[allturtles]

You should think of the French department at a college as being analogous to the English department; they are literature departments and the professors are specialized in particular domains of literature and the coursework is centered on literature. e.g. see e.g. see this schedule of course requirements [0]. It requires just 1 year of advanced study in learning to speak and write the language itself, the rest is on reading, criticism, and specialized areas of French literature.

One could argue that learning about 17th century French drama makes this even more of a waste of time and money. Personally I think it's great that society has enough surplus wealth that people with a passion for particular topics can 'waste' their time in this way.

[0]: https://www.ohio.edu/cas/modern-languages/undergraduate/fren...

[j7ake]

Maybe for French. But I doubt this is the case for more distant languages like Japanese and Russian.

Are American undergrads studying Tolstoy in Russian in the Russian department?