Students munched on nachos and fried rice, sang Karaoke in different languages and learned about cultures from around the world during the 2002 Language Expo in Ortega Hall Saturday.
This year's event, "Your World, My World, Our World," included games, conversation groups, scavenger hunts, food and activities in various languages.
The Albuquerque Language Teachers Association and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures sponsored the expo, which is mainly aimed at high school students.
Marina Peters-Newell, coordinator for the event and for lower division French in UNM's Foreign Language Department, said the expo has been an annual event in the community for the last 15 years and has been organized by the University and interested faculty in the past three years.
Peters-Newell said the expo brings people together and shows the importance of foreign languages in the community.
"Often times we think of this state as being strictly English-Spanish," she said, "but in fact, there are many languages that are alive either at schools or in communities around the state," she said.
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Peters-Newell said the number of activities seemed endless on Saturday because of the wide range of cultures at the event.
"We've had Karaoke in four different languages, Tai Chi and different culinary activities like learning to make crepes and truffles," she said.
Some of the many games included Jeopardy and Le Maillon Faible, a French version of "The Weakest Link." Students were also given the chance to have their names written in languages, such as Swahili and Japanese.
Students each received two tickets, which allowed them to try food from different regions. Fried rice, nachos, doughnuts and cream puffs were just a few of the snacks available for sampling.
The students were also given a "passport," which allowed them to participate in and complete activities for stickers. When the passports were filled with stickers, they could then be turned in as an entry for a raffle drawing.
Students also participated in poster and poetry contests throughout the day. Participants could enter posters with designs that embodied the theme of the expo. Poster and poetry entries were submitted in a variety of languages. Winners from all of the events received prizes ranging from pizza to movies at the end of the day.
Robert Barr, a graduate student and teacher's assistant in the French Department, helped to hang posters for the contest.
"The basic idea of the Language Expo is for everybody and all the students to see what language possibilities there are to study in college and also to broaden their horizons about the world around us," Barr said.
Students were encouraged to raise funds at booths for their organizations during the event. Michelle Ebell, Amy Ross and Audrey Ross, from Rio Rancho High School, helped raise money for their Spanish heritage club, "La Familia," by selling doughnuts. Ebell said that, although she was unable to participate in many of the activities, the expo was a good way to mix cultures.
