Armenian Class at Cal State Northridge

In response to CSUN student Mary Burunsuzyan’s question, “Why should French and Spanish professors be paid by the university and not the Armenian professor” (Dec. 27), the answer is that most taxpaying Americans have no interest in subsidizing minor languages and dialects of interest to only a very small ethnic group among us.

We are having a hard enough time trying to come up with ways to pay for an excessively costly educational system just to teach the basic necessities, which include English, French and Spanish, those being languages that make up our integral heritage and enable us to communicate with our neighboring countries.

To the few students who may one day enter world commerce and trade fields, we also find the teaching of major languages such as Russian, Japanese or German vital to our interests. However, our need to create greater unity through communication does not include emphasis on every minor language and dialect. Otherwise, we would be asked to pay for instruction in all of the native American dialects along with those from China, Russia and so on.

Where would we then get the funds to teach people how to read and write or understand simple math?

In general, the Armenians in this country are a fairly affluent group. They have the freedom here to learn and speak their own language, but at their expenses and not mine!

ROBBIN R. FERNEZ

Pacific Palisades