Iowa State’s department of world languages and cultures put together their first ever WLC Week, promoting various department programs with engaging events for students.

Throughout the week, students participated in a variety of events and socials catered to the different cultures included in the department.

Susan McNichol, a communications specialist in the world languages and cultures department, helped coordinate the week’s events.

“I think it went pretty well,” McNichol said. “We ended up having, oh gosh, I think over about a dozen events, reaching about a couple hundred different students. It was fun, we learned some stuff [and] we are excited to do it again next year and put into practice what we learned this year.”

McNichol and the WLC used a variety of methods to draw students into the events of the week, hoping to catch students’ attention and inform them of the opportunities available through the WLC.

“Anything with food was a big hit, we had like a croissant breakfast for the French section and some of the students brought French jokes,” McNichol said. “For the German section they did a traditional German breakfast which was like meat and cheeses and toasted bread and Nutella.”

Other popular events included Spanish trivia, a ritual, a traditional Russian art workshop, a pop-up snack shop and even events to help students apply for scholarships and travel abroad programs.

WLC ambassadors also helped ensure that the events of WLC Week went smoothly. One WLC ambassador, Rylee Matthews, a senior in chemical engineering and LCP Spanish, offered her take on the week.

“We honestly just wanted to spread awareness about WLC because we feel like our department is kind of small on campus,” Matthews said. “A lot of people don’t really know they can add on a foreign language of major or minor, or just participate in classes without having a major and minor and it’s a great way to really, overall grow your amount of awareness about the world in general.”

Each event was put together by a staff member within the given section, giving them the freedom to run their event however they wanted. According to Matthews, the faculty did a great job of making events interesting and engaging for students.

“When I went to the Spanish trivia, you know, they had a ton of fun prizes and they were really joking around with the students,” Matthews said. “It was really nice to see them in that atmosphere because you know, sometimes you only see them as like teaching our classes and being our instructors.”

The WLC hoped that by getting students into the culture/language education atmosphere, they would see that it is an accessible addition to their degrees. After all, knowing a second language can give prospective employees a leg up in competitive job markets.

“And so we really wanted to work on you know, expanding the boundaries of WLC like past just having a Spanish major or a French major,” Matthews said. “Really say like, you know, you can combine it with all these other things, all other departments here at Iowa State, and still have a great time and not be super stressed out and get to learn a lot from it.”

Another WLC ambassador, Tim Dorn, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering and LCP German, shared his experience of WLC week.

“The coolest event for me was the German one,” Dorn said. “There was just kind of a meet and greet, German type thing… and there was some good food but it was just a bunch of German students talking German with each other. The professor who was there was really enthusiastic and encouraging, getting the students to practice their language skills in a social environment.”

As Dorn points out, the value of these experiences with language are very impactful for the learning linguist. An unstructured conversation can help place the information practiced in class into the real world.

“I think so much is lost having a conversation over zoom or over a call even,” Dorn said. “I think there are a bunch of skills that are just better to practice in person. Having these kinds of events, like the social German one, you can really start to pick up on the nuances of using the language and just how a conversation flows, respond to different social stimuli and how to engage with someone meaningfully and respectfully.”