Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Language takes stage at U. New Mexico expo
By Anna Hampton
Daily Lobo (U. New Mexico)
03/05/2007

(U-WIRE) ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — University of New Mexico students got a chance to have an international experience without leaving campus Saturday.

The World Language Expo had competitions and presentations, including Tahitian dance, chalk art and Vietnamese origami.

"It's a tremendous coming-together of the community," said Marina Peters-Newell, coordinator of lower-division languages. "One of the things we've tried to do is bring together culture and countries so that New Mexicans get a taste of the world."

About 450 attendees and 150 volunteers participated.

Participants had the opportunity to learn about their own heritage and others, Peters-Newell said.

"I love to see older people come in and present their culture to younger people," she said. "It's like carrying on a tradition."

Twenty-seven languages were represented at the expo, including Chinese, Russian, Mayan and American Sign Language.

Graduate student Oxana Romanyuk, an exchange student from Russia, said the expo helped clear up misconceptions about other countries.

"Sometimes people get a stereotype about one nation by meeting one person," she said. "They make a conclusion about the whole nation. This is a great chance to change the stereotype, to learn the language and get acquainted with people and culture."

Maya Weisinger, a high school student, said there is a lot to learn from other cultures.

"I learned how to cut paper, Chinese-style," she said. "In New Mexico, you aren't in a diverse culture all the time."

Peter Pabisch, a German professor, said Americans are ethnocentric, and the event reminds people there is a world outside the United States.

"Americans think that there's only American, and everyone eats McDonald's, and everyone speaks English," he said.

Graduate student Katie Newell said the expo opens communication between the language departments.

"It's cool to get people involved," she said. "It gets the campus connected."

Newell represented the Philological Society, an organization that studies languages, including Elvish and Klingon.

Jim Mondloch, a linguistics instructor, said language is usually considered static. The expo shows that languages are dynamic, he said.

"You can travel all over this little area and travel around the world," he said. "It's fun to see all the different languages from all around the world. It's an enriching experience."

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