Dozens of students filled Stallings Ballroom in the Memorial Student Union last Thursday for the Department of Foreign Languages Extravaganza at North Carolina A&T. This program featured some of the highlights the department has achieved thus far in the semester. “I really enjoyed the program,” said Charlene McPhearson junior biology major. “All the different cultures, and different [language] classes did very well.” The program featured student presentations from the French, Spanish, German, and Japanese classes within the Foreign Language department. Each class had student representatives to perform on stage in their respected language. Two French class students, John Carlos Spells, and Kay Roland, started the presentations off by reciting a poem entitled, The Raven and The Fox, in French. “This story was about how people get tricked easily because of trickery and flattery,” said Roland. In the poem, Roland explained that the fox wanted a piece of cheese the raven had, and used flattery to get the cheese. The Spanish class performed next giving the audience a brief overview of the dance salsa. “Salsa is a dance that originated in the Caribbean, and it can be described as a mixture of cultures because it incorporates things from Africa and Europe,” said Leia Clarke, sophomore Spanish education major. “It is unclear which country the dance originated from, but the dance has spread all over Latin America and the U.S. and every region has its own style.” Next, three student couples came on to the stage and demonstrated how to salsa. It was then followed by a solo act of a couple that danced as well. The German class proceeded next with a short skit on how college students interacted with one another. Three students also sang German ballads. The final presentation was by the Japanese class. Japanese professor Tomoko Y. Thornburg, performed music on a koto. A koto is an ancient Japanese instrument with strings that are plucked to make music. In addition to Thornburg’s performance, students recited a story about ninjas. After the story on ninjas, students grabbed the audiences’ attention by demonstrating how to use karate. Two students engaged in fighting in the traditional karate style, as well as the Hollywood style. Concluding the Japanese segment of presentations were three students who performed Kabuki, which is Japanese theater. Following the presentations, Jose’ Bravo de Rueda, Chairperson for the Department of Foreign Languages, presented the winners for the Writing Contest. This contest was open to all the classes, and students could create the topic in which they wanted to write, as long as it was written in their respected languages. “I wrote a poem in French about my son. I could write about whatever I wanted to, and I chose to write about him, and what he is to my heart,” said junior biology major Iesha Solomon, one of the winners from the French class. At the end of the program students and faculty feasted on a variety of different foods from different cultures and countries. This program was a combined effort from foreign language faculty and students as a mean to showcase what the students have learned thus far. Mistress of Ceremonies Nisha Streeter, a junior business management and Spanish minor, considers being bi-lingual and multi-lingual very important in every industry. She believes that people should consider taking foreign language classes because it will have benefits for the future.  Roland said, “It was a wonderful experience, it was really good for us to share our knowledge with the rest of the world, and the students.”

• Kelcie McCrae