Roosevelt presents first annual World Language Showcase

Story and Photo by Gisselle Washington | Staff Writer |

Roosevelt hosted its first annual World Language Showcase on April 10 in the Auditorium. The showcase had performances from six different languages: Spanish, German, French, American Sign Language, Latin, and Japanese.

“We had roughly about 110 audience there including the participants, and I was happy with that number,” ASL teacher and event director Bonnie Lehmann said.
“I had students that told me this year they wanted to do it again next year so I know next year, it’s going to be more smooth because we’ll have some returning performers that have been through the process.”

Performer Sa’Rye Wrancher played the Old French Song on her violin to showcase french culture.

“My violin I had played for a long time and I knew how to play my music,” Wrancher said. “An Old French Song was french and I volunteered. I practiced the song over and over again and my mom was like ‘you better practice again.’”

After the success of the language showcase by the ASL teacher at MacArthur, Lehmann said she decided it would be great to put on at Roosevelt.

“It shows what our department does and it gets to introduce all our languages here,” Lehmann said. “And so that parents, families, friends, can see that the kids are learning a new language and they’re also able to express that language.”

Students are required to take two years of a foreign language as a core elective to graduate.

“A lot of people struggle with knowing is world language an elective or a core class because it’s actually right in the middle,” Lehmann said. “I want people to acknowledge that and if they see these kids doing the showcase, if its a freshman or a sophomore who hasn’t taken a language yet, they can look and see ‘oh this is what Japanese is about, this is what ASL is about’ so that way I think it would help promote each language.”