Home / Campus Life / LASA brings flavor to campus

LASA brings flavor to campus

Written by Brian Hickey

Have you ever wanted a less formal environment to speak Spanish freely amongst other Spanish majors and minors? The Latin American Student Association has created a way for students to do just that.

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 1 p.m., students with the common interest of becoming more fluent in Spanish meet at what is called the “Spanish Café.”

“The Spanish Café is for people who are either taking Spanish, majoring in Spanish or minoring in Spanish to get together and speak without being corrected by another Spanish speaker or even another Spanish major or minor,” Joshua Brennan Gomez, a  foreign language education major, said.

Newly founded, the Spanish café aims to provide students with a more relaxed atmosphere and fun setting to come and speak casually with other students, learn, and enjoy themselves while doing so

“We allow students to come in and we have games that they can even play and we just speak,” Gomez said. “We even tutor students in Spanish, in vocabulary, grammar, or whatever they need help with.”

The name of the cafe itself is a tactic used to stir interest amongst students on campus.

“What we originally had planned (was) to have it as just a free range open area where people could come hang out,  speak, have a good time, which is usually what people do at cafés,” Gomez said. “We chose that name just because we wanted people to feel welcomed and that it’s a place to come hang out.”

Students with no Spanish classes or background should not feel discouraged about attending, as the Spanish Café also wants for students with no educational pursuit in the language to come out and participate.

“If you just have interest in the language you are more than welcome to come,” Gomez said. “We have two girls who come now who are native Spanish speakers, and they come just to speak to other students.”

Interest has sparked amongst students who have not yet attended, but have heard of the café and what it has to offer.

“Being able to speak freely in Spanish would be a pretty cool thing to come together with,” Percy Broussard, a junior mass media major, said. “If more people are able to be more comfortable together and learn together—that would be a great experience.”

The Spanish Café meets in the Student Union on the second floor in the conference room but that is susceptible to change.

“If we ever have to cancel or it’s in a different room, you can find out on the screens in the (Student) Union,” Gomez said.

Check Also

VPD creates summer program for area young people

The Valdosta Police Department (VPD) has announced a new youth program. Stand Against Youth Violence ...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *