UW celebrates 2005 as the year of languages

In an increasingly global community, the importance of communicating and interacting with people who do not use English as their primary language is becoming a high priority for more Americans.

Departments across campus have put together programs and events celebrating what Gov. Jim Doyle and a variety of national groups have proclaimed as the Year of Languages.

Sally Magnan, director of the Language Institute, believes that the Year of Languages is important for Wisconsin and the nation.

“Americans are too often naive about the need to speak, understand and read the many languages of our world,” says Magnan. “Personal connection cannot be truly established without communication that comes from an effort on both sides. With communicative teaching methods today, language study is highly interactive, and the rewards are great, even at the beginning levels.”

For students, events on campus include “Language for Life,” a series of conversations with alumni on how they are using a language they studied at UW–Madison in their professional or personal lives.

On Thursday, Feb. 10, aerospace technologist and engineering graduate Karina Shook will meet with students from 5-6 p.m. in Room 106 of the Engineering Research Building, 1500 Engineering Drive. She will talk about how her study of Russian language has been important for her work at NASA.

For the broader university community, the Language Institute and the Office of Human Resource Development are sponsoring “Explore Your World!” a series of brown-bag presentations by faculty and staff on world languages and cultures.

The first presentation in that series, by Choua Thao, of Cultural Linguistic Services, will focus on Hmong language and culture. It will be held in the Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St., at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 16. See Today in the Union for the location.

Also for the campus community and the public is an invited lectures series titled “Voices of America: Language, Power and Community.”

The first lecture, “At War With Diversity: U.S. Language Policy in an Age of Anxiety,” will be presented by Jim Crawford, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education. He will speak Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 4 p.m. in Room 1418 of Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive.

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

For more information on these and many other language- and culture-related events on campus, visit the Year of Languages Web site.

For more information about the Year of Languages, or to include your department or organization’s activities in the Year of Languages calendar, contact Language Institute associate director Dianna Murphy at (608) 262-1575 or diannamurphy@wisc.edu.