What we do
Founded by Krizia Lopez (CC'13), the Foreign Language Initiative fulfills a niche among Columbia organizations because we are the only organization dedicated explicitly to language learning, instruction, and practice. We believe that it is extremely important for students to force themselves into a non-English conversation, and to practice their languages in real-life scenarios or non-traditional ways. In addition, we feel we are fulfilling a large demand within the student body - people who are unable to take language classes through Columbia because of their heavy workload often still aspire to learn another language, yet in a more casual and less intense manner.
Thus, we believe that CUFLI as a whole, and specifically our Language Lessons (which we are launching this semester) with qualified teachers will greatly benefit the whole Columbia community in many ways, providing not just fun, social experiences/events, but also helping students gain a tremendously useful skill in today’s world – the ability to speak a foreign language in practical settings. As mentioned in section I, our group has held executive board meetings almost every week since March 2011. Last semester we hosted a well-attended information session to introduce our club to the Columbia community. Since November 2011, we have held weekly multi-lingual conversational groups under the name Hungry for Languages. For these events, we provide dictionaries and create lists of themed vocabulary/phrases in Spanish, French, Chinese, Portuguese, and Italian, to both guide the conversation and introduce new words to our members. Our conversation groups are attended by at least one fluent speaker of each language we offer in order to maximize learning for non-advanced students.
We feel that these events are attended regularly because students do gain a huge benefit with regards to their language skills when they are actively engaged in conversation in them. Although some informal conversational groups do exist on campus, we hope to collaborate with them and unite them to host larger events. Crucially, our conversation groups specifically have differed from those occasionally offered by other clubs because we encourage multilingual conversation in more than just one foreign language. This allows people to truly be able to stop thinking in English and then translating into any one language – rather, they are immersed in the experience of foreign languages as a whole, which encourages this type of direct translation that does not lead to fluency in language learning.
We also went on a cultural outing to Washington Heights, where a native Spanish-speaking group member gave a Spanish Language tour of the area, culminating in dinner eating Mofongo, a typical Latin American dish. The entire outing had a “no English rule”, to encourage foreign language use. In November, we held a Dating 101 event, where attendees practiced dating vocabulary in Chinese, Spanish, French, and German. Most recently, our group also held a Movie Night event, where we screened “The Motorcycle Diaries,” a Spanish language film. Lastly, we also held an ‘end of the semester’ dinner in the fall to celebrate CUFLI’s achievements. All of these events have contributed to students’ language learning in innovative ways, that once again, break the plug-and-chug form of language learning – e.g. it stops students from simply thinking in English and then translating directly into a language – rather, our immersion and multilingual ‘language experiences’ have helped students break out of the box. Lastly, our multilingual focus also has encouraged many students to explore a variety of new languages that they would not have considered before! Thus, CUFLI has become an ambassador of the new, international dimension that makes students effective in today’s cosmopolitan world.
Thus, we believe that CUFLI as a whole, and specifically our Language Lessons (which we are launching this semester) with qualified teachers will greatly benefit the whole Columbia community in many ways, providing not just fun, social experiences/events, but also helping students gain a tremendously useful skill in today’s world – the ability to speak a foreign language in practical settings. As mentioned in section I, our group has held executive board meetings almost every week since March 2011. Last semester we hosted a well-attended information session to introduce our club to the Columbia community. Since November 2011, we have held weekly multi-lingual conversational groups under the name Hungry for Languages. For these events, we provide dictionaries and create lists of themed vocabulary/phrases in Spanish, French, Chinese, Portuguese, and Italian, to both guide the conversation and introduce new words to our members. Our conversation groups are attended by at least one fluent speaker of each language we offer in order to maximize learning for non-advanced students.
We feel that these events are attended regularly because students do gain a huge benefit with regards to their language skills when they are actively engaged in conversation in them. Although some informal conversational groups do exist on campus, we hope to collaborate with them and unite them to host larger events. Crucially, our conversation groups specifically have differed from those occasionally offered by other clubs because we encourage multilingual conversation in more than just one foreign language. This allows people to truly be able to stop thinking in English and then translating into any one language – rather, they are immersed in the experience of foreign languages as a whole, which encourages this type of direct translation that does not lead to fluency in language learning.
We also went on a cultural outing to Washington Heights, where a native Spanish-speaking group member gave a Spanish Language tour of the area, culminating in dinner eating Mofongo, a typical Latin American dish. The entire outing had a “no English rule”, to encourage foreign language use. In November, we held a Dating 101 event, where attendees practiced dating vocabulary in Chinese, Spanish, French, and German. Most recently, our group also held a Movie Night event, where we screened “The Motorcycle Diaries,” a Spanish language film. Lastly, we also held an ‘end of the semester’ dinner in the fall to celebrate CUFLI’s achievements. All of these events have contributed to students’ language learning in innovative ways, that once again, break the plug-and-chug form of language learning – e.g. it stops students from simply thinking in English and then translating directly into a language – rather, our immersion and multilingual ‘language experiences’ have helped students break out of the box. Lastly, our multilingual focus also has encouraged many students to explore a variety of new languages that they would not have considered before! Thus, CUFLI has become an ambassador of the new, international dimension that makes students effective in today’s cosmopolitan world.
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