Potential field trips, movie showings, and international travel provide students with a variety of options for earning culture points in their foreign language classes this year.

The language department hopes to further the integration of foreign cultures into the curriculum during this school year through a variety of activities and events.

This summer, the German and French departments hope to travel to Germany and Belgium respectively, according to language department head Jane Hudacek.

“Some of this year’s goals are getting board approval for summer travel,” Hudacek said. “We are also looking to get more students to register for the trips. They’ve already done early sign ups but there’s still room for more student participation.”

The Spanish department traveled to Panama last summer and they’re looking at planning a trip possibly to Spain for the summer of 2016 since the language departments alternate, according to Hudacek.

Senior Skyler Nagorski said she loves learning interesting things from Frau Fox in German and enjoyed traveling to Germany with the German department in the summer of 2013.

“I went to Germany two summers ago with the school and it was a really cool experience,” Nagorski said. “I have continued to take German for so many years because its something I really enjoy and I hope to travel to Germany again in the future.”

Aside from travel, the language department hopes to continue to provide opportunities for unique and diverse field trips. For example, last year the Spanish department brought their sophomore level classes to world language day at the U of M. Departments have also gone on field trips to bilingual plays and seen exhibits at the Science Museum.

Hudacek said some language departments visit restaurants in order to get a different kind of cultural experience.

“The German department recently went on a field trip to a traditional German restaurant and the French department went to a traditional French restaurant,” she said. “This way students get to taste traditional foods and immerse themselves in a new culture.”

In addition, many language teachers choose to show foreign films in their classrooms after school as an option for extra credit or a way for students to earn required culture points in their language classes.

Students taking German have the opportunity to watch a showing of the movie The German Doctor after school in Frau Fox’s room on Wednesday, October 8. The Spanish department plans to host similar events at different dates throughout the year.