark High" or

"Denmark High School"

in the 'institution' field.

Click the K-12 button to restrict hits to pre-post-secondary schools

Specifying the state is a good way to exclude unwanted results or to find language courses within your area. 

Some examples of searching for a college/university:

"Indiana"

"Indiana University"

Correcting

We do not update the database on an ongoing basis any longer - funding stopped for this program in 2014. You can see when the last update of a particular language / institution was in each listing.

Contacting us

We value your comments and questions. Please contact CARLA by email carla@umn.edu.