At certain points in the semester, everyone needs a break. If this break also happens to involve chocolates and candy, festive music, friends, and board games, then it is all the more enjoyable and necessary. On Nov. 8, the Department of Modern Languages held an event that, just like last year, was a raging success: Spanish Immersion Game Night.
The goal of Spanish Immersion Game Night is to provide the Grove City College community with a fun opportunity to experience cultural immersion and to encourage language students to use their skills. If you were unable to attend last year or this year, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about. First, as you walked into Ket Rec you would have heard music from Spanish and Latin American performers and bands. You also would have noticed tables surrounded by students and professors playing Scrabble, Uno, Apples to Apples (Manzanas con Manzanas), and bingo (lotería) to win special prizes—in this case, candy and chocolates from Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. Of course, you also would have noticed that the room was full of people smiling and laughing.
The only rule of the night was to play the game using Spanish (or signs) to communicate, which in Uno was not very difficult, but in Scrabble certainly gave the players the opportunity to put their vocabulary to the test. At the end of the day, however, everyone who wanted candy had plenty, and even those who didn’t know any Spanish learned a few words, had an enjoyable time, and had a little taste of what it would be like to travel somewhere where they could not communicate with English.
At Grove City College, even if you can’t travel to another country, you certainly have opportunities to learn about other languages and cultures. Will you join us next year?