The school offers three world language classes, ranging from Spanish to French to German. All of these classes are available to students in varying levels of difficulty, an example being Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, going to Spanish V, but those classes (in addition to German and French) are the only ones available.
Spanish teacher Chandlor Ochoa said she wishes her students could be offered more language class options, like Korean, Arabic and more. So, Ochoa found a way to immerse her students in different languages and cultures through the World Language Fair, hosted by KU(University of Kansas) on Oct. 19.
“It’s not very often that you get to sit in a class and learn Korean or sit in a class and learn Italian,” Ochoa said.
The language fair started at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, to get there on time Ochoa and her bus of 10 students from her Spanish II and Spanish III classes headed to the KU campus at 6:30 a.m.The trip was paid for by KU and transportation to the event was paid for by the school, therefore making it a free trip for students.
“It’s awesome that it’s free, the only thing we had to pay for, was transportation, a bus there,” Ochoa said.
The fair offered free lunch to the students and their teachers. During lunchtime, colleges from the area set up booths and talked to students about college and scholarship opportunities.
“They had a lot of people there that could talk to students about opportunities after they graduate. What they could do with languages, where they could go to school, what they could study,” Ochoa said.
Spanish class student and sophomore Yuretzi Licea was one of the 10 to attend the fair on Saturday. She attended the Korean, French, Arabic and Mayan language classes. Although the fair did not help her improve her language skills, Licea said, the colleges that were there helped her learn more about secondary education and why learning languages is so important.
“It made me learn about the colleges and what scholarships you could get,” Licea said.
This was the first annual world language fair KU has hosted, but Ochoa and Licea hope that there is another opportunity for other students and returning students to go.
“They seemed to really enjoy it,” Ochoa said. “They liked the opportunity to learn about languages that they don’t usually get to learn.”