USI - World Languages and Cultures

05/14/2026

05/14/2026

Congratulations and a hope for continued success in their future endeavors! Go USI Anthropology!

04/28/2026

So proud of our new student inductees Gwennith Kim, Ashley Langenfeld, Chloe Newman, Anthony Perkins, Morgan Ray, Ava Steller, and Miyu Sugiyama.

Also, congratulations to our faculty initiate, Jing Yang, our Chinese instructor and honorary initiate Dr. Bauer who was also the speaker for the induction banquet.

04/28/2026

Look at our USI Anthropology students show off their skills!

03/25/2026

Did you know our very own Dr. Apodaca-Valdez is a published and accomplished poet? His most recent collection of poems, entitled the Permanence of Time, have been published and can be found here: https://valparaisoediciones.es/tienda/poesia/1047-540-permanencia-del-tiempo.html. With his permission I have posted one one his poems from the book, El Beso Del Agua, the Kiss of Water.

Today in Kleymeyer Hall the WLC department will be hosting from 3pm-5pm our annual multilingual poetry reading. This event is open to the public. Our students have selected poems that fit the theme of Senses of Time and will be reading selections from Chinese, French, German, and Spanish poets with English translations. Selected poems read by the students will be presented as follows:

CHINESE:
• Gwennith Kim – Shui Diao Ge Tou , by Su Shi
• Luke Pettijohn – Deng You Zhou Tai Ge, by Chen Zi’ang
• Leah Ho – Eternal Sleep , by Jing Yang
• Evelyn Theroff – Cong Cong , by Zhu Zi qing

FRENCH:
• Charles d’Orléans, “Time Sheds its Cloak / Le temps a laissé son manteau,” read by students of USI French. Poem translated by Allison Hale, Charles Haller, and Sydney Klinglesmith
• Heather Dohollau, “Manawydan’s Glass Door,” read by Allison Hale. Poem written in French and translated into English by the poet, Heather Dohollau
• Guillaume Apollinaire, “The Mirabeau Bridge / Le pont Mirabeau”. Poem translated by Suha Alhieh and Garrett Smith.
Verse 1 read by Garrett Smith
Verse 2 read by Addy Isaacs
Verse 3 read by Sabrina Dunning
Verse 4 read by Charles Haller

GERMAN:
• Der Frühling ist die schönste Zeit (Spring is the most beautiful time) by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff read by Olivia Walker
• Mein Kind, wir waren Kinder (My child, we were two children) by Heinrich Heine read by Abbey Ashby, Samantha Taghoy and Sean Vogt
• Stufen (Steps) by Hermann Hesse read by Kylea DeVoy and David Irving

Dr. Manuel Apodaca will be giving a poetry reading from his most recent book with translation in English provided by Dr. Alexandra Natoli.

03/24/2026

We are proud to announce one of our faculty, Dr. Alexandra Natoli, is one of the winners of the 4th annual 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀.
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The awards were created in 2023 by OVC Provosts to recognize outstanding faculty at each OVC member institution.

A special thanks to the student athletes who nominated Dr. Natoli, and to Dr. Natoli herself for her outstanding continual support for USI student athletes.

03/10/2026

Last week our Chinese instructor Jing Yang, celebrated the end of the Lunar New Year by hosting a happy lantern festival for students. Jing demonstrated an authentic Chinese lion costume and dance with the students as well as various Chinese crafts like new year calligraphy in addition to teaching the famous Chinese game mahjong. A special thanks to USI Photography for documenting the event for us.

03/09/2026

Last week our department hosted our annual Academic Language Bowl here at USI where over 17 high schools and 234 high school students participated in both quiz and live performance sections covering the influence of French, German, Japanese, and Spanish in various cities and regions within the United States. We had a great time and hope the visiting students and faculty did as well and look forward to hosting this special event next year. A special thanks to our faculty, student workers, and office staff who helped make this event a success. Also, a special thanks to USI Foundation as it is their financial support through donors that make events like this possible.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place participants are in link:

https://www.usi.edu/news/releases/2026/03/usi-language-bowl-sees-record-turnout-for-the-third-year-in-a-row?fbclid=IwY2xjawQb1K1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF1NEV0Nll1WGN6WTRHelZnc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHgrkxgRN1BlXscBOn9BDu1hCDZjv7HULuBA9yRSbr1ue8trBzmMC4bQO7tQZ_aem_7ffGprtt8ByCOmS6Xwm8XQ

12/05/2025

This past Wednesday we hosted our annual Holiday Sing Along in the (very crowded) lobby of the Liberal Arts building due to the cold weather. Our WLC students sang in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

Chinese: 铃儿响叮当
French: Les 12 jours de Noël, Un bonhomme de neige est né
German: O Tannenbaum, Eine Muh, eine Mäh
Japanese: もろびとこぞりて
Spanish: Campana sobre Campana, Ríu Ríu Chíu
All: Silent Night

A special thanks to our students and faculty for spreading some holiday cheer!

11/15/2025

Our Japanese and Chinesr tutors have already began making calligraphy and other ornaments for the Chrsitmas Around the World event this upcoming Thursday.