World language department branches out to attempt more trips

This year, the world language department has done something new by offering not only its annual trip to Mexico for Spanish students, but also trips to France and China.

Despite initial enthusiasm, the trip to France was cancelled when not enough students signed up, but the trips to Mexico and China are expected to proceed.

The trip to China will occur from April 11 to 21, and sign-ups for the trip are open to all students. Students will be visiting Beijing, Xian and Shanghai and will be staying in hotels. The trip was opened up to students the week of Jan. 23. The cost is $2,800 for 15 students with three accompanying chaperons.

Chinese teacher Sarah Tseng is in charge of the trip, with help from Chinese teacher Mariam Fan and the language department head, Spanish teacher Arnaldo Rodriguex.

“Many people were interested in the trip,” Tseng said. “But we planned it a bit late, so many students have already made plans for spring break and will not be able to come.”

This is the third year the Chinese department has tried to conduct a trip to China, but the first year that the Chinese teachers have designed the itinerary.

“We’ll be staying in hotels and not with families because it’s not that easy to find Chinese families who can communicate with the students,” Tseng said. “Also since this is a new trip, we did not want to risk a home-stay program, though we may do so in the future.”

Tsang said that depending on how this year’s trip goes, there may or may not be an annual trip to China. She does hope, however, that her students will be able to go to a different Chinese-speaking region every year.

Spanish students will leave for the annual trip to Mexico on Feb. 15 and will return on Feb. 25. They will be visiting Cuernavaca this year, a change from last year’s trip to Merida.

This will be the 31st time Rodriguex has led students to Cuernavaca, since last year’s trip to the Yucatan peninsula was a first trial run in the area.

“Merida had a Mayan concentration while Cuernavaca has more of an Aztec concentration,” Rodriguex said. “Students going on this trip twice in a row will be able to experience different things.”

Students will be living with local Mexican families in groups of two or three and will attend the International University of Cuernavaca during the weekdays, with daily activities after classes. Health teacher Amy Obenaur and Spanish teachers Sarah Vorhees, Andrew Narva and Rodriguex will accompany the students.

This year 47 students are going on the trip, about a dozen fewer than in recent years, according to Rodriguex, though many students are going for their second time, including senior Viraj Parmar.

“I’m going again because I loved it last time,” Parmar said. “And since it’s senior year, I want to take advantage of the opportunity to go on the trip one last time and take classes at the university.”

The annual trip to Mexico sparked interest in attempting to begin trips to France and China as well. Rodriguex planned to go on the trip to France before it got cancelled and now plans to accompany Chinese teachers Tseng and Mariam Fan to China.

The trip to France was planned to take place during this year’s spring break, but only four students signed up.

“[French teacher] Kim Bergkamp and I put together this trip based on students’ interest in traveling to France,” French teacher Laura Lizundia said. “So it’s kind of disappointing that after all our work, the interest actually wasn’t expressed in the end by as many students as expected.”

Sophomore Grant Wang had signed up for the trip and was looking forward to being able to hang out with his friends in France and explore another country.

“I was disappointed that the trip was cancelled,” Wang said. “More people should have signed up.”

Lizundia said she would be interested in investigating a home-stay trip to France, or a service-oriented trip to a French speaking area for next year or next summer.

So far only the trip to Mexico has been successful throughout the years, but the language department hopes to make the trips to France and China (or other Chinese-speaking countries) an annual tradition too.

“These trips are important because they supplement our classroom experience with real life exposure to the culture of the places we learn about,” Parmar said. “But I think they’re most important for really forcing students to practice speaking and hopefully feel more comfortable with the language by the end of it.”