Lingua Franca

¿Qué pasa? Quoi de neuf? Novità? Department News Abounds

The Department of Foreign Languages welcomes two new faculty members: Spencer Wolf, who started teaching German in the fall semester and Congmin Zhao will be teaching Chinese, starting in the spring semester.

The French, Spanish, and Italian clubs have been active this semester hosting movie nights and excursions to restaurants. The Chinese program also offered a “Dumpling Workshop” which not only educated, but also fed a large number of people (http://www.salemstate.edu/academics/schools/23040.php). The clubs are looking for new members! Sign up for their mailing lists and/or Facebook pages here: http://goo.gl/B7695.

Italian Club Out to Dinner

This fall, Dr. Blood and Dr. Duclos-Orsello (Interdisciplinary Studies) gave public walking tours of “Franco-American Salem,” which included locations in the Point, on Lower Lafayette Street and in the Central Business District. The tour explored the immigration of French-Canadians to Salem and the lasting impact this population has had on the cultural, social, political and economic development of the city of Salem from the late 19th century through the present day. The two professors are still working on an oral history project on Franco-Americans from Salem and will develop Franco-American Studies courses next year. You can see some of the materials they have developed here: http://lrc.salemstate.edu/frenchsalem.

Chinese Dumpling Event, Fall 2011

Ten faculty and six graduate students from the Department of Foreign Languages presented at the October 2011 meeting of the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association (MaFLA) and four undergraduate Spanish majors also attended the conference. The MaFLA conference is an annual three-day event where language teachers meet to network, share ideas, and learn about new trends in foreign language teaching. Faculty presented papers on Latin American cinema at the New England Council on Latin American Studies’ 2011 Annual Fall Conference at Dartmouth College and on advocating foreign language learning at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Denver, Colorado. For more information about the presentations, go here: http://www.salemstate.edu/academics/schools/19247.php.

A representative of the Education Office of the Spanish Embassy came to talk with the SSU community in November about opportunities to teach in Spain. Those who are interested in the chance to earn money and experience by teaching in either Spain or Italy should contact Dr. Serra. More information here: http://www.salemstate.edu/academics/schools/23077.php

Summer Study Abroad: Start planning your summer adventure now! Earn 6 credits for one month abroad in Costa Rica (Spanish), Oviedo (Spanish), Québec (French), or Tuscany (Italian)! Find out more about our department’s summer study abroad programs at www.salemstate.edu/languages.