Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

The Origins of Halloween

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Trio of Pumpkins
Originally uploaded by MacKinnon Photography

This writer could doubtlessly spend days and hundreds more pages investigating the history of this spooky day. As a timelier alternative, I’ll use no further space but in recalling some of the peculiar practices of Halloween that take root in the shadows of an ancient past.

What are we celebrating?

Rewind over 2,000 years to find yourself amongst a Pagan tribe in ancient Ireland. Today is October 31st: the last day of the Celtic calendar. More than that, today is the Day of the Dead. It is the day of the death of Somhain, Celtic God of the Dead. In translation, it is “summer’s end,” the day when all that is living, and growing, and shining is swallowed by the shadowy, indicative silence of winter.* Tomorrow, November 1st, marks the New Year, though not a particularly cheery one.

On this day, you and all of those around you carry a great and very real fear, for, at night, the spirits of the dead will walk amongst the living to reestablish their presence. You crowd around a huge bonfire until midnight marks the death of light, the death of a dying year. You arrive in disguise, so that you may blend in with the dead that roam restlessly about the countryside. Like all of your neighbors, you’ve already placed exquisite meals upon your windowsills, outside your doors, covering each opening to your home with a collage of your finest cuisine. For whom? None other than the dead themselves. To them, you offer treats as a gesture of peace to the lurking souls. This is a night of remembrance, though it is no less one of the utmost fear. You wait, trembling, hoping to live through the Festival of the Dead…**

What are we saying/seeing?

To override these Pagan practices across ancient Ireland, Pope Gregory III declared November 1st All Hallows’ Day, a holiday in recognition of all saints past and present. Despite this celebration having picked up and spread throughout Europe, the Pagan observance of the Day of the Dead continued each preceding day, becoming known as All Hallows’ Eve, and eventually, Hallowe’en.

How did it get here, you might ask. Most officially, Celtic traditions came to America with the mass immigration after the Irish potato blight in the mid-1800s. Around this time, the gigantic bonfires during All Hallows’ Eve found themselves contained as embers within carved out gourds and pumpkins for use as lanterns–jack-o-lanterns, that is. Even the costumes used today are reminiscent of the disguises that the Celts once used to blend in with the dead on All Hallows’ Eve.***

What are we doing?

The meals on sills from ancient times were the way of preventing the tricks, or the tampering of the dead with the affairs of the living. Today, the vagrant spirits in ravenous search of food are ecstatic children, dressed as something of the sort, seeking the sugary sweets of kind neighbors.

Same thing? Not quite, but for the most part the idea is there. Each knock on the door and ensuing exclamation of “Trick or Treat” from an eager child represents the act of begging by a restless ghost. And from the other end, each Snickers’ bar, popcorn ball (my favorite), and random can of generic soda from Aunt Lucille is the offering made (the treat) to prevent the wrath and haunting of the dead left unfed. Celts were not alone in this annual ritual. No, it occurred all across Europe in the same age, with Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos, even among the Egyptians with the death of Osiris 2,000 years before the Celts. And its message, consciously or not, lives on in the proceedings of our holiday today.

Halloween, though celebrated differently and under different names across the world, has but one deep-seated origin that ensures its existence today: fear. It’s become one day to recognize fear of all darkness, fear of all death. What we know of now is a spooky commemoration and manifestation of that very same fear. Of the death of the sun. The death of growth. The death of the fear of Death. ‘Tis truly the Day of the Dead…

Pretty ghoul, huh?

Happy Halloween!

References:
* Bradbury, Ray, and Joseph A. Mugnaini. The Halloween Tree. New York: Knopf; distributed by Random House, 1972. Print.
** “Halloween — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts.” History.com — History Made Every Day — American & World History. Web. 20 Oct. 2011 .
***Trevarthen, G. A. (2010). The celtic origins of halloween transcend fear. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 90(3), 6-6-7.

Escapes

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Welcome (back) students! Newcomer or not, the first few weeks at Penn State should be an extremely exciting and entirely new experience. It is rather likely that for the rest of the semester, you’ll be seeking to feel as relaxed as you did during the first week at Penn State. With the help of some green space, the desire for a nearby stress-free environment can be met.

For as long as I’ve been a student at Penn State, I’ve been searching places on or near campus that are sort of hidden in plain view. What sparks the search is a personal tendency of never really settling down, believing there has to be something or someplace I haven’t fully experienced, or that I overlooked every time upon passing.

Thus far, I have found a few that have given me hours of serenity despite the constant hustle and bustle of people all around me. I use them for time to write, time to think, time to–well, breathe.  It’s a way of clearing my head. I don’t discard my busy schedule while I’m there; rather, I think of it as a place where I can unhand all distractions.  

Since they’re all either on or within a mile of campus, it’s easy to go to them, even during the busy school week. Here are 5 of my favorite stress-free escapes.

P1010954.JPG 5. The Arboretum
The arboretum provides a lot of options for a nice place to sit and relax.Being a lover of ponds and streams, though, I often find myself near this dark pond that lies in the middle of the beautiful scene.

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4. The Peace Garden
This is possibly the most curious little spot of them all. Though situated next to the HUB, which takes the cake for being the noisiest place on campus, it somehow manages to hold to its name of being a rather peaceful, quiet place to sit awhile.
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3. Hintz Family Alumni Center
Including the colorful Alumni Gardens and a pond teeming with wildlife, this area, too, allows a secluded feeling despite being smack dab in the center of campus. It’s also equipped with wooden benches, a stone footbridge, and a white gazebo for shade when you need it, and an open lawn outstretched when you don’t.P1010969.JPG

2. Lederer Park
Venturing slightly south of campus, Lederer is a scenic spot to relieve stress via exercise. A thin gravel trail encircles a large, grassy field and weaves through a lesser-known arboretum. Then, a short walk up the road spits out into a series of dirt trails through Thompson Woods and Walnut Springs Park, where a tiny stream trickles softly through the thicket.P1010941.JPG

1. Sunset Park
Just 2 blocks north of campus, Sunset Park opens up into 20 acres of forest filled with running, biking, and hiking trails. With plenty of nature to explore, each trip through can be a unique adventure.

My hope is to show you that these magnificent places are there, if right under our noses. Most of all, I am writing to share them so that you may find peace in places you pass. As the semester unfolds before our eyes, so, too, can new escapes. Find yours.

The Arabic Language Minor-اللغة العربية

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Arabic Books
Originally uploaded by Hishaam Siddiqi

This semester, the Penn State School of Languages and Literatures will officially launch its 11th foreign language program for study. Students are now able to enroll in the new Arabic Language minor, an option that was previously only partially fulfilled by the Middle East Studies minor. In the case of the Middle East Studies minor, Arabic courses could only count for half of the curriculum. With the addition of the Arabic minor, those wishing to truly focus on learning the language now have that option.

In addition to the 6 course levels available, there are several alternative options to fulfill the 21-credit minor requirement. Enrolled students are often able to conduct research, perform an independent study, or even participate in an internship for credit, based on availability each semester.

Anouar El-Younssi, a Penn State professor and native speaker of Arabic, said he was thrilled to see and experience the program’s launch.

“The addition of the Arabic minor at Penn State comes as an important and logical step to reflect the growth of the Arabic program at the school. [It] comes at a time when there is an increasing demand for Arabic at the college level nationwide.”

One of the top 5 most widely spoken languages in the world, Arabic is the mother tongue of some 250 million people worldwide, and finds its home in more than 22 countries spanning across the Middle East and North Africa.

Arabic is also one of the 6 official U.N. languages. Spoken in a region of strategic importance to the U.S. and other Western nations both politically and economically, there is a huge demand for it coupled with a huge shortage of speakers of Arabic in the Western world.

Arabic is unique among most languages; it’s a language of 28 letters, written right to left, and spoken in some 30 different colloquial dialects. The various forms are branched into the North African, Egyptian, Levantine, Arabian, and Iraqi dialects, based on the patterns of the region in which they are spoken. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) was instilled as a common thread connecting all Arabs under one tongue, but the format is used mainly in media and formal speeches rather than everyday conversations. Colloquial Arabic (CA) is essentially the non-uniform mother tongue of all Arabs, making it difficult for all Arabic speakers to communicate effectively as they move across the Arab world. However, being that Egypt is the source of a sizeable portion of the Arab population, media, and entertainment, Penn State professors primarily teach the Egyptian colloquial in concurrence with MSA.

In that sense, learning Arabic is a lot like learning two very similar languages simultaneously. Needless to say, it is an incredibly complex language. “Complex,” however, is not the same as “hard.” It is complex in the same sense as a patterned (and much less boring) puzzle would be. Every word that comprises Arabic is a part formed from a pattern. When all the parts are formed, it’s a matter of connecting them each time in the (grammatical and logical) order that fits the pattern. Upon completion, speakers of Arabic have before them a seamless picture of a beautiful people, language, and culture. All rifts, myths, and misunderstandings can be clarified in the connection of the pieces.

With the addition of the minor, Penn State students now have an option to study a fascinating yet often unexplored language. Says Professor Younssi, “My dream, though, is to see an Arabic major become a reality at Penn State in the future.” As more and more students continue to enroll in the program, perhaps this goal is not far from it.

The Local’s International

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Miniature de l'image pour Arabian Nights 2.jpgSince we’re nearing the start of the fall semester, I wanted to present a few excellent opportunities for students to get in touch with an international perspective at Penn State.

Rooms Filled with Resources

Being an International Politics major and an avid language learner, I am constantly seeking methods by which I can keep in contact with the world that surrounds me. Naturally, I go about this process in just as many ways as possible. I look at it as a win-win way to pass the time; these resources assist me later in the classroom, and, as the New York Times put it best, also allow me to “join the conversation.” Consequently, I don’t have to feel so bad when I get completely distracted from impending class assignments.

Pattee Library has become a sort of hub away from HUB in the quest for what I’ve termed the Local’s International. There are a number of international resources within the Pattee that I use on a daily basis. In two years at Penn State, they have provided me with endless entertainment, yet a hunger for more. One room I frequent is the News and Microforms Library on the ground floor. Including its physical and database formats, the N&M Library boasts a collection of more than 1,700 newspapers from 92 countries in 48 different languages. Included nearby is a collection of 30 news magazines, with several of them imported from overseas.

A read through the Times, a few articles from Le Monde, and one skim through an issue of Le Nouvel Observateur later, I almost forget that I have other resources at my disposal. Advancing further through the room, students can also borrow headphones to view television news in Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and English, based on this schedule.

It was by chance that I sat down in Stacks 2a one day across from a considerable section of Arabic scripts–history, poetry, fiction novels, Arabic-French-English dictionaries, and even learning texts. Of course the work I’d initially come there to complete would be left undone for several hours, but what I quickly discovered was that the entire floor was loaded with literature from French to Spanish to languages I’d never even seen before. Fascinated by another international discovery, Stacks 2a developed into a new and decidedly wonderful place to study, read, and explore.

Another room filled with international resources is the Arts & Humanities Library. Here, I whet my cultural appetite with a long list of foreign language films, CDs, and personal interest periodicals on site.

Involvement

Whenever possible during the semester, I attend the International Coffee Hour, which is organized by the Office of Global Programs at Penn State. Every Thursday from 3:30-5:00 p.m., students gather in the lounge on the 5th floor of the Boucke Building. Almost every week, students and organizations of a different country or ethnicity host the event, and all who attend enjoy a sampling of the coffees, teas, cuisines, and music from each respective part of the world.

Often, the sessions serve as a way for international students to build confidence in their English-speaking skills, but with a gathering of people from such wide-ranging ethnicities and backgrounds, there’s no telling who or what carries the conversation each week.

Plenty of organizations at Penn State motivate an international perspective, as well. Despite this being my third year as a student at Penn State, I am certain to attend the Involvement Days in Alumni Hall during the first week of the semester to see what else I might like to join this year.

Additionally, the Office of Global Programs has several unique opportunities to get involved, including the Global Ambassadors, Peer Advisers, and Conversation Partners programs. Having participated as a conversation partner, I know it serves as a particularly beneficial program for the culturally curious. I was matched with Mohamed, a fellow Penn State student from Oman. I was glad to offer what help I could in English, and in exchange he offered lessons in Arabic, his native language.

Late last spring, Mohamed invited me to Arabian Nights, an extraordinary celebration of great music, art, dance, and, of course, food. I found myself at a table of Omani students describing with excitement how a celebration such as this might look in the Arab world. Surrounded by conversations in Arabic, performers dancing the dabka, a fashion show of each nation’s traditional dress, and a playlist of rhythmic sing-alongs from the region, I couldn’t help but smile.

The Education Abroad Fair approaches in the fall semester, as well. Rather than trying to get an idea of where to spend a semester abroad online, take advantage of the fair, when coordinators and past participants from many of the programs gather in one room. This can really help to get a better idea of where you like, the program you like in the place that you like, and even when and for how long to go.

Another fall event full of multiculturalism is International Education Week. For those in the College of the Liberal Arts who are seeking international career opportunities, this week also holds a fair to present various options for volunteering, interning, and working abroad.

These come paired with what I would guess to be hundreds of opportunities, events, and resources I’ve yet to explore at Penn State. Throughout the semester, be sure to check for the dates and more upcoming events on the University Office of Global Programs homepage.

How have you achieved your Local’s International?

Love thy Language(s): Fluency Factors

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Flag Of Flags
Originally uploaded by garryknight

It was during my second semester of Arabic that I started to notice something: I was really picking up the language. I was already beginning to think as well as speak through the language rather than attempting to translate my thoughts in a lapse before delivering them in speech.

Notably, Arabic 001 and 002 were daily classes, allowing far more time to engage myself with the language. Considering the difficulty that learning a second, let alone a third language can be for a nonnative, my own learning curve seemed particularly extraordinary to me. Where I’d been studying French for a number of years and did feel comfortable with it, I was already beginning to feel myself reaching that level of capability with Arabic after just a few classes.

A lecture in French linguistics during that same semester given by Professor Jean-Marc Authier helped to reveal truths regarding my bubbling convictions. He presented something entirely new to me: the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). A theory first proposed by Noam Chomsky, the LAD is a “postulated organ” biologically linked to the learner’s age. He even pinpointed the disappearance of the LAD to a stage in every human life: puberty.* Chomsky’s theory is tied closely to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), which holds that the optimal (and virtually only possible) time for language acquisition is during the presence of the LAD.

Naturally, other theories have arisen since Chomsky’s developments in the mid-1960s. His theory, to pose a point, came in direct opposition to the language acquisition theories of B.F. Skinner, which of course entails a behavioral psychology approach. Chomsky’s hypothesis, however, has carried considerable weight in the principles of linguistics into the modern day.

As many who have entered but never fully pursued a second tongue will know too well, gaining fluency in a foreign language during high school, college, or thereafter does prove itself a challenge with a rather low success rate. But fear not; your hormones aren’t holding you back.

If you ask me, in a much more plausible solution, the existence of a LAD is a way of labeling a number of roadblocks that arise with age. For one, you are far more likely to attain fluency in the languages with which you identify culturally. A lack of identification with a particular language may cause enough dissonance to make fluency an overwhelming and overly frustrating task.

This leads me to the next point: motivation. Without incentives like cultural identity, surrounding environment, and other speakers of the language to keep you going, the very idea of learning the language in the first place may creep into the shadows of your mind.

A third and often-underestimated factor: time. Think about how you learned your first language. You’ll probably answer that there wasn’t an option. You were a child who knew exactly what you wanted but had no idea how to request it, save screaming and crying. When you discovered that this wouldn’t work, you spent every waking moment of your life copying your surroundings until you could communicate your thoughts, emotions, and desires in what we recognize as a civilized manner.

The closest one can come to emulating this experience and ultimately gaining fluency in another language is much the same. Go to a place where the language you know best is least understood. Without a doubt, it will be both challenging and frustrating (the motivation factor comes to mind again). Short of hand gestures and primitive head movements, you would have no option but to figure out how to make yourself understood in that tongue. You would have to empathize, adapt, and assimilate with a new culture regardless of former cultural identities. And perhaps most importantly, you would have all day every day to try and get it right. These are the factors that are really involved in gaining fluency. After such an analysis, the LAD seems but a scapegoat for these various hardships.

I recently had an opportunity to correspond with Professor Authier again on this very topic. To emphasize the point, says Authier, “There is at present no evidence of any kind that suggests that anything biological prevents adults from acquiring native proficiency in a second language…Second, a very troublesome fact for the unavailability of the biological LAD past puberty is that a significant number of people who start learning a second language as adults ARE able to reach a proficiency level that is INDISTINGUISHABLE from that of native speakers.@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }**

For those on the fence of whether or not to continue studying that foreign language, defeated by the mounting complexity of the task, bear in mind the same points above that immediately hit home with me. For me, Arabic has been a great way to trace my Syrian roots and grow ever closer to the elders in my family. On the other hand, the only identification I have with French is a mild (okay, severe) obsession with its people. With either of the two, I know that at some point my learning curve will plateau as I outgrow the foreign classroom within an all too customary and routine place. I know (and anticipate) that moving forward with fluency will require rising to a challenge beyond the classroom that has trained me and into the environment I’ve thus far been mimicking.

No matter the source of your desires, don’t allow the passing of time and the drifting of your motivation to be a hindrance. Most importantly, know that no time is too late to begin. Redefine the boundaries that surround you once more.

References:

*   Chomsky, Noam. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT, 1965. Print
**  Moyer, Alene. Ultimate Attainment in L2 Phonology: The Critical Factors of Age, Motivation, and Instruction. Studies in second language acquisition 21.1 01 Jan 1999: 81-108. Indiana University Linguistics Club. 12 Jul 2011.
*** Gärdenfors, Peter. Language and the Evolution of Cognition. Lund: Lund University, 1995. Print.

Love thy Language(s): Unlocking New Perspectives

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Globe
Originally uploaded by steveritchie

مرحبا

Bonjour!

Hello, I should say. My name is Chris Tutolo, and I am a junior at Penn State majoring in International Politics and seeking a minor in both French and Middle East Studies. In the first of my posts, I’d like to emphasize the benefits of studying languages, especially as a student in the Liberal Arts at Penn State.

The College of the Liberal Arts is home to over 10 languages available for study at Penn State. I strongly encourage others within the college to pick up a minor in one of them. Not only is learning a foreign language an awakening, fun, and incredibly rewarding experience, but it also perfectly complements the academic track of a liberal arts degree.

Also, if boredom has plagued the best of your midsummer days, direct your attention toward a great opportunity to both master a language and earn credits next summer with the Language Institute at Penn State. The Language Institute offers intensive language sequences in more than 10 languages and students can earn up to 12 credits in just 8 weeks.  Many of the courses required for a foreign language minor are now offered in the summer and eight weeks of summer language study can help students make great strides towards a language minor. Past and present participants: feel free to comment below on your experience with the Language Institute.

To echo what Rebekka Egger, Academic Director of the Language Institute, wrote in an earlier post, foreign language skills are developing as exceedingly practical tools in the globalized, multicultural marketplace that marks the 21st century. Increasing, too, with this trend is the number of firms, NGOs, humanitarian organizations, and other American companies that operate outside U.S. borders. Intuitively, getting ahead in this form of marketplace frequently includes knowledge of at least one foreign language.

Foreign language proficiency can even help you in the application process, as a number of graduate and law schools, government jobs, nonprofits and even scholarships and grants weigh language skills into their decision. Even in recreational traveling through foreign countries where English is commonly used, a cultured tourist beats an ignorant one. The list of benefits goes on, but one of the most interesting of them is the suspected advantages of the bilingual brain (Go figure.).

Fellow readers, I challenge you to challenge yourselves. In my lifetime, I have found myself enclosed in a bubble of sorts, constricted further by narrow minds and unfaltering outlooks on life. Since engaging in International Politics, French, and Middle East Studies, I find myself reaching toward endless horizons with an open mind, open arms, and open eyes. From within the Penn State community, I now feel connected on a much broader scale.

I hope to complete my French minor requirements while abroad at a Penn State affiliated institution in France. What’s more, I may even stay with a Tunisian family, where I would learn more about both French and Arab culture. Granted, not even I could have expected opportunities so picture perfect. But it started with a piqued interest in language. The room for creation, exploration, and discovery that ensued is what led me down a chance-filled path and, to be sure, toward what great things await.

You, too, have the chance to spring into the opportunities available to you through Penn State. Explore them. Exceed your boundaries. You may find yourself fascinated by the prospect of traveling, studying abroad, and meeting international students (field experience, you might say). And if you’re anything like me, you’ll never turn back.

Look out for more posts from me throughout the next couple of months. Some of the topics include: debunking the Language Acquisition Device and stress-free escapes on and around Penn State’s campus just in time for the fall semester.

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