University departments recognize Year of Languages

Departments across the university are celebrating the Year of Languages with new programs and events.

In today’s increasingly global community, the importance of being able to communicate, understand and do business with people and cultures in which English is not the primary language is becoming a high priority for more Americans.

That’s one reason Gov. Jim Doyle has joined other elected officials and national professional organizations in declaring 2005 as the Year of Languages.

The Language Institute and the Office of Human Resource Development are sponsoring “Explore Your World!”, a series of brown-bag presentations by university faculty and staff on world languages and cultures. The first presentation in that series, by Choua Thao (Cultural Linguistic Services), will be on Hmong language and culture.

The university community and public are invited to a lecture series titled “Voices of America: Language, Power and Community.” The first lecture in this series, “At War With Diversity: U.S. Language Policy in an Age of Anxiety,” will be given by Jim Crawford, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education.

Gareth Diaz Zehrbach, director and principal of Nuestro Mundo Community School, a new bilingual immersion school in Madison, will give comments.

For more information, visit the Year of Languages Web site, or contact Dianna Murphy, Language Institute associate director, at 262-1575 or diannamurphy@wisc.edu.