While Others Catch Up, We’ve Been Leading!
The MCC Language Legacy
#newspaperinlearning
25th July 2026
I happened to read an article in today’s Times of India, Chennai Edition, on a paradigm shift across academia, especially in Chennai’s renowned Engineering colleges, urging their students to completely drop regular academic courses in their seventh semester if they clear three levels of a foreign language certification!
The article highlights the four famous foreign languages that are being prioritised by Chennai’s Higher Educational Institutions.
German and Japanese, are prioritised explicitly because those countries have ageing populations and hence there’s a desperate need for young immigrant workers.
Similarly, RMK and Anna University are introducing Mandarin and Korean with an aim to capture upcoming jobs in the VLSI-based chip manufacturing sector, targeting Taiwanese and South Korean tech giants.
The reasons are not far to seek!
Mastering a foreign language gives Indian graduates a significant edge in the global job market. For example, knowing Japanese helped a civil engineering graduate secure a ₹30 lakh per annum job, which is vastly higher than standard domestic offers.
Engineering colleges and universities in Chennai (such as VIT, Anna University, HITS, and SRM Easwari) have been integrating foreign languages into their official curricula. Surprisingly, some have even made it a mandatory credit course!
Beyond just classroom teaching, institutions are encouraging students to form foreign language clubs and host cultural events. Some colleges are even collaborating with foreign embassies to bring in native teachers and establish dedicated language centres.
So what about Arts & Science Colleges in Chennai?
Since the report doesn’t feature Arts & Science Colleges, this blogger thought of filling in the missing gap. 😊
Well, MCC has been hosting native Korean Professors for the past 12 years, to teach Korean language skills for our students. The next batch starts in early August 2026.
Moreover, more than 1100 students have been trained in the Korean language over these years and a sizeable many amongst them have also found openings in the Korean job market / higher education sector and /or research, over the years.
Also, MCC has been offering German and French for more than five decades now.
As eminent critic Scupin Richard rightly points out,
Chasing a degree makes a student a timid ‘Paper Tiger’. On the other hand, chasing skills – like language skills make them a real tiger in flesh and blood, capable of confidently facing the job market, - a philosophy that MCC has stood for, even many decades ago, before they could make into the morning headlines today!
In short, we are not just participating in the ‘language-focus’ trend; we’ve been quietly leading it!
And how! 😊
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