A “brilliant linguist”: Meet Professor Jean-François Mondon

By Nathan Wehr

Just recently, Muskingum University was threatened by the same storm that has been tearing international language departments out of higher education institutions nationwide. With the loss of the German major and a cycle of adjuncts struggling to keep introductory French courses available to students on campus, a committee went in search of a more permanent addition to the World Languages Department. After a competitive search and several rounds of interviews with candidates from all over the country, Muskingum hired Dr. Jean-François Mondon, a French Professor whose area of expertise lies far beyond one language.

Picture of Jean-François Mondon / Photo provided by Muskingum University

Assistant professor of Spanish and Mondon’s colleague in the World Languages Department, Dr. Kathleen Cunniffe Peña, described Mondon as a “fantastic” addition to the faculty and a “brilliant linguist” who brings new perspectives to campus. Peña, who served on the hiring committee, shared that the committee was searching for someone who could not only teach French but an additional language as well. Mondon’s language skills exceeded those expectations.

Over the course of his teaching career, Mondon has taught an array of languages, including French, German, Latin, Greek, Welsh, old Irish, and Swahili.

In Mondon’s office, located in Walter Hall, a mini Eiffel Tower rests on his desk, and a small flag of Brittany—a northwestern region of France—hangs by his computer. However, when you enter his office, you will be greeted with an impeccable Midwest accent.

When asked about his connection to the French language, Mondon shared that his parents are French but met in the U.S. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, a bilingual child with a name often hard for his peers to pronounce. In fact, teaching people to properly say his name became “a pain in the ass,” he said. So he went by “John” for a while before accepting a nickname given to him by a friend in graduate school, which he now uses in emails and day-to-day life, “JF.”

Mondon earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on historical linguistics and morphology. He explained that Historical Linguistics is the “study of how languages change and evolve,” whereas Morphology is “the study of word formation.” He combines these two passions in his free time to write textbooks for teaching “dead languages” such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit.

When asked exactly how many languages he knows, Mondon answered, “I always just say English,” but further elaborated that he “could survive” in French, German, Italian, and Welsh.

As Peña noted, Mondon is “a little too humble.”

“He’s legit,” she said. She’s heard him having “full conversations” with German students and “speaking Russian” with Associate Professor of Political Science Richard Arnold. The key term she used to describe Mondon is that he’s a “polyglot,” which is a person who knows and uses several languages.

Mondon said that he has been “working on” nine languages, which he usually likes to engage with during his workouts or whenever he can wear headphones. The first language he started working on was Russian, while the most recent language has been Biblical Hebrew. Some others he named were Old Norse and Basque.

Mondon’s end goal is to help students learn new languages. At the heart of communication, he said, is “asking [and] answering questions.”

“I want them to be able to leave my class being able to survive in basic situations,” Mondon said. “They will be able to interact with native speakers and pull off that.”

Mondon is an associate professor of Global Studies at Muskingum, a title that allows him to utilize his language skillset properly. He is excited to teach introductory German and the Global Studies Seminar in spring 2024, and he is currently working with Peña on a new Intro to World Languages course.

The Intro to World Languages course may be taught as a part of a “consortium,” which allows universities nationwide to share courses through an online learning platform. This means professors across states can offer courses at other universities. In this case, the World Languages course could be taught by a professor in Kentucky who teaches Mandarin Chinese.

Muskingum is a leader in this project among the participating universities, and Mondon is a key player. His hobby of writing textbooks translates well into developing online courses and pumping new blood into this field of study.

With his focus on this project and expanding the languages and courses offered at Muskingum, Mondon said he hopes to give his students a “wider view of the world,” and show them not just how things across cultures and languages differ, but also “how they’re related.” It’s this view that ties far-away concepts together and promises to bridge gaps that students may have never considered.