Area high school students will demonstrate their newly learned skills in languages as diverse as Chinese, Gaelic and KiSwahili as they read poetry and perform skits and songs during a Spring Language Festival on Tuesday, May 19. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6:45 p.m. in the auditorium of Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave.
The high school students have studied the languages for the past academic year as part of a program run under the auspices of the PIER outreach program at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS). During the last year, the High School Cooperative Language Program drew over 160 students from 21 area public school districts and several private schools to the Yale campus to attend weekly after-school classes. Graduate and undergraduate students and staff taught the classes this year in Arabic, Chinese, Irish Gaelic, German, modern Greek, Italian, Japanese, KiSwahili, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
The second half of the Spring Language Festival will feature a performance of Eastern European music by the Yale Slavic Chorus and African music by percussionist David Coleman.
The festival "is great entertainment, fun for the kids, and a great opportunity for their friends and family to experience not only the different languages, but the cultures of the world through the performances of music and skits," says Brian Carter, PIER outreach director for Russian and East European studies and director of the High School Cooperative Language Program.
The High School Cooperative Language Program has provided almost all of the program fees and expenses for the public high school students through a Connecticut State Department of Education interdistrict grant to a newly formed Southern Connecticut Language and Culture Exposure Program (SCLCEP). The SCLCEP is a joint effort of YCIAS and the Branford and New Haven schools, and is directed by Carter and Marilyn Radovich of Branford High School.
For further information on the festival, call Brian Carter at 432-3424.
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