With foreign language programs being slashed in grades K-12 across the country, the Cornell Educational Resources for International Studies (CERIS) Language and Cultural Program is working to foster a love of foreign language learning in young people by offering six- to 12-week after-school language programs to schools in the Ithaca region.

Since 2009, CERIS, a collaborative group of outreach staff from six area studies and Cornell's Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, has taught more than 20 languages to area students. Just this year, the program has been available in 14 locations, offering 14 languages from Mandarin, Macedonian and Japanese to Tagalog, Kannada, Polish and Karen. Teachers are recruited from international students' organizations across campus and include students, spouses of students, staff and faculty members. CERIS provides templates for teachers to build their own curriculum, and teachers are encouraged to incorporate games, singing and cultural activities.

"The goal is to expose K-12 students to cultures and languages they may not be exposed to in their daily life and to create an interest in studying foreign languages when the opportunity arises," says Nicole Koschmann, the education outreach coordinator at the Einaudi Center, which coordinates the program.

For example, at Trumansburg Elementary School, Thamora Fishel, outreach coordinator of Cornell's Southeast Asia Program, has been teaching Thai, and Zin Chan '13, Burmese. The two use the theme of Thailand and Burma as border countries to enrich their courses. Students use Thai and Burmese currency to buy food and crafts at a simulated border market and dress up in traditional costumes to exchange songs and rhymes.

Many of the CERIS language teachers are native speakers and, therefore, able to offer a firsthand perspective into a foreign culture. "There are all sorts of cross-cultural issues that can arise," says Fishel. "Even if the students only learn fewer vocabulary words, just the experience of learning from someone whose accent you really have to focus on and figure out is ... worthwhile."

Kathi Sue Colen Peck, a parent who reached out to CERIS to bring the language program to Trumansburg Elementary School, says the classes help give the students an "understanding of place and culture in the world." It's exciting for her son, she says, "to imagine that he'd be able to speak to people in a foreign restaurant or travel and be able to say hello in a different language."

Other recent CERIS language activities have included Cornell Fulbright graduate student Erkan Ozdogan making marble paper in his Turkish class at Caroline Elementary School and Indonesian and Hindi classes at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center.

Koschmann says she aims for the program "to really get across to American students that there are a whole host of cultures out there. We want them to see a whole spectrum of cultural tradition on a global level."

"When you teach the language, the ultimate goal isn't to memorize," agrees Chan. "I remember in the beginning of the year teaching them how to write their name. A few weeks later some kids wrote their name on the blackboard, and it makes me so proud of them. They've absorbed it, and they'll be able to take it with them after the program is over. That's the most rewarding thing for me."

Most of the participating volunteer language teachers ask to offer their programs again, says Koschmann, and "every [school] program we've worked with has asked us to come back and do more."

CERIS hopes to expand the program over the next four years to include more rural after-school programs and to increase the number of languages offered.

Joyce Wu '13 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.