The IU Center for Language Technology sponsored the fourth World Language Festival.
The festival, which occurs every two years, is designed to showcase the variety and depth of language and cultural study programs at IU, said Xiaojing Kou, the coordinator for the Center of Language Technology.
The opening ceremony began with a speech by Patrick O’Meara, the vice president emeritus of international affairs.
“Herman B Wells had two fundamental thoughts about world culture,” O’Meara said. “He wanted to bring the world to Indiana, and he wanted Indiana to serve the world.”
The ceremony then brought the world to the audience with six performances, including a South African song in a Zulu click language, Korean percussion music and a traditional dance from Uzbekistan.
Originally, the festival was focused on getting high school students interested in world languages, Kou said.
“But we realized last time we had the festival that IU students really enjoyed themselves too, and not just the foreign language students, but all kinds of students wanted to come,” Kou said. “So we have expanded the festival to include them as well.”
Students could attend as participants or volunteers, but even the volunteers had the chance to sit in on the sessions.
“The sessions are all really hands-on, which is a good way to learn,” said sophomore Savannah Harrison, a volunteer at the event and a Swahili student. “It’s neat to be able to learn all these little cultural details.”
The decision to target college students was also made because of recent difficulty in getting high school students to attend, Kou said. At the last festival, there were not enough attendees to fill the educational sessions of the festival.
“It has been difficult the last few times to get students to come,” Kou said. “We really depend on the students, teachers and parents themselves, and not the programs at the schools. We have to convince them person by person.”
Turnout was better this year, and the organizers of the festival were optimistic, Kou said.
After the opening ceremony, the festival offered an exhibit room with presentations from many of IU’s foreign language departments, flagship programs and overseas study opportunities.
But the main focus of the festival was the dozens of different educational sessions for participants to choose. These sessions were structured as workshops in language, culture or performance from cultures around the world.
“You can’t really learn a new language in 30 minutes, but you can help encourage a good attitude toward foreign languages and open students’ minds to different cultures,” Kou said.
Festival participants attended workshops about topics such as Indonesian shadow puppets, Chinese character writing, popular Balkan music and bingo in Dutch. More than 40 different languages were represented in the sessions, which blended language study with traditional culture, Kou said.
One of the workshops was a lesson in capoeira, a Brazilian martial art with elements of dance, music and acrobatics. The performers leading the session were all IU Portuguese students. After demonstrations from students of the martial art, participants were quick to join in.
“Anyone can do capoeira, in the same way anyone can learn Portuguese, or any foreign language,” said Olivia Holloway, apprentice capoeira instructor and Portuguese Ph.D student. “All you have to leave behind is your shyness.”
