JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
AN EVALUATION OF SCIENTIFIC RUSSIAN FOR CHEMISTS ROBERT I. HARRIS Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
THE
D E P ~ M E NOfT chemistly in ~ i d d l col~ b lege recently considered the advisability of offering a course in scientific Russian in .the c u r r i c u l ~for chemistry majors studying for the Bachelor's Degree. In an attempt to determine the value of such a course compared with courses in scientific Gemm and scientific French, questionnaires were sent to the chairmen of several representative graduate schools in chemistry. All of these ~choolsoffer the Ph.D. Degree, and all are included in the American Chemical Society's List of Approved Schools.' Thirty-six questionnaires were mailed, and 35 schools replied. Because several of the schools expressed considerable interest,iu the problem, the results of the questionnaires have been summarized. The various questions and a tabulation of the results follow: (1) What language requirements does your school have for the Ph.D. Degree in Chemistry? R~P~Y Cemuln and French German and either French or Russian Two languages German and one other language Two of German, French, and Russian
1
Number of schools
Of the 24 schools accepting Russian, 14 stipulated Chem. Eng. News, 24, 3301 (1946).
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Reph
G~~~~~ most imp,,-t German and Russian most important Russian second in importance
~~~~~ ~!~f~~~~~~~~ Russian third in
Numbw of schools 34 1 17 14 18 14
(4) DOYou think a course in scientific Russian should be considered as the equivalent of either scientific Germs.n or scientificFrench in a study program leading to a Bachelor's Degree?
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Numbsr of ~chool8 Reply 23 RuGiian equivalent to French 5 Russian equivalent to German 5 Russian not equivalent to French 1 Russian not equivalent to German
(2) Do you accept scientific Russian as part or all of this reouirement? Reply Russian accepted Russian not accepted Russian might be accepted
their was as a substitute for French but not ~ ~ acceptance ~ for German. Of the six schools which might accept Russian, three stipulated their acceptance was as a substitute for French but not for German. (3) HOWdo You rate German, French, and Russian scientific literature in their relative importance to .. chemistry?
Number of schools 25 12 8 20
In general, the results of this poll of language requirements and opinions are that German literature still ranks more important than French or Russian for the chemist, and Russian has gained a slight margin over French for second in importance. Several schools expressed the belief that in the future Russian would continue to gain in importance while German and French would decline. The vast volume of German journals and referencebooks now on hand will cause a knowledge of German to he indispensable for some time to come.
