Boost your Starfleet GPA with a course in Klingon language

No need for warp drive: This class is on Earth

“Savan!” That’s how teacher André Muller greets students in his class.

If the word (pronounced “Shavaan”) sounds alien, that’s because it is. Muller is teaching Klingon — the language of about 3,000 words spoken by the interstellar warriors in the

Star Trek universe. Even though the Klingon race is fictional, the spoken language — invented in 1984 by American linguist Marc Okrand — is taught at Migros Club School, Switzerland’s largest adult education institution. Muller leads one of the rare in-person classes in the world (as opposed to online courses) to teach Klingon.

The classes, which started in May in several Swiss cities, have been very popular.

“We are overwhelmed by the interest in these courses. It exceeded all our expectations,” said Mirjam Jaeger, who coordi- nates foreign language projects at the school.

The Zurich course was at full capacity May 31, with 30 students and 18 more on the waiting list. A course given earlier in May in the Swiss capital city Bern had 35 students.

Though there has been interest in Klingon classes for several years, Jaeger said demand has increased dramatically since the school had a stand promoting the courses at Fantasy Basel, Switzerland’s comic convention held at the end of April and attended by nearly 50,000 visitors.

“It’s nice to see that the stu- dents are very mixed, from 14- to 61-year-olds, from Trekkies to IT professors,” she said. “Being a nerd has become hip.”

A fan of Star Trek and other sci-fi films, Tanya Rothenburg, 46, signed up for the Zurich course “because I always wanted to learn Klingon.” Talking with others who speak this language “makes me feel like I belong to a very select group.”

Muller, 32, is one of a small group — up to 200 worldwide — of fluent Klingon speakers. He teaches wearing a dark yellow shirt like the one Captain Kirk wore.