Phoenix Liu has headed the Language House program for 13 years.
It’s a chilly, overcast Monday afternoon. But the dreary September weather only makes the cozy basement of St. Mary’s Hall more inviting. As it starts to drizzle, students pour steamy coffee into mugs and foam cups. They grab a few cookies on their way back to the table, and then the chatter begins.
Ten languages swirl together during the Language House’s weekly Coffee Conversations, just one of the program’s numerous events. Here, Language House members, as well as anyone studying a foreign language, can casually practice speaking.
Phoenix Liu has been the Language House’s director since 2002. Over the years, she’s seen the community grow and change, but it’s always been committed to a love of languages.
Inside the house are clusters of apartments divided by language.
“We want students to live like a family,” Liu said.
Students are required to speak in the target language almost all the time. Even the resident assistants are part of the program. If someone doesn’t know a word, help is just in the next room.
“We hire a native speaker to live with our students so they have a tutor at home,” Liu said.
That mentor lives in one apartment. For the rest, “we pick a high-level, near-native speaker to be an apartment leader so they have someone to ask questions if it’s the middle of the night,” she said.
Junior Kevin Elliott is the mentor for the German cluster. He’s a dual citizen and lived in Germany until he graduated high school. He teaches students through day-to-day conversations.
“They know all kinds of crazy vocabulary, but they won’t know everyday stuff,” he said.
Although he’s fluent, it’s not always easy to communicate.
“I also speak English so my brain keeps thinking, ‘Just talk to them in English. It’s going to be way easier,’” he said, laughing.
But Elliott says, for the most part, everyone follows the rules and English is rarely heard.
“Students live here by choice, so most of them are really excited to speak the language,” the environmental science and technology major said.
Liu emphasized that the Language House is also about leadership. If a student isn’t advanced enough to be an apartment leader or mentor, they can get involved chairing one of 10 clubs.
“We have a garden club and everyone can go there and tend the garden and watch things grow and say, “Tomato … how do you say it in this language or that?’” Liu said.
The program stresses interaction among the language groups, and it’s OK to use English in those situations.
“Very often, once the student learns his or her own language in their apartment, they go upstairs to learn a second one and downstairs to learn a third one,” she said.
She told the story of one exceptional student who lived in the house for three years and graduated with six languages.
Indeed, the students at Monday’s Coffee Conversation proved her point.
At the Arabic table, senior Maxine Rich and juniors Joe Szczybor and Josh Phinney all have studied at least two languages.
Rich is an Arabic and government and politics major. She has studied French since middle school, but when she got to college, she wanted a change.
“I thought, ‘Hey, I’ll try a new language, something that’s useful and also a challenge,’ and I picked Arabic and totally fell in love with it,” she said.
It hasn’t been easy, but she’s enjoyed her two semesters in the Language House.
“Arabic is a really tough language, so we’re all struggling along,” she said. “We work really hard to be able to communicate. It gives me space to improve myself.”
Szczybor lives in the Spanish cluster but he’s planning to move to Arabic soon.
“I was really scared of speaking before I came here,” he said. “It’s not full immersion for sure, but it’s the best you can do while you’re in the U.S.”
The Language House’s students are certain they’re improving, but now Liu is finally measuring that progress in a two-year study.
“We are doing research right now and letting students evaluate their own level,” she said. “We call it can-do statements. We will compare that to students who just come to class without being in the Language House.”
Like the garden tucked up against it, the Language House is clearly well cared for. Nurturing staff like Liu and the community of student leaders who call it home will not see it wither away anytime soon.
CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Josh Phinney lived in the Spanish cluster but was looking to switch to Arabic. Joe Szcyzbor is the student in the cluster considering the change. The story has been updated to reflect this correction.
