Our Time 1998

I MSA pos s e s s ed a multicultural env i r onment in mo re wa ys then one. Not only did the a c ademy sport an imp r e s s i ve variety of ethnicities, but it con t a i ned a wi de linguistic d i ve r s i ty as well. Wh e re else cou ld one easily spot s t uden ts casua l ly exchang i ng Rus s i an greetings, or j ok i ng in J apane s e? We c a n 't forget the d i s cus s i ons held in Spanish and Ge rman, either. Commun i c a t i ng in other l anguages had b e c ome a lmost s econd na t u re among IMSA students, a i ded by the "total imme r– s i on" t echn i que emp l oyed by teachers. By not a l l owi ng Eng l i sh to spoken in the c l a s s r oom, t he cu r r i cu l um forced students to rely utterly on their abilities as a speaker of their selected foreign l anguage. In the end, t hey r ece i ved a mo re com– plete and comp r ehen s i ve education. IMSA also ex t ended their foreign l anguage educa t i on beyond the call of duty. I ns t ead o f comp l e t e ly focus i ng on speaking, t eache rs t aught their classes about cultural cu s t oms and foreign history. Th ey had no qua lms about empha s i z i ng t hem in class, either. For instance, in J apane s e, students had to r emove their shoes before entering t he c l a s s r oom, as the cu s t om dec r eed. The foreign l anguage depa r tment did not limit itself to the walls of t he ma in building, either. Th is year, Ge rman students we re g i ven t he pr i v i l eged oppo r t un i ty to study ab r oad in an exchange student p r og r am in Erfurt, Ge rmany. After spend i ng three we eks imme r s ed in the culture and l anguage, they r e t urned wi th an enriched education. They we re also mo re than happy to share their n ew expe r i ence wi th their c l as sma t es. In addition, a n ew i ndependent study was l aunched in Spanish, whe re stu– dents beyond the fifth level we re a l l owed to con t i nue their study of the l anguage. They focused on the in-depth d i scus s i on and analysis of Span i sh literature. Eve ry year, the foreign l anguage depa r tment adds new p r og r ams and tech– n i ques to their roster, in hopes of imp r ov i ng the already imp r e s s i ve cu r r i cu l um they have available. Their first priority is b r oaden i ng their s t uden t s' pe r spec t i ves by expos i ng t hem to the beau ty of other cultures. Janet jAkcakfil Jonathan (Besancon Socorro Cintron Laurie Cowan (Brenda Crosby Susan Qriffen Julia Jfusen Willa Shultz John Stark^ 138 ( sAcademic&