World Languages Day attracts hundreds of high school students

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Language Institute will host more than 700 high school students and teachers from 24 Wisconsin high schools for World Languages Day (WLD) on Thursday, April 20.

Designated a 2006 PK-16 Program of Distinction, WLD is an all-day event that gives students the opportunity to experience for a day what the university can offer them for a lifetime. Through sessions focusing on storytelling, cinema, skits, cuisine, dance, music, clothing and more, students get a taste — sometimes literally — of language and cultural opportunities they might like to explore.

The scope of options offered at World Languages Day covers the globe. Session titles include “Russian Fairy Tales,” “The Kabuki Theatre of Japan,” “Beautiful Skin: Persian Henna Traditions” and “Dining Out in the Ancient World.” WLD participants also have an opportunity to learn about various ethnic groups in Wisconsin — indigenous peoples, Scandinavians, Germans and others — who helped shape the region and continue to influence it.

Keynote speaker Florencia Mallon, a professor in the UW–Madison Department of History, will welcome the high school visitors in the morning. UW–Madison faculty and staff from the university’s 11 departments of languages and literature, as well as area studies programs, the Department of Anthropology, Department of Communication Arts, the School of Music, School of Education, International Academic Programs and the Division of International Studies, will work together to lead sessions that help students connect their interests with world languages and cultures.

According to Catherine Reiland, coordinator of World Languages Day, “This program offers a dynamic space where students can further explore the language they are studying in high school, as well as new languages and cultures.”

The one-day event has lasting effects. According to Southwest High School teacher Mary Ramirez, who has brought students from Green Bay to World Languages Day since 2002, “One of my very best Spanish students has decided to study Russian in college because of a WLD session he attended. Students who had never considered UW–Madison want to apply after attending World Languages Day.”

Jennifer Tishler, associate director of the Center for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and WLD session presenter, says, “World Languages Day is an incredibly effective way for the University of Wisconsin community to work with high schools. Knowing another language brings new professional and personal opportunities. World Languages Day helps young adults find out about the doors that can open up to them from studying the world’s languages, literatures and cultures.”

Adds Jolanda Taylor, professor of Dutch in the Department of German, “Language and culture learning doesn’t just engage the mind, it is not just a lot of fun — it belongs in the toolbox of the valuable employee of the present — and of the future.”

World Languages Day cheerfully participates in the Wisconsin Idea: the resources of the university at the service of the people of Wisconsin. This fun-filled day showcases the exceptional wealth of very serious opportunities at the university to study many different foreign languages and cultures,” adds Taylor.

World Language Day is a program of the UW–Madison Language Institute. It is made possible with the support from the Anonymous Fund; African Studies; Center for East Asian Studies; Center for European Studies, Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia; Center for South Asia; Global Studies; Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies, and the Schoenleber Foundation.

World Languages Day will be held from 8:45 a.m.-2 p.m. on Thursday, April 20, at the Memorial Union, the Red Gym and the Pyle Center, all located on Langdon Street.

For more information, contact Reiland at (608) 262-4077 or creiland@wisc.edu.