World Languages Week celebrated at high school

If you saw the morning announcements at Bellefonte Area High School during February, then you may have learned something new in a variety of languages including Arabic, Italian, Polish and Portuguese. That’s because students in Spanish Honor Society spent most of the month promoting Discover Languages Month.

According to junior Gretchen Little, that month of celebration led right into World Languages Week, also known as National Foreign Language Week, held during the first week of March. This is the fifth year the language department participated in the national celebration, which allowed students in Chinese, French and Spanish classes to learn about a different language other than what’s offered at the school.

“This year they chose Swedish because Profe’s student teacher, Señorita Svensson’s father is from Sweden so she was able to teach us about the Swedish language and culture,” Little said. “At the end of the week, we had a fiesta full of Swedish dishes.”

High school Spanish teacher Emily Zimdahl-McManus even said a student created an image that was put on T-shirts ordered to help celebrate World Languages Week. Dustin Waltz was the designer of the image that incorporated this year’s national theme, “Languages lead us on a path to understanding other cultures.”

Waltz, a senior, has also taken the three languages the high school offers.

“While all the festivities are enjoyable for the students, the Spanish Honor Society loves any opportunity to spread world cultures to the school,” Little said. “It was a great opportunity for the society to learn about these new languages and cultures prevalent in the world. Cultured students help to build a brighter tomorrow, which is what the Spanish Honor Society always strives for.”

*By Brit Milazzo, public relations director, BASD