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High School Students Experience Language and Culture at SIU

Students dance during breakout session titled, "Working Out to World Rhythms"
Students dance during breakout session titled, "Working Out to World Rhythms"

Music from around the world filled the ballrooms at the SIU student center. That was just one of the sessions students could experience during the 49th World Language and Culture Day hosted by the SIU School of Language and Linguistics and College of Liberal Arts.

In addition to dancing to traditional music, nearly 1000 students from 15 schools spent their morning experiencing a variety of sessions. They learned about ancient writing with pictures thousands of years before emojis. They also explored the language of hip-hop, learning American Sign Language, and even games from different cultures.

One of the popular sessions allowed students to learn how their names are written in Chinese.

Juan Sebastian from Cobden is one of those students who was able to learn how his name sounds, "In Chinese it sounds kind of the same because in Spanish it's Juan. Chines sounds like JU AN."

Yuening Zhao is a doctoral student and teaches Chinese at SIU. She says this is a great opportunity for students to be exposed to languages and cultures they may not encounter at home, "They're quite excited and a lot of them, especially those who did not have any exposure to Chinese. They're actually very excited to see their name spelled out in this new language."

Organizer’s say the program is designed to take the students’ excitement and show them how the world will become more intercultural over time.

Brian Sapp joined the WSIU News team in January 2025. He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University.
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