From Spanish play performances to Russian a capella songs, the language department hosted an event called World Café.
The event was to celebrate National Foreign Language Week. The celebration consisted of students of the different majors performing Chinese instruments, Chinese poems, Spanish plays, Japanese songs, Japanese poems, Russian songs, Russian poems and a French song. The attendance for the event was reported to be successful. This was the first year the department hosted this event.
Olivia Amaya, who is a visiting professor in the Spanish department, shared her opinion on watching the event:
“It was a wonderful opportunity to get together to share talent and to share culture,” Amaya said. “It makes students interested in learning about other cultures and makes the global mission statement real in our community.”
Sierra Mazurowski, ‘18, who performed some Japanese poems by Misuzu Kaneko, and Allie Purvis, ’19, who performed Chinese poetry, expressed their thoughts on performing in the event.
“It was pretty fun to participate in, although admittedly I was really nervous leading up to and during the performance,” Mazurowski said. “I was shaking terribly the whole time!”
Purvis said: “I enjoyed being able to perform a language that I like and share it with others.”
Evan Barnard, ’17, and a Spanish major, gave his opinion on the event:
“I thought it was a great opportunity to showcase the languages,” Barnard said. “Also a great opportunity for me to see and hear the different things students are working on at Witt.”
Isaac Cason, ’16, who was a guest in the audience voiced his opinion about the event:
“I thought that World Café was a great event,” Cason said. “It allowed for Wittenberg’s love of language and learning to be shown.”
Mazurowski wants World Café to be as successful as the other international events.
“I hope it continues like the East Asian festival and Ghost Story-telling, which are long standing events that people enjoy,” Mazurowski said. “I hope the World Café takes off and continues to be successful.”
Ruth Hoff, the chair of the Spanish department, said that the event was a success and will be continuing in the years to come.
