World Languages Newsletter- Part One
May 2024
Note: This month’s newsletter features two parts, we couldn’t fit all the great updates from students, faculty, and staff into one email!
Celebrating Summer Around the Globe
“Spaghetti-Eis” (Spaghetti Ice Cream) in Germany
Summer in Germany means eating Spaghetti-Eis!
“Spaghettieis (which is also written as Spaghetti-Eis) is a sweet, kitschy joy, prepared from vanilla ice cream or gelato pushed through a spätzle press (a tool similar to a potato ricer that is used to make German egg noodles) over a pile of whipped cream. The "noodles" are topped with strawberry sauce and grated white chocolate. This airy trick sundae is the brainchild of Dario Fontanella, the second-generation owner of Eis Fontanella Eismanufaktur Mannheim in the city of Mannheim in south-west Germany, whose goal in 1969 was to create an ice cream version of a classic Italian pasta dish.” Susannah Edelbaum, BBC, Aug 2023. — Beret Norman
“Amores de verão enterram-se na areia.”
A common Portuguese proverbial expression that means “summer fling”. Literally translated it means that summer love is buried in the sand. With so much of Portugal’s coastline being beaches and all the youngsters flocking to the warm waters, grandmothers and mothers would warn them about not falling in love too easily, because it would not last. They claimed relationships that started at the beach, would die at the beach. — Fátima Cornwall
Nere Lete Awarded President’s Community Service Award
Nere Lete, Professor of Basque was awarded the President's Community Service Award for her tireless work over a quarter century promoting Basque language and culture at Boise State University, in the local and regional Basque community, and internationally in partnership with numerous entities in the Basque Country. Professor Lete has contributed her unique skills and knowledge to Basque and Basque-American cultural and academic entities. She has taught Basque language at the Basque Museum and Cultural Center for many years. She is also involved at the North American Basque Organizations where she has helped strengthen the Basque language program and has organized workshops to train teachers. Professor Lete is also the founder of Boiseko Ikastola, the only Basque immersion Pre-K school outside of the Basque Country. Her role with the Etxepare Basque Institute, a public agency created by the Basque Government, has been pivotal in the development of the Basque studies program at Boise State. She has fostered transnational relations with universities in the Basque Country, where she has served as an invited lecturer in graduate classes. Professor Lete has developed a collaborative agreement with the Global Training International Mobility Program. Nere Lete’s commitment towards her language, culture, and community is an example of unconditional love and respect towards her roots and her motherland, Euskal Herria.
Congratulations to Our Spring 2024 Graduates & Alpa Mu Gamma Initiates!
Complete an Internship with the WLRC!
Are you interested in applying your language skills and furthering your skills with technology? Would you like to make an impact for language students around the world? Consider a 1, 2, or 3 credit internship with the World Languages Resource Center! In the internship, you’ll have the opportunity to work on creating openly licensed (OER) materials that are used at Boise State and elsewhere! Earn lower or upper division elective credit. Please contact Amber Hoye (Amberhoye@boisestate.edu) for more information!
Emily Muro Awarded Fulbright-Austria Scholarship
German Sec Ed major, Emily Muro (May ‘24) has won a Fulbright-Austria scholarship for 2024-25. In addition to studying abroad in Lübeck, Germany, Emily’s undergraduate time at Boise State included several years in the Blue Thunder Marching Band, officer of German Club, recipient of the Phil Toomey World Languages Scholarship, and work as a German conversation lab tutor. Emily will teach English at two secondary high schools south of Vienna, Austria. Excellent work, Emily! We are so proud of you and your accomplishments! — Beret Norman
Here is what Emily says:
“I grew up in Meridian, Idaho, and graduated from Meridian High School. Learning about the German language and culture has brought me great joy over the last 8 years. I am very pleased and excited to take the opportunity to teach English in Austria from September 2024 to May 2025 in Neunkirchen and Semmering. I hope to find valuable cultural information that I can take back to my future students.“
Reagan Solomon Awarded Fulbright ETA Scholarship
Graduating senior from Oregon, Reagan Solomon (German Major, Creative Writing Minor, Honors College), has been awarded a Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Associate) scholarship in Germany for 2024-25. Reagan’s Boise State activities include two years as German Club President, several years working for the Pathways OER project, membership in Alpha Mu Gamma honor society, and working as a German conversation lab assistant. We are so proud of you: Congratulations on this distinguished award! — Beret Norman
Luke Stewart Awarded $10k Scholarship
Luke Stewart, a student in the Chinese 102 class, was awarded a scholarship of $10,000 by the American Councils for International Education. The scholarship will allow him to study at an intensive Chinese Program at the TamKang University in Taiwan during the fall semester, 2024.
Basque Scholarships
Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Warren Pepperdine and the memorial scholarship he established in honor of his grandmother Pia Unamuno Anchustegui, students taking Basque language and culture classes and studying abroad in the Basque Country have received the following scholarship funds:
Two awards for Summer 2024: $7,000. Academic and study abroad awards for fall and spring 2024/2025: $26,269 totaling $33,269.
Additionally, students were awarded $ 2,600 through the Frank and Winifred Ascuaga Memorial Scholarship. For more information about “Basque scholarships” contact: Ziortza Gandarias Beldarrain.
French 498 Students Interview Évelyne Trouillot
On Monday, April 29, Jason Herbeck’s FRENCH 485 (The Francophone World Today: Haiti) class spent nearly two hours talking via Zoom with award-winning Haitian writer Évelyne Trouillot. Speaking from Port-au-Prince where she lives and works, Trouillot spoke with Herbeck’s class about literary works of hers that they had read, her writing process and the different languages in which she writes (French and Haitian Creole), the causes and impact of social stratification in Haitian society, relationships between Haitians living in Haiti and those in the Haitian diasporas, the status of women and women’s rights, and the importance of knowing and interpreting history as a means to addressing and living in the present. As their fourth and final conversation via Zoom this semester with Haitians and Haitian-Americans, the students in the course approached the conversation with Trouillot as a formal interview, preparing detailed and logically sequenced questions based on the literary texts, critical essays and interviews they had read over the course of the class.
ASL 202 Field Trip
Our ASL 202 classes had a fantastic field trip to the Deaf School in Gooding, Idaho. Our students had great hands-on experiences interacting with elementary students in their classrooms and the lunchroom. The elementary students had prepared interview questions and asked about college life and what our students were majoring in.
The principal gave us a tour of the sprawling campus. During the tour, we met audiologists, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, and many other support staff. The tour concluded with two high school students showing us the gym and newly renovated workout room.
The 7th Korean Speech Contest
Yookyung Lee, a Korean instructor at the Department of World Languages, founded and organized the annual Korean Speech contest. She selected student participants from elementary Korean 102 and intermediate Korean 202 who then competed at the Seventh Korean Speech Contest at the Bergquist Lounge in the Student Union Building on April 26, 2024.
SPAN 300: Spanish for Bilinguals Students Create a Collection of Poems
Student Poetry Project «Mi poema bilingüe»
From Claudia Guerra-Labarca’s SPAN 300: Spanish for Bilinguals
Spanish 300, this semester, took my students on a special journey towards developing their own sense of identity, a renewed personal and collective awareness, and what it really means to be a bilingual and bicultural member of society. Through poetry, their voices came together to express the beauty -and sometimes the pain- that encompasses the reality of who they are, and the reality of their “American experience.”
These are their words.
These are their stories.