The Center for Language Education (CLE) Language Corner recently completed its final meeting of the 2024-2025 academic year. Six language groups participated, including English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Beginning Chinese, and Cantonese. The last event attracted around 41 participants in total.

Seeking to provide an opportunity for multiple language groups to share, practice, and enjoy their languages, the Language Corner met approximately every two weeks during the semester. Since its launch in 2023, it has become a popular and well-attended CLE event. Featuring six meetings last fall and five in the spring, the Language Corner hosted eleven gatherings across the two terms.

This semester saw the exciting addition of Cantonese. SUSTech’s Cantonese Club now has regular participation, with a dedicated language leader to coordinate the group’s meetings. The Language Corner is led by Professor Albert Evans from the CLE, who emphasizes that its true strength lies in the effort and enthusiasm of the language leaders. “The language leaders welcome people to their language group,” explained Professor Evans. “They provide a center around which the students can gather. The leaders also provide guidance and often direction in conversation topics.”

This year’s leaders included Miguel Martinez for French, Paul Madden for Spanish, Shen Wei for Beginning Chinese, Lin “Alex” Hongbo for Japanese, and Sun “Sandy” Qingri for Cantonese.

This academic year, the Language Corner met regularly on Friday evenings from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM at the plaza in front of the College of Science. No registration was required, and faculty members, staff, and graduate students would often drop by to take part in the activities.

A typical visit begins when participants arrive and tell the host which language group they wish to join. The host would guide them to the relevant group and help them to settle in. The language leaders usually greet newcomers and may provide slips of paper with some topics or language cues to help get the discussion started. While some participants enjoy moving from one language to another after a while, most choose to stay with the same language for the full hour.

An interesting bit of trivia is that the Language Corner works with the Zhiren College English Corner on scheduling. On alternating Fridays, the two groups ensure that there is always some language-learning opportunity for SUSTechers on campus throughout the semester.

The Language Corner averaged over 35 participants per event last semester, with attendance peaking at over 60 people for a single meeting. While each one often featured a light theme, most groups could pursue their own topics according to where the conversation led them.

The Language Corner will return in the fall of 2025 and looks forward to welcoming even more new participants.