Eight different languages fill the pages of the newest monthly student-produced publication on campus.
Global Talk, the first multicultural magazine of its kind at the University, aims to unify different cultures and languages found on campus.
Its creator, Italian graduate teaching fellow Nicolino Applauso, wants the magazine to serve as a tool for education and as entertainment for students and other Eugene residents.
“The main object of this publication is to create communication between people where it is lacking,” Applauso said.
“Global Talk seeks to introduce, in a more authentic way, different aspects of culture and language, and therefore, different ways to be American,” he wrote in an e-mail.
The black and white magazine distributed its first issue on Monday. The publication includes one page each for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Scandinavian and Spanish, the eight main languages taught at the University. Each page includes a summary of important news in the major countries where each language is spoken, poetry and vocabulary terms that follow the issue’s theme. Some of the articles are written in the language featured on the page, and others are in English.
Global Talk, published at the EMU’s Campus Copy Center, is funded by the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department, the Germanic Languages and Literatures Department, the Yamada Language Center and the Department Romance Languages. The 600 copies of the first issue cost slightly less than $300 to produce.
“It just didn’t exist – there was no publishing outlet for second language writers,” Jeffrey Magoto, director of the Yamada Language Center, wrote in an e-mail. “Every language student needs an audience – this is a great way, for even beginners, to go beyond the classroom to practice their new found skills.” Barbara Altmann, chairwoman of the Romance Languages department, also was enthusiastic about the potential of Global Talk.
“It showcases many different languages and cultures in a great format,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Everyone can learn something from it just from glancing at the pages that interest them.”
Senior Laura Kramp, a romance language major, took on the role of student editor of the French section.
“I thought the concept of bringing a whole bunch of languages and cultures together in one publication was a really good idea and would be really interesting to work on,” she said.
Kramp, who plans to continue working for Global Talk, said “I enjoyed working on it. It was interesting keeping up with things that are going on in the French culture that aren’t covered in American media.”
Applauso was raised in Italy and came to the United States in 1997.
“When I moved here in the states I noticed the coexistence among all different cultures and languages but in a much bigger scale,” he said. “What difference I noticed is the degree of separation among all these different cultures and languages that is not so sharp as it is in Europe.”
He sought to make a change with Global Talk by providing a medium to bring different cultures together.
“It creates a lot of dialogue, because people always create a lot of discussion about their country,” he said.
Applauso first created Global Talk at Florida State University, and monthly publications are still coming out at that university.

Ryan Knutson is a freelance reporter