Lucy Dawson, immigration specialist, has created an event to share her passion of learning new languages with others. Languages Live will be offering free language lessons in the library on Tuesday.
Spanish will be offered first, starting at 7 p.m. in the Core Classroom of The Brown Library. Sigma Delta Pi and Dr. Beatrice Walker will be hosting this session.
At 7:30 p.m., Arabic will be offered in the Core Classroom, taught by Abdullah Alqsair, ACU graduate student from Saudi Arabia.
German will also be offered at 7:30 p.m. in the Honor’s classroom in Zellner Hall, taught by Andrea Gette, a German graduate student.
At 8:00 p.m., Mandarin Chinese will be offered in the Core Classroom, taught by Fontaine (Xiben) Li, Haukei Lam and Chelsea (Zhunhan) Zhang.
There will be refreshments at each session, including some homemade black forest torte at the German session.
The event is sponsored by the Center for International Education and co-sponsored by the Department of Languages and Literature.
“This was a session that I came up with and I am very excited for students to participate in it,” Dawson said.
Dawson lived in China for eight years with her husband and family, where she taught ESL and enjoyed studying the Chinese language and culture. She speaks Mandarin and understands German.
“I love learning languages because it is so much fun not only to pronounce the sounds, but also because you learn so much about how people from another culture think,” Dawson said.
“Mandarin Chinese or any language is difficult, requires hard work and focus, and is best leaned through immersion in the culture,” Alex Bailey, graduate of ACU, said.
Dawson said that she feels that it is so incredible to be introduced to ways of thinking and doing things that never crossed your mind before.
“It really expands one’s understanding of God and his creation,” Dawson said.
Bailey said 20 years later, after taking a Mandarin speaking class, he can still count to 10 and say a few words.
Students will have a night of 30-minute sessions in several languages.
“I tried to think of a way to share the joy of language learning with students,” Dawson said.
Students will also have an opportunity to hear about further opportunities to learn and use these languages after each session.
