LINGUA FRANCA A BI-ANNUAL NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT SaLEM STATE UNIVERSITY salemstate.edu/languages Volume 11 • Issue 1 • Spring 2014 STUDY ABROAD AND SSU AS PREPARATION FOR THE FULBRIGHT EXPERIENCE INSIDE THIS ISSUE Anna Andrews, alumna 2012 Study Abroad/ Fulbright Experience page 1 When I was a second year student Departmental News page 3 at SSU I joined The Italian Club page 3 the Sociology Department on their Faculty Highlights page 4 trip to Ireland. I had Don’t Lose Your Skills never been away This Summer page 4 from my family alone because I grew NEMLA 2014 page 5 up with a chronic, Seal of Biliteracy page 5 incurable illness that I still have today. But El agotamiento/Exhaustion page 6 Prof. Arthur Gould Scholarships page 6 told my mom that I’d be fine and to let me Costa Rica page 6 see the world. That Translation page 8 trip changed my life, I came home and knew HOPE Award page 8 I had to study abroad. El valor de la comunicación page 9 The question was: where? Microagressions page 9 I read a book called The 3% Problem page 10 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Awards and Graduates page 10 by the Czech author Service Awards page 11 Milan Kundera, and the book talked to me before class or after when I went on field Study Abroad page 12 about what it was like to live in Prague trips with my study abroad friends. during the Russian occupation. I read Our travels included London where EDITORS: about the strength of the Czech people I got to see the Olympic stadiums and Michele Dávila and I knew that they would accept who walk alongside the changing of the guard. Kenneth Reeds I was. So I found a program and hit the Then, on the weekends I went with the road in the summer of 2011 to go learn group to Berlin, Germany; Vienna, Austria; WEB PUBLICATION: the Czech language at one of the oldest and Krakow, Poland. I desperately wanted ssclinguafranca.wordpress.com universities in Europe, Charles University. to see Auschwitz as a Holocaust historian, I lived in Prague and it changed my entire and the trip was worth the cost and the JOIN SALEM STATE’S life. I found out just how capable I was wait. I was really sick the day we traveled LANGUAGE CLUBS’ MAILING of getting around when lost even when there and I was outside in 90 degree LISTS & FACEBOOK GROUPS I didn’t know the language yet, I was weather, not having been able to eat for Visit This Page: able to communicate across the lines of days, and I was walking around barely http://tinyurl.com/ssulanguageclubs verbal and written communication with able to stand up and appreciating how Czech citizens and form bonds. Every day hard it is for a free person to take in what FOREIGN LANGUAGES brought a new challenge and I went to Auschwitz really is, never mind a prisoner. TEL: 978.542.6258 bed smiling and dreaming of what new I left feeling more incensed then ever and [email protected] place I would discover in the morning more driven to dedicate myself to the continued on page 2 1 intensive weeks in Bulgarian language, customs, ¿QUÉ PASA? QUOI DE NEUF? NOVITÀ? DEPARTMENT NEWS ABOUNDS history, teaching, and TOEFL preparation. After I completed that and really got to know my fellow DEPARTMENT CHAIR ELECTION: General Education: We have proposed numerous language and culture courses for the Fulbrighters I again hit the road, packing a small Congratulations to Dr. Michele C. Dávila, new World Cultures (WC) requirement, literature courses for the Creative Expression LL Bean backpack and flying to Istanbul where I who was elected as the next chair of and Appreciation (CEA) gen education category, and level 2 and level 3 writing courses stayed up all night waiting to head to Croatia. It was the department! A big thank you to Dr. in French, Italian and Spanish. In addition, the department will offer two First-Year amazing to see the sun rise over Istanbul and set Elizabeth Blood for her hard work and Seminars next fall. over Zagreb in the same day! I backpacked from leadership as chair over the past six Croatia down into Bosnia and Herzegovina, down years. Dr. Blood is looking forward to Chinese Studies: This year, we submitted proposals for a new culture course on China, to Montenegro, over to Albania, up into Kosovo, reengaging in her teaching of French and as well as an interdisciplinary minor in Chinese Studies combining Mandarin Chinese down into Macedonia, and back into Bulgaria in a in her research on Québec and Franco- language (12 credits) with interdisciplinary electives (6 credits) chosen from courses on little under two weeks. Those two weeks taught me America. Dr. Dávila will officially take the Chinese culture, history, politics, philosophy or art. If approved, this new minor will be more about myself than years of self-reflection ever reins on July 1st 2014. available beginning fall 2015. could. I climbed mountains in the national park in Croatia, I walked the “Tunnel of Hope” in Bosnia with Certificate in Translation: We have been developing a certificate program inT ranslation new friends that I made along the way. I climbed an that we are very excited to submit to the University for review this spring. This program extreme and ancient (and dangerous) fort with an combines grammar, writing and translation courses in English and in a target language 80-year-old Australian and a 60-year-old Spaniard (French, Italian or Spanish) with an elective course chosen from one of the professional cheering each other on to the top in Montenegro. I translator’s key fields of expertise (Criminal Justice, Communications, Political Science, got lost in Albania and found myself in a beautiful Business, Social Work, IDS/Pre-Law, Biology/Pre-Med or Literature). The certificate market watching performers dance while skyping program will give students the skills and knowledge they will need to become freelance with my friend’s niece so she could see her father’s translators or to pursue credentials to become a professional translator. All courses in home country, I embraced the “New World” that the program will be able to be double-dipped with a student’s major or minor or general Kosovo is building, and I made friends with a high education curriculum. If approved, this program will also be available beginning in fall school student in Macedonia on their Independence 2015. Stay tuned! day, while exploring the spice market and learning about the shared culture between Macedonia and Bulgaria. My life is a constant adventure over here. Some days I can’t remember how to ask for “bananas” THE ITALIAN CLUB GOES To… TUSCANY! at the local market, while others I have full On March 26 the Italian Club hosted a cultural event entitled “Under the Tuscan Sun!” conversations with my neighbors. I teach 450 high Among other Tuscan delicacies, the newly elected President Caitlin O’Toole and the school students while running after-school programs Treasurer Marta Marucci introduced members to “La Panzanella,” and “I Cantuccini.” and a research project. These students really need THANK YOU AMANDA MINERVINI While the oblong-shaped almond biscuits are very popular in the US, la panzanella is a help to learn English because they desperately Our department has been fortunate to Tuscan salad made of chunks of soaked bread, tomatoes, onions, basil, cucumbers and want to escape their economy. It’s a truly rewarding count Dr. Amanda Minervini as part of olives, dressed with olive oil and vinegar. Buon appetito! experience as they welcome me into their lives and our faculty for the last two years. Dr. share intimate details as if I was family. And when Minervini’s hard work and endearing human rights movement. I got a virus at the beginning of October students character made her a popular professor After I traveled with my mother and sister who came over would ask doctors they knew what I should eat (as I was in both Italian and German. As of this to “move me home” and we did the “Sound of Music” tour in allergic to the medications that eased the symptoms) and then summer she will be teaching at Colorado Salzburg (my name is Julianna Andrews, people always joke I they would prepare me the food and bring it to me. College in Colorado Springs, CO. Their was named for Julie Andrews!), took in the “Museum of Terror” Living over here has opened my eyes to just how competent fortunate gain is most certainly our loss. in Budapest to really see the horrors of the Russian occupation, I am. It wasn’t just a “fluke” during study abroad. I truly can be Best of luck, Amanda! and enjoyed a train ride through Slovakia back into Prague successful by just being open-minded. Everything is different where I was sad to leave my new home. But I wasn’t content over here and instead of calling it “weird” I think “How NEW ARABIC FACUltY: A warm welcome just to stay in America anymore and fighting for human rights cool! Let’s try.” You can’t be ethnocentric while abroad, and I to Prof. Karim Mouhib, who is our newest abroad had become a calling. have my undergraduate trips and study abroad to thank for Arabic instructor. A native of Casablanca, I joined Prof. Avi Chomsky’s trip to Cuba and learned to making me so open-minded and able to adapt quickly in every Morocco, Prof.