Canton students celebrate World Languages Week
By Guest
Spanish and French students at Galvin Middle School take part in a djembe drumming workshop.
By Darcie Fisher
A Haitian Creole potluck. An African drumming workshop. Students learning Latin dance. Listening to the story of a young boy and his family fleeing Nazi Germany on his 12th birthday. All these, and more, were featured as Canton High School and the Galvin Middle School recognized World Languages Week (March 4-8). Members of the World Languages Club helped plan the event, which encourages students to learn about and celebrate other cultures as well as their own.
“We started out mainly as a way to plan for World Languages Week,” said senior Winnie Yang, who is co-president of the club. “But I wanted to expand on that so that we could do more as a community. It’s about the general job of sharing other cultures. I grew up in a household where Mandarin was my first language. It’s important to appreciate other cultures.”
Junior Euniss Yoyo recently started the Haitian Culture Club at CHS and took part in planning World Languages Week.
“Recently we’ve had an influx of Haitian students at Canton High School,” said Yoyo. “A teacher and I agreed it would be great to get these students together as a community and get them to be more present.”
Firma Tamara Pierre is a junior who joined the club as a freshman. She speaks French, Haitian Creole, English and is currently learning Spanish.
“I have a love for languages,” said Pierre. “I think the club helps me make more friends. We’ve had a lot of new students from other countries, and this helps me connect with them and navigate the environment. It’s a way to communicate with a lot more people.”
Club advisor and K-12 World Languages Coordinator Heidi Olson said one of her favorite parts of the week was the “Bulldogs Speak” poster display, a project spearheaded by Yang and Pierre that encouraged students and teachers to share what languages they speak. “The posters were displayed outside classrooms,” Olson said. “It was incredible to see how many different languages are represented in the CHS community.”
Outside of World Languages Week, the club has also put on other events throughout the year, including a Lunar New Year celebration that many students said was their favorite.
“Lunar New Year was a spotlight on a culture that isn’t always highlighted in our community,” said Co-President Rachel Pirrera. “It was great to watch everyone come together.”
“I really enjoyed the Lunar New Year event,” added senior Andrew Chinsen. “It’s been the only time I’ve been able to celebrate my culture in a big event in Canton.”
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