Course Offerings
 

• All first year courses are offered to students with no prior language experience.

• Honors courses must have teacher recommendation or waiver.

Clubs & Organizations

French Club

Spanish Club

Various Language Clubs

     As you enter the four most challenging years of school, consider
the opportunity of being able to learn a foreign language. Taking a
foreign language is very exciting and will become an asset to you in
years to come. Learning a new language is not all work and no play.
For each language class offered there is also a club you may join,
where there are a variety of activities in which you may participate.
At this time I will give a brief overview of some of the activities of
each club.

     First, there is the French Club. Throughout the year, students in
this club attend ballets, plays and symphonies. They have seen Les
Miserables and had several guided tours through the McNay Art
Museum to enjoy French art. Most French Club outings usually end
with a trip to La Madeleine, where students enjoy wonderful French
cuisine. In order to better understand French culture, they also hear
guest speakers. The club participates in the National French Contest.
Last year, the Madison French Department hosted the contest.

     The Latin Club offers a day of feasting on food that the Romans
ate. Towards the middle of the school year the club puts on an annual
Toga Party. Latin students are also given the opportunity to
participate in competition. Every student is able to take a national
exam.  They also have a fund raiser, called Rent-a-Roman, in which
they do work in return for payment towards the club. They also
participate in fun games such as scavenger hunts.

     The Spanish Club kicks off each new school year with a
welcoming party for former students as well as newcomers. During
the Christmas holidays they go caroling on the river walk and at
nursing homes. Spanish Club students are able to compete in two
different competitions each year which are held at UTSA and SAC.
The year ends with a formal spring banquet and a trip to Fiesta Texas.

     The German Club puts the new year in "to swing" with a trip to
New Braunfels to attend Wurstfest. There one enjoys a wide variety
of activities such as singing, dancing, eating delicious German foods,
and going on an occasional ride. They enjoy bowling, picnics and
also make a trip to Fiesta Texas.

    Each club does some form of fundraising, such as candy sales
or bake sales. These fundraisers help support the club activities
and provide extra money for materials that will further enhance
learning. I hope that this helps you better understand the clubs
associated with the various foreign languages.

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    Aside from the fact that North East has a new requirement of two
credits of a foreign language for each student, allow me to try to
inform you why our North East Board made the foreign language
requirement. Every year the world seems to get smaller. We are
relying on other nations more and more. We share our foods, our
fashion, and our music. It is doubtful that any of us truly understand
how intertwined our lives are with the world. For example, on any
given day, I might wake up to the sound of my Japanese alarm
clock going off, decide to wear a shirt made by an Italian designer,
then go to the kitchen and have a croissant for breakfast.
 

     All of these foreign products are available to us in the English-
speaking USA, so why take a foreign language? The answer is simple;
our future is dependent upon our ability to interact with the world
around us.  Most of the country is concerned about the economy.
About 1.5% of last year’s inflation was due to the fact that Americans
are not selling enough products overseas. If the Brazilian government
needs wheat and they have a choice between buying from a Canadian
who speaks Portuguese and an American who doesn’t, the result is
apparent. Foreign companies invest more than $30 million in the
country each year, and one in six US. jobs are the result of foreign
trade. It is obvious that investments would increase if Americans could
communicate better with foreign investors and not rely on the
English-speaking abilities of those in the foreign companies. The
President's Commission on Foreign Language and International
Studies recently reported that 100,000 jobs were given to people from
other countries instead of Americans because most Americans do
not know a second language.

    It is also confirmed by National Studies that a foreign language
study increases English vocabulary and teaches contest and structural
cues to vocabulary SAT scores, English grades, and English
vocabulary exams are higher for those students studying a foreign
language. Foreign language students score higher in reading
achievement, reading vocabulary, cognitive learning and total learning ability.
Reading skills are shown to be transferable from one language
to another. The personal self-concept is significantly higher for
language pupils than non-language pupils. Foreign language students
scored significantly higher on tests of creativity. Foreign language
study develops a pupil's auditory discrimination and memory.
 

     These were just thirteen reasons that should help persuade you that
taking a foreign language is a must! I urge you to enroll in the language
you love and love the language in which you enroll!!!

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    I am currently taking French.  I would like to share with
you the unique features of the foreign language classroom.

     To me, the most unique feature is that foreign language
classes are definitely not passive classes. You don’t come in
and get bombarded by lectures, and you certainly don’t
come in and sleep. You, as the student, take an active role in
your learning. In modern languages, in order to increase our
comprehension, vocabulary, and speaking abilities, we often
split up into groups of two to three people and talk about
things we like, or about what we did over the past weekend.
There are also role play exercises where we act out real life
events that might occur to us if we were traveling in a foreign
country.

     There are also activities done outside of class. For
example, we often have several culture days during the year.
These provide an opportunity to sample cuisine from the
respective countries of the language we are taking. They also
give us an insight into the culture of the countries as well.
Along the same lines, we also learn traditional songs and dances
of our languages. These help us to better understand their histories,
and how their traditions developed. They also provide a break from
our grammar studies, as do game days. On game days. we play
games from the country of our language. For example, in
French, we often play Monopoly. While this doesn’t exactly
sound like a French game, it has been adapted to use French
currency, and all properties are Parisian boulevards. The game
is also played in the Spanish and German classes in a version
adapted to their language. Occasionally, we also get to watch movies
in the language we are taking. For instance, last week in French
class we watched Germinal, which told the story of uprisings
against the bourgeois mine owners in Lille, in Northern France
during the late 19th century.
 

     A second feature I find unique about foreign languages is
the personal relationship that forms between teacher and
student. This is more prevalent here than in other classes,
because you often have the same teacher for all the years
you spend taking that particular language. This provides for a
bonding between teacher and student , and I feel that because
of this, the student may be more apt to get help, because he/she is
more comfortable in talking to the teacher.  On the teacher’s side,
 it allows the teacher to teach better. The teacher knows more
about the student’s personality and how the student learns the best.
In all, both sides benefit greatly from this type of situation.

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     Foreign Language also provides a unique opportunity to travel.
Throughout the year, the various foreign language clubs travel
across the state for many different activities; ranging from
competition to Wurstfest. During the summer, trips become extensive
and more exotic. The Latin Club travels to National competition in
places such as Bolder, Colorado; Boston, Massachusetts; and
Orlando, Florida. This year, as well as last year, the Latin students
toured Italy over Spring Break. They visited such places as Rome,
Pompeii, Capri, and Florence just to name a few. As well,
the French classes often take trips to France, and other parts of Europe.
On numerous occasions, they have visited Paris, Avignon, Nice, and
the Chateaux of the Loire valley. The Spanish students spent a portion
of their spring break touring Mexico visiting Monterrey, Saltillo,
a sarape factory, and the Planetarium.

    However, travel opportunities are not limited to those offered
through school. Taking a foreign language opens many doors to
discovery. Many students tour foreign countries acting as the 
translator for their friends and parents. In these ways, whether it be
a short trip to Dallas or a journey halfway around the world, a foreign
language student is able to better understand a culture and better
comprehend the world we live in.

    Giving you as much information as we have will hopefully be
beneficial to you and encourage you that learning something new
is something you should do. Each of us feels strongly about the
language we have chosen to study.
 

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