Mini Language Classes a Highlight of Alumni Reunion Weekend
Bon vivant, ¿Qué haces?, Wie geht’s?, domo arigato – terms like these may jog our memory, but how much do we really remember from our foreign language classes? After all, for some of us it has been quite a while…
With that in mind, alumni returning to Washington and Lee for Alumni Reunion Weekend 2009 will, for the fourth year in a row, have the chance to brush up on critical foreign language skills. The Tucker Multimedia Center and foreign language departments will host a series of mini language classes taught by modern language faculty from 3-5 p.m. on Friday, May 1, in Tucker Hall.
These thirty- and sixty-minute sessions will focus on central themes and provide useful information for foreign travelers or for those who merely wish on occasion to demonstrate their skills. Taught in an informal and relaxed atmosphere, classes have become an annual favorite for returning alumni.
Professors providing instruction this year will be Ken Ujie (Japanese), Daniel Kramer (German), Mónica Botta and Florinda Ruiz (Spanish), Patricia Hardin (Italian), Susan Dixon (French), Ye Yuan (Chinese) and Cristina Pinto-Bailey (Portuguese). Mónica Botta, assistant professor of Spanish, affirms that “this is a great initiative because foreign language classes offer alumni the unique opportunity to give a living language a try, practice one they’ve already studied or simply explore one aspect of a given culture through a microcosm of a lesson.”
“The TMC and language departments constantly seek to bring the wide world of foreign cultures and languages home to the Washington and Lee campus. We are very happy to have found a means of reaching not only current students, but our alumni as well,” said Dick Kuettner, organizer, director of the Tucker Multimedia Center and a professor in the Romance Languages department.
To learn more about the TMC and its initiatives promoting language teaching and learning with and without technology, please visit http://tmc.wlu.edu .
