PACE Swap Shop - Incorporating Critical Thinking Activities in Your Language Class

Monday, November 16, 2015
3:30-4:30 p.m.
Jones 35

In this follow-up to the October 30, 2015 Using Images to Promote Critical Thinking workshop, participants will discuss and share ideas about how they can incorporate critical thinking activities using culturally authentic visual images in their language classes. Snacks will be served.

Getting to Know the Multimedia Lab and Development Studio Staff, Fall 2015

Who are the students working in the Multimedia Lab and the Development Studio this semester? Here are some short bios of new and returning staff!

 

Multimedia Lab

Bryce Heller

My name is Bryce, and I am from St. Louis Park Minnesota. I am a sophomore in Civil Engineering. This is my second semester working as a lab attendant. I enjoy working with computers, playing games, and programming.

Dathan Cook

Hello. My name is Dathan Cook. I'm from Eagan, Minnesota and currently commute from there everyday. I'm a junior in the process of changing my major from Computer Science to Ecology, Environment, and Behavior with two minors in both Environment Policy and Conservation Biology. I hope to become a field ecologist working primary with larger cats, but all animals are fascinating to me and getting the chance to work with them everyday is the ultimate goal. Aside from animals I'm also interested in a large variety of things ranging from MMA to HGTV—it's a guilty pleasure—and I've been more open to trying and experiencing new things. This will be my third year working as a lab attendant.

David Hagberg

I'm David Hagberg—you can call me either Dave or David. I'm a Sociology senior who is graduating this fall, unless I decide to take on another degree.  I started working for the lab during the summer term. I'm a massive soccer fan—so much so that I even went to live in Madrid for a semester under the guise of study abroad just to watch a lot of Real Madrid, my favorite team, games. (I know there are a few Barça fans around, but I think if even the Spanish national team can get along we should be able to as well.) I also really like cooking and watch food network in most of my free time. 

Hodan Jama

Hello, my name is Hodan Jama, and I am senior here at the U studying Nutrition. This is my second year in the Multimedia Lab as a lab attendant. I have lived in three different countries, and I currently reside in Burnsville, MN. I love watching true crime shows that usually come on Investigation Discovery. I have two brothers, and I plan to work as a Nutrition Consultant in the near future.

Ibsitue Kadir

Hey everyone! My name is Ibsitue Kadir, and I am working in both the main office as well as the lab a few days a week. I am currently a senior hoping to graduate this spring. I am studying family social science, and I hope to be an elementary school teacher. I was born in Las Vegas, but my family currently lives in Saint Paul. I love to volunteer, especially when it's with children. This is my first semester here in the Language Center.

Development Studio

Emma Hage
Hallå! My name is Emma, and I'm a sophomore studying linguistics. This is my second year working at the Language Center; I also work as a writing consultant in Nicholson and keep busy as an editor for the U of M's literary magazine, Ivory Tower. My perfect day involves a curling up with my four cats and a good piece of nonfiction. I also love learning languages and eating French toast.

CIC CourseShare: An Opportunity for Exchange

The University of Minnesota is once again collaborating with several other universities to provide culture and less commonly-taught language (LCTL) courses through teleconferencing and other digital means, a project funded by the Committee on Institutional Collaboration (CIC) CourseShare program.

In the past, UMN has only received courses from other institutions. However, this fall it is hosting a Beginning Ojibwe course and “Language and Society of Two Koreas.”

“It’s pretty exciting,” says the Language Center’s CourseShare Coordinator Pablo Viedma, “because we’ve kind of been ‘mean’ participants in CourseShare. We’ve received and haven’t offered [courses]. But now, we’re hoping to share more.”

Among the language and culture courses offered by other institutions are: Persian, Vietnamese, and Yoruba (at the beginning levels); Advanced Turkish; “Islam in Africa;” “Theories and Methods of Learning a Less Commonly-Taught Language;” and “Intro to Korean History.” Students enrolled in these courses meet in Jones Hall, where they interact with their class—taking place several hundred miles away—via videoconferencing.

With a total of nine classes being received through the program this semester, Viedma says the university is at its limit.

“We talk about offering more courses. Even if we wanted [to], we don’t have the room, and this is kind of stretching us to capacity.”

These courses, though small in their numbers, provide opportunity for students to study a less-commonly-taught language or culture that is interesting or of value to them.

“Most students don’t take [the classes] for filling the CLA requirements,” says Viedma. “They take it just for fun or because they want to travel.”

Jack Kreiser, a former CIC CourseShare student, studied the Indonesian language for several semesters before recently accepting a scholarship to study for a year at STIE Malangkucecwara, a university in Malang, Indonesia. Following a summer-long intensive language course in 2014, Jack connected with the CLA Language Center in order to make the language available for study at UMN through CIC CourseShare.

“I’d like to see more Americans studying critical languages to help build relationships with other parts of the world,” he says, “so I figure I should probably study one myself.”

According to the Modern Language Association, less than 300 students in the United States study Indonesian at the university-level each year. In an effort to promote education of its culture and foster relationships with other countries, the Indonesian government offers generous scholarships for international students who are interested in the culture to study in Indonesia. After learning he was a recipient of this grant, Jack is taking a short leave-of-absence from UMN to study at STIE.

Jack enjoys using Indonesian in his everyday life.

“All of my classes are taught in Indonesian. I talk to my classmates in Indonesian. I text with my Indonesian friends in Indonesian. I have to use Indonesian when I buy my meals or whenever I go to the store,” he says. “I still run into trouble once in a while when I don’t know what other people are saying, but I can usually understand after requesting for further explanation and asking a question or two.”

These interactions are of great benefit to Jack, who hopes to achieve fluency in Indonesian.

“Last year I really wanted to be able to communicate more freely in Indonesian, moving beyond simple dialogues from my textbook,” he says. “While practicing these dialogues helps build the fundamentals of understanding language and culture, it can only prepare you for so many situations. [...] Being able to properly communicate in a new setting by constructing new sentences and interacting with people in a non-scripted manner is essential in anybody’s language learning process.”

Without CourseShare, Jack says, he would have likely forgotten or not used the Indonesian language after his intensive summer program, so he is glad to have been able to access the course through the Language Center and CIC. Jack is especially grateful for this opportunity to experience life in Indonesia.

“The country is truly fascinating in so many ways and is like a cultural goldmine. [It] consists of thousands of islands with hundreds of different ethnic groups, each with their own unique arts, history, traditions, and local languages with Indonesian serving as the lingua franca for inter-ethnic communication.

“I find it sad that we live in a society that knows so little about Indonesia and many other countries that make up much of the world and its people—especially countries that get ignored simply because they are less developed. I’d like to use my experience to help raise awareness about other parts of the world that most Americans don’t hear much about.”

If you are interested in CourseShare and would like more information, please contact CourseShare Coordinator Pablo Viedma at viedma@umn.edu, or visit the Language Center’s CIC CourseShare webpage.

TandemPlus: Meet the Officers & Halloween Party this Friday

TandemPlus is now an official student group! This means that TandemPlus is recognized and listed among the University of Minnesota Student Union and Activities (SUA)’s many Student Groups. We have five elected student officers who will help with all facets of Tandem, including event planning, budgeting, and outreach across campus and beyond. Visit the Language Center blog to read some introductions and learn more about these student officers.

You can also meet them in person at their upcoming Halloween party, co-sponsored by MELP, MISA, IBP, and SGSA, on Friday, October 30, 6:00–9:00 p.m. in the Middlebrook Hall Terrace Room.

Enjoy a wide variety of haunting halloween games including face painting, mini pumpkin painting, 'Name the Monster', Halloween Trivia and much, much more! Halloween snacks and desserts will also be served, so come prepared to satisfy your sweet tooth!

Meet the TandemPlus Student Officers

TandemPlus is now an official student group! This means that TandemPlus is recognized and listed among the University of Minnesota Student Union and Activities (SUA)’s many Student Groups. We have elected five student officers who will help with all facets of Tandem, including event planning, budgeting, and outreach across campus and beyond. Here are some introductions to learn more about these student officers.

Lucas Van, President:

Lucas was born in Minnesota, the son of Vietnamese immigrants who fled from Vietnam in the 60s. He is the eldest of five brothers and sisters. Lucas spent most of his childhood and youth in Brooklyn Park, which is a suburb of Minneapolis. In 2008, he graduated from Champlin Park High School with high honors and soon matriculated at the University of St. Thomas. He spent three years at St. Thomas studying Mandarin Chinese. He was involved with an international student organization, Globally Minded Students Organization and was also an Air Force cadet. In 2011, he decided to make a major change in his life and joined the Minnesota National Guard. For nearly two years he trained at Fort Jackson and Fort Leonard Wood. In October 2012, he returned to Minnesota and soon transferred to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he decided to major in Asian Languages and Literature at the College of Liberal Arts, and also joined the local Army ROTC battalion as a cadet.  In Spring 2014 he was accepted as a member of the first cohort of students to participate in the new approved Chinese Flagship Program, which is a national initiative of the National Security program within in the Department of Defense that leads the nation in designing, supporting, and implementing advanced language education. This choice has delayed his graduation which was originally planned for 2015 to 2017; however, Lucas stands fast with this choice, and he believes that further education will better prepare him for future service in the Army and ultimately to better serve his country. He hopes and plans to one day serve as a Foreign Service Officer in the US Department of State.

Lucas signed up to as an officer of TandemPlus because he believes in the importance of understanding languages of the different peoples of this world. He hopes that he can make a TandemPlus a organization where everyone can feels welcome to share their culture, learn about others' cultures, and promote and facilitate language learning.

Beatriz Fusco, Vice President:

Beatriz is a graduate student studying linguistics. A native speaker of Portuguese, she also speaks English and Spanish, and is learning Arabic. Being a part of TandemPlus is important to her because she is interested in learning more about different cultures and wants to practice her language skills.

Ashley Lynch, Events Coordinator:

Ashley is a senior pursuing a major in global studies and minors in anthropology, history, and mass communication. She currently speaks English and French and is learning Italian, Arabic, and Hindi. Ashley is a part of TandemPlus to practice her speaking abilities—and to learn some slang!

Yu Yan, Secretary:

Yu is a senior studying psychology. A native speaker of Chinese, she is part of TandemPlus to make more friends and to learn about different cultures.

SoEun Shin, Treasurer:

SoEun is a junior studying journalism. As an international student from South Korea and a native speaker of Korean, SoEun hopes to get more practice with her English-speaking during her time in TandemPlus.

You will be seeing these board members throughout the year at our events, so be sure to say hi and ask them any questions! You can officially meet them at our upcoming Halloween party in the Middlebrook Terrace Room on October 30, 6:00–9:00 p.m. This event is co-sponsored by MELP, MISA, IBP and SGSA.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the TandemPlus staff at tandem@umn.edu, or stop by our office in Jones Hall 135A.