One of the things about Naz that I think sets our campus apart from other schools is our three language houses! They are the center of our three largest language clubs, French Club, Spanish Club, and Italian Club, and they each sponsor lots of weekly events and opportunities for Naz students to immerse themselves in foreign cultures. As a Spanish minor, I think this is a great way to get involved and keep up your foreign language skills!
La Maison Française – The French House
French Club offers cooking classes, lectures, and culture meetings. A cool thing about French Club is they explore cultures of countries all over the francophone world including pacific islands and some countries in Africa, not just France. They also sponsor a trip to Montreal in the Spring! It’s a great way to make new friends including a lot of the international students!
La Casa Hispaña-The Spanish House
LAMSA hosts cultural movie nights for all students every Monday, as well as open conversation hours at the casa during the lunch hour on Tuesdays–an awesome way to practice your Spanish skills/learn some if you don’t have any! They offer free cooking classes and salsa classes! They also sponsor a Day of the Dead Prayer service in the Linehan Chapel. The entire Rochester area is invited to bring in pictures of passed love ones and attend the service!
La Casa Italiana
So every other Tuesday I have a friend who’s an Italian major that pesters me to come to the Italian house during the lunch hour and try some of their home-made Italian cuisine…haven’t gotten around to it but it’s on my to-do list! They also sponsor cultural presentations given by our Italian international students! Like the Spanish house, they offer cultural movie nights every Wednesday, and cooking classes on Thursday! They also sponsor a trip to New York City during the spring semester. So head on over and learn some Italian!
*Obligatory Theatre Plug*
Something else that I think is really cool about our foreign language department is that our current chair, Dr. Candide Carrasco is a very accomplished playwright! Every spring he writes a multi-lingual play that is put on in our very own Callahan Theatre by Naz students! (I will definitely be auditioning for a Spanish speaking role this year!) He also currently has a show going up called Chocolate Casi Amargo at the Rochester Fringe Festival!
