The voices of the world will resonate in University hallways today, as the Yamada Language Center hosts its annual Foreign Language and International Studies Day. According to senior Julia Bosser, who coordinated the event, 1,400 students from 35 different high schools across Oregon will attend the event, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is the Foreign Language Day’s 25th year at the University.
Chinese, Italian, German, Kiswahili, French, Japanese — students have a plethora of cultural experiences from which to choose. Bosser said 109 sessions at 27 locations around campus have been scheduled, and students and faculty will showcase different languages, share their popular and traditional culture and teach folk dance and other skills. Center of Applied Second Language Studies Director Carl Falsgraf will give the keynote speech in the EMU Ballroom at 8:30 a.m.
Bosser said the day is important because it exposes potential students to the international opportunities at the University and enhances academic and cultural knowledge.
“You can’t know everything by staying in your own culture,” Bosser said. “You need to expand.”
Yamada Language Center Director Jeff Magoto said the day helps to promote languages, as well as the University’s language programs.
“We tell high school students that somehow the painful process of language can be rewarded down the road,” he said.
Magoto said that one of the Yamada Center’s key goals was to be a resource to students and teachers statewide. He added the foreign language days owe their success to the people on campus who are willing to volunteer their time and talents.
“It’s really a campus community effort,” Magoto said.

— Ayisha Yahya