Eleven languages are presently offered at UCSC: Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish. In 2011-12, the Language Program offers 174+ courses and sections. There is no language requirement at UCSC, but approximately 1,650 students take language courses every quarter.

For each of the languages offered by the Language Program, knowledge of culture and fluency in speaking, reading, and writing are major aims. The program prepares students specializing in many fields, for instance in Language Studies, Linguistics, Literature, History, Global Economics, Human Biology/Health Sciences, to list a few.

The teaching staff are experienced, professional language instructors. In addition to teaching, they often do research in pedagogy, linguistics, use of technology, literature, history, and other fields.