May 7, 2018
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The Linfield Review
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McMinnville, Ore.
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123rd Year
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Issue No. 15
Language TA’s learn, teach without borders By Alex Jensen In 2017, less than 30 percent of the people who sought asylum in France were officially recognized. Several European countries also increased their border security and became more militarized in reaction to the “migrant crisis.” In a talk titled “Teaching without borders” on Wednesday, Spanish language teaching assistant, Patricia Luis Hernandez, and the French language teaching assistant, Lucile Marion, shared their own perceptions of the crisis and what teaching has taught them. Marion said teaching has taught
her to strive for “equality for more people and to understand more people with different backgrounds.” Working with migrants can be difficult because people are coming from all different backgrounds, beliefs and values. Luis Hernandez faced a situation in her classroom where one of her students was against same-sex marriage and rights. “I’m just teaching the language. I cannot change your thoughts,” Luis Hernandez said to the student because Spain has same-sex marriage laws. Luis Hernandez worked in Budapest for two years with the European
Voluntary Service. The EVS’ motto is “the street is no place to call home.” The Budapest government has a law against people sleeping outside in the city. Those that are caught sleeping in public places could be fined, sentenced to community service or imprisoned. The EVS provides shelters to those who cannot find or afford housing. Luis Hernandez said the experience taught her how to communicate with people who speak a different language than her because she did not understand Hungarian well. Hungarian is the official language in
Budapest, where 99.6 percent of the population speak it, according to the CIA World Factbook. In 2016, she moved to the Spanish city of Alicante for a year to work with the Red Cross and adult education center. For the year she there, she taught English and Spanish to immigrants and Syrian families. Luis Hernandez had six months to teach them the language to ensure that they would be able to stay and work in the country. Marion worked with an independent organization in France, which provided administrators and French language classes to foreign students.
With the organization, she taught a French class to six men and one woman, the majority of them were from Afghanistan, to prepare them to earn a DELE. DELE “are official titles certifying degree of competence and mastery of the Spanish language, granted by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain,” according to the DELE website. Marion thought the experience was interesting because of the classroom dynamic. She was used to teaching those younger than her but found it was the opposite situation >>see Language page 3
Beer, music at Wildstock
Courtesy of Kelly Roth
Soarin’, flyin’
Junior Olivia McDaniel in midair vaulting to reach her top mark and qualify for nationals.
By Hannah Curry Wildcats are gearing up for the big event this spring semester: Wildstock, the free music festival open to Linfield students. The annual event will take place on Friday, May 11 on the IM field. The doors will open at 5 p.m., where there will be a beer garden for students over 21, a mechanical bull, corn hole, horse shoes, and food trucks. Clubs and other activities on campus will also have booths set up. Stop by Fred Meyer Lounge the day before Wildstock, May 10, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. to buy a t-shirt for Wildstock and be adorned with free henna. The opening act, Frank Ray, will perform at 7 p.m. and the headlining performers, Dan + Shay, will start at
8 p.m. Ray was named one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know: December 2017.” He is a former police officer who left the job after 10 years to pursue country music full time, according to his Facebook biography. His debut solo EP “Different Kind of Country” was released in 2017. Dan + Shay, a country duo comprised of singer/songwriters Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, released their debut single “19 You + Me” in 2013, which led to their first album, “Where it all Began,” in 2014. They had a song featured in the show “Nashville” and appeared on the reality competition show “The Bachelorette” in 2016.
English prof delivers ‘Last Lecture,’ urges lifelong reading By Emma Knudson Many Linfield students, both within and outside of the English department, can attest to retiring English professor and department chair Barbara Seidman’s love for literature. Students who’ve studied with her are all aware of not only her in-depth lectures and detailed timelines, but also her affinity for bringing stuffed dolls of major literary figures to inspire discussion. To a packed crowd of both current and former Linfield students and colleagues, her last lecture, as
part of the “Last Lecture” series, was no different. Debbie Harmon Ferry introduced Seidman, who became a Linfield professor in 1983, by listing a few words that people used to describe her, including “articulate,” “intelligent,” and “intimidating.” When Seidman approached the podium, she said, smiling, that she “never understood the intimidating thing.” Her lecture, titled “What’s Love Got to Do with It? Apologia for a Lifelong Literary Education,” discussed not only her love for liter-
ature, which she described as both humbling and a means to “provoke connection, wake [her] up from her own privileged existence,” but also how teaching allowed her to continue learning. Seidman said she was grateful to be able to engage in new subjects as she taught, such as gender studies, African American literature, and film studies. This continued learning led her to her self-proclamation as a “lifelong novice.” When discussing her gratitude for her indulgence in learning as a professor, she stated
that her students were her “accomplices.” Drawing inspiration from Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky to contemporary Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, Seidman emphasized the importance of literary studies, and how it gives voice to those “erased or oppressed.” In addition, literary studies allowed for her (and allows for others) to engage in experiences beyond their own, drawing back to her personal experience of being humbled by literature. To this, she countered
liberal arts skeptics by calling the nature of literary studies “hardly snowflake material.” “To know one’s history is to discover the resiliency of those who survived it,” she said. Upon discussing her plans beyond retirement, she stated simply that she would “keep reading, of course.” She summarized her years of teaching at Linfield as a “great gig,” as it enabled her to pursue her love and guide students alongside her in the exploration of life and literature’s questions.