One of our graduating majors said something about language learning that touched me profoundly. I would like to share it (hope you don’t mind, Angelina!). It was in an advanced course on Occitan and the regions of southern France. As we contemplated the semester’s progress through this challenging material, Angelina reflected that when she started looking at texts in Occitan--for instance the rallying song “Se Canta” sung at Toulouse soccer meets, or medieval troubadour poems-- everything seemed so blurry. It was so hard to get a grasp on what was being said. What words matched familiar ones? Everything seemed scrambled. As we moved through the grammar, syntax, culture, and geography, she said it was “like she put glasses on.” What a powerful metaphor for what happens when you hold the course of language and culture study! Hopefully you know the rewards of persisting to the point where a bewildering swirl of ink and sound becomes intelligible. Those who remember getting their first pair of corrective lenses will know the thrilling moment she describes. The chalkboard becomes clear, the brain struggle eases, even one’s balance could improve. A world of stories and human experience opens up. Thanks for reading our newsletter. I hope your experience with French or Italian afforded you some similar breakthrough moments.
As we close spring semester 2024, we congratulate our 88 graduating students! 8 majors in Italian and 7 minors; 18 majors in French and 45 minors; 8 Romance Studies majors; and 4 MAs in French & Francophone Studies.
We send our Global May students to Bologna and Paris for unforgettable encounters. Graduate students set off on formative missions: Samanta Buffa to create Virtual Reality materials for elementary Italian language learning, Genevieve Berendt to the Newberry Library in Chicago, Stefani Scimeca to an internship at the Biblioteca delle donne in Bologna, others to Sorrento, several to Sorrento for the American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS) Conference, to give some examples. Thank you to our generous alumni and friends who help make these learning opportunities possible for our students. To learn more about contributing to our study abroad experiences, please visit our new alumni and giving webpage.
Looking forward to:
- welcoming new Transnational Italian Professor Qian Liu in August.
- new and revamped courses such as Green Italy (Italian 3001) and Italian Romances (Italian 3051). Check out Rebels and Runaways (French 2804), Exploring Second Language Acquisition (FRIT 3301), and others, too.
- partnership with the new Western Sahel Student Association (WSSA). This new campus organization attracted 50-70+ students to its events in its first year, demonstrating the need for community among the growing numbers of students from West Africa, many of whom count French as one of their primary languages.
- a French Immersion Day in the works for November 7, 2024 to bring high school students to campus. Spread the word of this new endeavor!
See you in autumn!
~ Professor Sarah-Grace Heller
