Contact: David Schulz, (903) 813-2385, [email protected]
College Students Leave English at the Dorm Door
Leaving possessions behind when moving into a campus residence is expected. For students at the Jordan Family Language House, checking English at the door is de rigueur. For up to forty-eight young men and women, students of German, French, Spanish, or Japanese, living in the Language House represents "the next best thing to being there," and the halls ring with the mulitilingualism of a European boulevarde. Bonjour, guten morgen, buenas dias, and ohayoo gozaimasu are the greetings typically heard as students go off to class.
Ask senior Patricia Ulmer, freshly returned from study in Austria when she became one of the first students to move into the facility when it opened last fall. "I forget to stop speaking German when I get back on campus," she said. But the Language House is more than a place where students sleep and chat: it is a living/learning facility carefully designed to maximize complete immersion experiences in both foreign language and culture.
It may be unique in academia. Said Associate Professor Jim Knowlton, chair of the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, "Many schools have 'language dorms,' just as we had in the past -- Coffin Hall being the most recent example. But those are ordinary residences designated for concentrating language students. The Jordan House is something wholly different, with classrooms, living spaces, and media access designed with this purpose in mind."
This House was created with language and culture immersion as its raison d'etre. Form followed function in every step, starting with the floorplan of four "pods," one for each subject language, consisting of bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living area. These form neighborhoods, residents designating their homes as being in "the German House" or "the Spanish House," and the halls and doors are adorned with the appropriate travel posters and pictures. To use the VCR in the French living room, for instance, be prepared to recognize lecture for play, avance acceleree for fast forward, and rembobinnage for rewind. And don't be surprised to find the French version of Scrabble and the Parisian version of Monopoly on the book shelf.
Of course, some activities call for the united nations to assemble. One such is an international meal, held each term, with every area providing specialties. For sophomore Ryan Lynch of the Japanese House, it was a highlight of the semester: "We made okono-miyaki -- those are Japanese pancakes -- a potato soup, and chicken fried with Japanese spices. The German House made sausage, sauerkraut and potatoes; and the French produced a salade nicoise and a variety of quiche. From the Spanish house, empanadas, and to drink, agua de jamaica, made from the flowers of a plant, brought up from Guanajuato. For desert, the German House made Sachertorten -- a lot of them. It was an amazing meal!"
All students share the House's large internal courtyard, an architectural feature adding to the international feel of the residence. At times resembling an Asian garden or Bavarian backyard as easily as the Spanish patio from which it derives, the courtyard is a popular study and play area. "The Eye of the Beholder," a sculpture by artist B.J. Stevenson, serves as the aesthetic focal point for the courtyard. Its donation was facilitated through the generosity of Trustee Michael Allen '73 and Bill Richardson '64.
Another shared facility is the Culpeper Language Laboratory, wired and networked with its own server supporting the study and research needs of the students, for whom living in the house is a quarter-credit class with formal course requirements. A given morning finds students clustered around the terminals, editing this semester's German-language webzine, Zeitung fur Warmduscher. Or French students following a virtual tour de Paris, beginning at the Louvre and ending at the Eiffel Tower, jounalising imaginary meals of potage and fromage.
The "learning/living" concept benefits language students beyond those residing in the House. Kitchens become cultural classrooms as students of introductory Spanish gather to make a meal. The food may be less Madrid than Maple Avenue, but the conversation is strictly en espanol.
It is the point towards which language studies have been leading, according to David Jordan, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. "Through the years, the emphasis has shifted from rote translation to speaking," he said, "and the path to excellence is through conversation."
Excellence in language means more than the ability to pass tests and write essays. "It gets students over the anxiety of how to live in a foreign country," said Bernice Melvin, the Margaret Root Brown professor of foreign languages and literature. "They get the experience of having to say things like, 'Where's my toothbrush?' or 'Where do I buy shampoo?' It gives them enough experience in using the language to cope with day-to-day activities in a foreign culture."
It also helps language study for students who don't reside in the house: "It raises the classroom standards because more students participate and at a higher level. They try a little harder," concludes the professor of French.
The Austin College curriculum always promoted the importance of foreign languages. It was the first in Texas to offer credit for their study, under the administration of founder President Daniel Baker in 1858. Moreover, language teachers have been at the forefront of change in the College's history: a French teacher, Gladys Lewin, became the first full-time female instructor with faculty rank in 1929.
The Department of Classical and Modern Languages also offers study in Greek and Latin, with nine full-time and four adjunct faculty. Add to these four "native speaker language residents" who live with the students at the Language House, keeping the tutelage going in evenings and on weekends.
These native speakers, advanced students from foreign universities, bring an au courant quality to the language arts instruction, as well as providing a living reference. From music and movies to clothes and cuisine, native speakers like Daniel Stein, Dolores Saucedo, Mitchihiro Maeda, and Souhad Ghames offer the American students insights into cultures they can't get from textbooks and web sites.
Nor is it a one way street. Daniel Stein will soon return to the University of Mainz to complete his master's degree in American Studies with a much deeper understanding of his subject matter. "I had never before been in the southwest. It's very interesting, spending this year in Texas." The native of Germany was impressed by two aspects of the region: its size and its friendliness.
"With everything so large and yet having so much land, I think that affects everything else. It makes for larger personalities, too. And how friendly people are! People in my native land would certainly invite you to their home for dinner, but they would never say, 'Come, stay with us for a week - or as long as you like!' People have even offered for me to stay at their homes while they're gone away. Imagine!" he concluded with a wistful smile.
The native speakers bring a reality check to students' romanticized view of foreign lands. "People don't realize how Americanized life has become overseas," said Stein. "The huge distances aren't so huge anymore. I brought to the Language House a copy of 'The Simpsons' dubbed into German for German television. The thing is, many Germans don't necessarily know they are watching a dubbed American show. The stories have become just as applicable to the German household as the American family."
According to Patricia Ulmer, the native speaker's perspective adds tremendous instructional value to the program. "A dictionary may list four or five meanings for a word, leading you off in many wrong directions, but Daniel can point out the one that fits context. This is true with grammar as well as with vocabulary. He helps us to be idiomatically correct."
Being richtig will be important for Patti, who begins a yearlong study in Germany this fall, supported by the Fulbright Foundation. Living in Pottsdam, outside Berlin, she will study the relationship between the artist and the state, using films of Nazi Germany, remakes of great German literary works. "Working with the personal papers of film directors, I want to learn who made changes to the stories and the scripts, and at what points, to conform to the propaganda ministry," she said.
Residing at the Language House seems to facilitate just such academic ambition and reach for its students. "You step out of your bedroom directly into a classroom," says Tiffany Sauer, a senior in the Japanese House. "Get out of bed, and you're basically halfway to Japan."
Or France, or Spain, or Germany, which, for a building rooted in Sherman, Texas, is quite a trick. Nicht wahr?
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Austin College, Sherman, TX, 60 miles north of Dallas, is a 150-year-old liberal arts college with a student body of 1,200. The college, related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church, is celebrating its Sesquicentennial this fall.
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