Correction appended below
Following approval by Student Union last month, a new club will be saying “guten tag” to campus soon.
That group, the German club, will not only be involved in departmental activities, but will also plan its own extracurricular events, including films and games. Because enrollment in German classes is not required on campus, the club looks to encourage involvement by as many students as possible.
Eva Russo, specialist in foreign language pedagogy at Washington University, praised the multifaceted goals of the club.
“The mission of the German club is to provide students with a social environment in which they can explore their interests in regard to German language and culture, [and] discuss study abroad opportunities and possible career benefits,” Russo said.
Many other languages at the University have clubs focusing on a language and its culture.
“All of the SU ‘language’ clubs also have a focus on sharing the culture of countries that speak the languages as well,” junior Ciara Caprara, Student Group Activities Committee co-chair, said.
But many language groups have not taken steps to establish a club on campus. For example, there is no Student Union-sanctioned Chinese language club due to skepticism about its potential for success.
“There are many ways to make other activities, but as a club you have to meet regularly and come constantly, which is hard sometimes,” Wei Wang, a Chinese language professor, said.
But Chinese students do participate in language tables, in which students can listen to Chinese music, eat Chinese food and have time to practice their Chinese. Given the already-rigorous Chinese program, it is little surprise that a Chinese club has struggled to find a meeting time.
“I think the reason we don’t have a club is that we have one-on-one [individual Chinese language practice] so it’s already 7 hours a week and it’s already individual contact with students,” Wang said.
Despite the time commitment and the lack of an extracurricular club, the Chinese language department is still increasing in size. At the start of this semester, there were more than 300 students enrolled in Chinese language classes and more than seven teachers in the department.
The Chinese language students include both ethnic Chinese students and non-native speakers. Though both groups are growing, Wang believes there is a cultural reason that there are more native speakers.
“I think the Chinese people coming from mainland China mostly in the 1980s now are having children [who are] in college, so it’s time for them to [learn] their native language,” Wang said.
As for the Romance Languages department, no clubs are available to students, although there are language tables available for French and Italian. These, however, only meet every two weeks.
Although there is no requirement for the 250 enrolled French students to attend the table, it is mostly dominated by non-native, intermediate and advanced speakers.
The group varies between four and five students who come and go throughout the lunchtime meeting.
While language tables can be intimidating, Andia Augustin, a teaching assistant for French 101, believes that they are beneficial.
“It’s absolutely something I would recommend,” she said. “It’s pretty consistent French speaking and you receive a lot of help with French grammar and vocabulary. Plus, you get great French food.”
Correction
The article incorrectly stated that there are no Romance language clubs at the University. In fact, there is an Italian club, Italo. Student Life regrets the error.
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