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Dear WLL Community:
We are excited to offer this latest edition of the Department of World Languages and Literatures Newsletter. Since the last issue we have many more stories to tell about students, faculty and alumni who accomplishing wonderful things.
As we enter the holiday season, we tend to get back in touch with our family traditions, with faraway friends and relatives, and often spend time traveling. All of which reminds us of how interconnected the world is and how necessary understanding between individuals and nations is more important than ever. Here at WLL we are proud of the work we do in supporting that understanding. We hope you'll enjoy what follows, and as always we invite you to keep in touch.
Damian Bacich, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of World Languages & Literatures,
San José State University
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Congratulations to the Fall 2013
CÃrculo Hispánico Graduates!
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Spanish BA recipients: Victoria Josephine Barragán (President), Laura Evita Mendoza Prado, MarÃa Chávez Santana, Hazel Carolina Argüello, Ariana Arellano GarcÃa, and Brenda M. RenterÃa Morán.
Spanish MA recipients: Martha Zamora, Mickey Bejarano, Verónica Eugenia Zavala
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Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris Certificate in Business French
Students of Dr. Dominique van Hooff's French 132 Business French class last spring semester prepared to take the 5-hour long exam for the prestigious International Business French Certificate offered by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris. Students must know the vocabulary of business in French, know about the institutions of the European Union and be able to function in a business setting in a French speaking country. The following students successfully passed the exam and received the International Business French Certificate from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris:
- Elliot Alagueuzian
- Amy Ahsworth
- Michelle Huynh
- Lauara Maybury
- Brian McMahon
- Zita Mezei
- Whitney Smith
Advanced Group: Graduate level Diploma in Business French:
- Anna Demarchi - Highest Honor (mention Trés Bien)
- Chantal Eshghipour - High Honor (mention Bien)
- Bouchra Rifai - Highest Honor (mention Trés Bien)
- Maria Stone - Highest Honor (mention Trés Bien)
Congratulations to this hard working and dedicated group of students for their advancement to the prestigious international certification!
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Study Abroad Student
Michelle Yuhara
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Michelle Yuhara is a graduating senior majoring in mathematics and minoring in Asian American studies. This summer she studied abroad with Dr. Yasue Yanai (Japanese) in Kyoto, Japan. Although Michelle studied Japanese for 2 years in high school, she says that you did not have to know any Japanese to enjoy this trip and said that she would recommend the trip to anyone from any major. Michelle said that the experience was great and that "it was also so different because instead of just taking a class, I made connections and friends." As for the future, Michelle plans to study more Japanese, but because she is graduating in December, she is not sure how or when. Being 4th generation Japanese or yonsei, when asked if she would go back to Japan, Michelle says, "Definitely. I want to be able to pass my culture on to my own family and kids" and that is what will motivate her to go back some day.
We would like to thank Michelle for being a part of our newsletter and her enthusiasm for this study abroad program.
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Doctoral Students
The Department of World Languages and Literatures is proud of the graduates of our department who are now pursuing their Ph.Ds:
Jonathan Alcantar (Spanish)- University of California at Davis
Maria Comsa (French)- Stanford University
Esther DÃaz-MartÃn (Spanish) -University of Texas at Austin
Joel López-Rivera (Spanish) - University of Michigan
Carmen Valdivia (Spanish) - University of California at Davis
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El Retablo de las Maravillas
(The Wonderous Puppet Show)
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From left to right: Julio Valenzuela, Mickey Bejarano, Miguel Lopez, Dulce Lopez, José Iván Melgoza Zamora, Martha Zamora, Maria Guadalupe Zamora and Miriam Olmos.
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In Dr. Carmen Sigler's SPAN 250 Graduate Seminar this semester, students studied the Spanish Golden Age with focus on one of the major literary genres, the comedia. The group of students pictured above created a film depicting one of the famous works that they studied. Spanish MA student, José Iván Zamora Melgoza had this to say about their work, "Theater is one of the genres that reached its peak during the Spanish Golden Age (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries). One form that theater took was known as the “entremésâ€, a one-act play that often presented topics that were taboo for Spanish society at the time. One of the most famous entremeses is El retablo de las maravillas (The Wondrous Puppet Show) by the famous writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. This semester, as part of the course SPAN 250, Professor Carmen Sigler gave us the opportunity to put on a play or interlude of that time period. A group of students took advantage of this opportunity and decided to make a film based on El retablo de las maravillas for the other students in the class and the general public. The purpose of this project was to give an idea of what Spanish Golden Age theater was to those who do not know. It wound up being an intense and interesting process, because we had to study the psychology of the characters, memorize the dialogues and work around the schedules of everyone in the group!"
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CLTA Summer Student Workshop
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From Prof. Helene Chan (Foreign Language Education): "Thanks to Anne Fountain, Keach Inaba, Jean-Luc Desalvo and Carmen Sigler for their recommendations and the Carmen Sigler Foundation for its sponsorship, we were able to send four students to the California Language Teacher's Association Summer Student Workshop in Santa Barbara, CA. The CLTA workshop was aimed at promoting innovative practices in World Language education and centered on the theme of Common Core and World Language Standards in the Context of 21st Century Skills. Our students participated in developing instructional strategies and lessons to implement w/ students in their classrooms as well as accomplishing other goals outlined by the CLTA and the California World Language Program. After the Workshop, Dulce Ramos, a Spanish major wrote, 'I met many wonderful students and teachers who share the same passion for teaching that I feel. I feel so fortunate to have people in my life...who truly care about their students and encourage us to go beyond our limits'."
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Alumni Spotlight
Luz Ramirez
"Follow what you love to do and link it to your preparation in languages. This combination will guarantee you'll be successful and happy at what you do, and this makes all the difference in the world."
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Luz Ramirez is a graduate of San Josè State University with a Bachelors of Arts degrees in Speech Communication and Spanish and a minor in Latin American Studies. She earned a master's degree in Spanish from SJSU in 2008 and her teaching credential in 2011. Besides earning her her current position as a high school Spanish teacher at James Lick High School here in San José, her mastering a second language has allowed her to "discover different worlds through travel [by] identifying the similarities in [the] romance languages Portuguese, Italian, etc." While at SJSU, Luz participated in study abroad programs in Cuba, Mexico and Brazil and continues to share this passion for travel through taking student groups to Spain and France, and in June 2014 to Spain and Italy. For Luz, the greatest benefit to studying and knowing a second or third language has been "opening up to new cultures, identifying similarites and differences with others, becoming a global citizen and promoting cultural awareness."
Thank you Luz for setting such a great example of how a student can succeed by studying a world language.
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Faculty Activities & Achievements
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After years of research including the consultation of colleagues in the field and finding accurate translations, Prof. Francisco de la Calle (Spanish) has written a book geared toward learning the Spanish for engineers. Francisco has published this book among others, including Spanish for Healthcare with his wife Michelle, through his own publishing company Bruquetas Publishing. http://www.bruquetaspublishing.com/
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Spanish for Engineers is intended for English-speaking professionals with no previous knowledge of Spanish. Its methodology takes advantage of both the simplicity of Spanish and its similarities with English to teach you the language as quickly as possible. The book is organized in three sections: sounds, words and sentences, that correspond to milestones. First it will teach you how to read and write in Spanish; then it will help you learn words efficiently; finally, it will show you how to build sentences and communicate.
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Dr. Anne Fountain (Spanish) hosted a dinner this past June for acclaimed Afro-Cuban poet Nancy Morejón while Morejón was visiting the Bay area. The dinner included members of the World Languages and Literatures Department and Christine Campbell, Vice-Provost of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey.
Pictured: Nancy Morejón with Anne Fountain at Fountain's home in San José.
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Dr. Fountain and her husband, Dr. Michael Conniff of the SJSU History Department, have been invited to teach at the University of Florida at Gainesville for the spring 2014 semester where she will teach one graduate class and an upper division course about Latin American culture and civilization. In addition to this, Professor Fountain presented at two translation conferences this fall: the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and the American Translators Association (ATA).
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Over the summer, Dr. Juan Sempere (Spanish) wrote an article titled "Geographical and Sociolinguistic Variables in the seseo of Murcia", to be published in the book Spanish Sociolinguistics (London: Palgrave Macmillan).
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Dr. Dominique van Hooff, winner of the Helen L. Stevens Outstanding International Educator Award
On October 21st, Dr. Dominique van Hooff (French) was honored by her dear friend, Helen Stevens in a ceremony attended by family, friends, students and colleagues. The Helen L. Stevens Outstanding International Educator Award exists as an incentive to those individuals who exhibit creative ideas for expanding the international scope of our University, as well as to recognize individuals who continue to make significant contributions to its current and expanding vision and mission. Many congratulations to Prof. van Hooff!
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In addition to her award earlier this semester, Dr. van Hooff is also working with Wiley & Sons on the 9th edition of her textbook En Bonne Forme, an intermediate level textbook used widely in the United States and abroad.
En Bonne Forme, 8th edition pictured here
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Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Yao Yao
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"I believe any foreign language is worth learning because each would open a door leading to a new world."
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Dr. Yao Yao (Chinese) was born in Taiwan where his father, a journalist, would compare the 11 newspapers that he subscribed to in order to see how each paper covered the same stories. From this, Dr. Yao learned the importance of clear observation and precise wording. "This early training led me to the study of Chinese literature," Yao says. Dr Yao Yao has been with San José State University for 22 years and says that what he enjoys most about SJSU is working for a department where everyone gets along. He is fascinated by languages and considers himself very lucky to be able to work with and learn from so many experts of foreign languages. When asked what his favorite class to teach is and why, Dr. Yao responded, "CHIN120B is a challenging class, but it can be very satisfying to both the instructor and the students. A 120B student once worked through a particularly difficult passage of Zuo Zhuan, jumped up and high-fived me in class. I enjoy sharing that kind of excitement."
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Humanities and the Arts Student Showcase
& International Education Week
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This past October, the College of Humanities and the Arts Student Showcase included student performances, art work, poetry readings and short films. The Department of World Languages and Literatures showed a student promo for CÃrculo Hispánico, our Spanish club, as well as student skits from Japanese 25A students and a film about Popol Vuh written and staring Spanish 140B students. Overall, the showcase was a great success thanks to Kimb Massey of the College of Humanities and The Arts, our amazing faculty, staff and, of course, our students!
In November, the Department of World Languages and Literatures participated in International Education Week by tabling at the Boulevard of Languages outside of Clark Hall as well as sponsoring our very first Lunch Time Talk. The question posed was "Are You Ready to be Successful in a Globalized World?". Panelists included Dr. Dominique van Hooff of WLL, Dr. Mike Conniff of History, Dr. Asbjorn Osland of Organization and Management and three WLL students, Taylor Griffith (BA Spanish), Marimar Ochoa (Minor in Portuguese) and Daniela Saez (WLL/TRFT). The event was standing room only and very informative. Thank you to all of our participants for making this event a great success. We look forward to another great Lunch Time Talk next fall.
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Faculty Led-Study Abroad Programs
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Through a Faculty-Led Study Abroad Program to Portugal this summer, Professor Deolinda Adão took students to the Iberian country on a 7-week study abroad course where they visited historical and cultural sites throughout Portugal. Students are pictured here at the University of Coimbra, the oldest university in Portugal, where they sat in possibly the same desks as some of the great literary figures that they studied in their course.
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Another succesful Faculty-Led Study Abroad Program went to Kyoto, Japan this summer. Led by Professor Yasue Kodama Yanai, students experienced Japanese culture and history Bunraku, Japanese confectionery and tea leaves picking. In addition to staying with a host family in Kyoto, students also visited Tokyo, Hiroshima and many other sites during their exciting trip to Japan.
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