WLF 2015

Yorùbá Festivals and Food

This section will introduce several important Yorùbá festivals and their related traditional foods. You will learn how Yorùbá people celebrate these festivals, including what they do, what they eat, what they wear and what these festivals mean to their lives. You will also learn how to say these festivals and food in Yorùbá . See how unique Yorùbá food and festivals are!

Instructors | Taiwo Ehineni,  Victor Alabi

A Crash Course in Yorùbá

A fun-filled and highly interactive introduction to basic Yorùbá expressions and the tones! In this session, you will learn a how to talk about yourself in Yorùbá and a series of other important Yorùbá conversation exchanges for making new friends, as well as how to fully use the Yorùbá tones! By the end of this session conducted only in Yorùbá, you will be able to introduce yourself, greet and respond to greetings, begin a conversation as well as read simple phrases. See how successfully our students are able to quickly learn a new language and start making friends in one of the greatest languages of the world!

Instructor | Taiwo Ehineni

Formal and Informal Greeting in Wolof (Senegal)

This project aims at presenting to student participants a view of different ways of greeting in a Wolof-speaking community where people attach much importance to their culture. We will mainly focus on formal and informal forms of greeting considering factors such as age, gender, religion, etc. We choose to share this project focusing on Senegal because in a Wolof community, greeting is seen as an act of communication in which people make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship or social status –formal or informal – between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. We hope that by the end of the presentation, each participant will be able to greet different people –based on their gender, age, social/religious status – appropriately in different times of the day.

Instructor | Moustapha Ndour

Let's Sing a Song in Akan

Akan school kids help one another both at home and in school. In this presentation we'll learn to sing a popular Akan song in which a student encourages a classmate to get up from sleep, have a quick bath, and get ready for school. 

Instructor | David Adu-Amankwa

Swahili through Songs

In this session, participants will be introduced to Swahili language. They will learn how to greet and introduce themselves by saying their names, where they come from, and where they live now. They will then interact with each other by greeting and by asking each other the equivalent of ‘What’s your name?’, ‘Where do you come from?’, and ‘Where do you live now?’. These skills will be reinforced through songs.

Instructors | Alwiya Omar, aomar@indian.edu; Deogratias Tungaraza, deotunga@indiana.edu; Susan Kavaya, skavaya@indiana.edu

Traditional East African Cloth - Kanga

In this session, we will provide a description of ‘kanga’, traditional East African cloth. It is a wrapper with different uses like wearing it as a shawl, head scarf, baby carrier, curtain, among others. Participants will be get hands on experience on these different uses. The ‘kanga’ also has captions for indirect communication. We will study these captions and the meanings that they convey. Participants will get the opportunity to come up with their own captions.

Instructors | Alwiya Omar, aomar@indiana.edu; Beatrice Ng'uono Okelo, bokelo@indiana.edu

Help Your Students Get College Experience by Studying an African Language in the Summer

Sing and Learn IsiZulu

Learn about greetings and responses, how first names are acquired, and different adjectives with a game, song, and dance. Zulu or isiZulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa (24% of the population) as well as being understood by over 50% of the population (Ethnologue 2005). It became one of South Africa's eleven official languages in 1994. According to Ethnologue, it is the second most widely spoken Bantu language after Shona. Like many other Bantu languages, it is written using the Latin alphabet.

Instructor | Mpolokeng Lesetla, mlesetla@indiana.edu

Bamana Means of Transportation

This lesson plan is designed to teach students and their parents the different means of transportation in the target language. It will be 90% in the target language. Teaching these means of transportation in the target language, students and parents, mainly students, will learn those means of transportation in the cultural context, and how Bamana people perceive certain means of transportation in their society. I will use the board to write certain words for people who are visual leaners. At the end of this lesson, students and their parents will be able to talk about means of transportation in the target language.

Instructor | Dr. Amadou Beidy Sow, absow@indiana.edu

Does the Yak Speak Tibetan?

This short presentation will explore the relationship between yaks, the land of Tibet, and the Tibetan people.  Through exploring the behaviors and properties of the yak, students will learn about Tibet and the Himalayas. There will be yak photos and toys displayed. Students will also learn how to write and pronounce, “yak” and other animal names in Tibetan script.

Instructor | Gedun Rabasal, grabasal@indiana.edu

Let's Play a Mongolian Ankle Bone Game

The presenter will give a short introduction to Mongolia, the homeland of Chinggis khan and teach greetings and farewells in Mongolian. At the end participants will play a Mongolian game with ankle bones.

Instructor | Tserenchunt Legden, tlegden@indiana.edu

Kyrgyzstan is so much to discover!

In this lesson I will teach students how to introduce themselves in Kyrgyz. For that thing they will do 3 activities using 3 basic information about themselves as follows: 1) Students should stand according to their names (in alphabetical order) 2) Students should stand according to their town’s name (according to the location order on the map) 3 )Students stand according to their age (number order / older first and younger second, third, fourth etc.). This activity will make them to have a fun and it can be a big motivation for them to feel what is the Kyrgyz language and Kyrgyz world. With I and 2 of my students who have been in Kyrgyzstan several times will make interesting presentation about my country, language and cultural peculiarities.

Instructor | Aitbubu Abdyibraeva, aitbabdy@iu.edu

Learn Some Hungarian

In this mini lesson, students will learn some basic words in Hungarian. We can also share information about the language and culture.

Instructor | Valeria Varga, vvarga@indiana.edu

Break Bread, "Non", and Learn Uzbek Language & Culture

Explore Uzbek culture and the language by singing a song and tasting freshly baked Uzbek bread -"Non". During this presentation students will sing a song about bread and learn some basic Uzbek vocabulary. There will be an explanation of the process of baking famous tasty Uzbek bread by showing a video clip and photos.

Instructor | Dilnoza Kadirova, dkadirov@iu.edu; Malik Hodjaev, mhodjaev@indiana.edu

Skype on the Shore: Estonian ancient magic

Where do Skype, a Japanese Sumo champion, supermodels and chart-topping singers all come from? Correct, from the woods and seashores of Estonia, in the North, on the Baltic. The sandy beaches border on dark, magical and enchanted woods that grow the sweetest wild strawberries in the summer and shelter the cutest furry creatures in the snow. And, if you believe, witches, wise wizards, sorcerers, fairies and elves.

Come meet the above Estonian characters (virtually!) and learn some more of their land and language. Surprisingly, the ancient wisdom of the woods lives on among the modern city-dwellers in this small EU country, in their offices and university classrooms, on their tablets and smartphones. Which, when they are done with mobile parking, e-government, e-banking, e-school and other e-business, they use to check out the Wild Boar Cam or the Eagle Cam or book their healing session with a wise woman (on the Internet, of course).

What do you say when you wish it would rain? When you want that special someone to return your feelings? When you want to feel better? You need to say a spell, chant magic words. Luckily, Estonia’s folklore collection is second largest in Europe: problem solved. Or is it? Come get a little help to find and read the words and listen to some enchanting music to put you in the mood. Come learn the magic spells (if you dare) and … well, the rest is really up to you.

Instructor | Piibi-Kai Kivik/ pkivik@indiana.edu

A Student to Student Presentation: Fun with basic Persian

Students of the Persian classes will share with you why they study Persian, what they can do with the language studies after they finish university education, and a typical day in a Persian language classroom. They will help high school and middle school students spell some basic words with Persian alphabet blocks, incorporating a hands on aspect into the presentation and showing you that it is not difficult to learn the basics of Persian!

Instructor | Amanda Lanzillo, amlanzil@indiana.edu

Kazakh wedding tradition ‘Bet-ashar’

Like American weddings, weddings in Kazakhstan have their ceremonies and peculiarities. The wedding processes from several weeks to even months to complete. Kazakh marriage involves a contract between families which requires negotiation.

Instructors | Saulet Alpysbayeva, saualpys@indiana.edu

Learn Bengali Language through fun film clips!

The session will include five or six one minute fun film clips followed by short activities based on the clip involving participants. The film clips will be about different speech acts like greetings, giving directions, asking for help, etc. The film clips will give the participants brief ideas about Bangladeshi/Bengali culture and they will be able to practice Bengali language in the same context. The activity will involve students to act the scenes by using Bengali language. The supplemental materials will be provided to use the language when they act.

Instructor | Mohammad Shams Ud Duha, mduha@indiana.edu