World Language Week at Staples High School, beginning on March 7, celebrates its multiple language courses: Mandarin, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Latin. Each one of these languages has an important impact on the student body.
The main goal of World Language Week is to educate students on what other languages are out there by immersing them in different cultures.
“I don’t think [World Language Week] is particularly necessary, but I think it does give students the opportunity to indulge in other cultures and it can help students be more open to other nationalities and ways of life,” Michael Sarelli ’26 said.
Throughout the week, the cafeteria serves meals dedicated to the countries where each language originated. For example, on Mandarin day, potstickers and other Chinese food items were sold.
“Prof. D’Amore, an Italian teacher, has organized this for about three years now,” Spanish Teacher Enia Noonan said, “and every year we include different activities including song, sports, food, history and all of the other elements that make a culture rich.”
World Language Week, however, is not exclusive to just Staples. In fact, it is widely celebrated throughout the U.S. in order to highlight the multitude of languages that make up the nation. According to the United States census, people speak other languages at home more than ever in the United States. With 62% of non-english spoken languages in homes, Spanish is the most common other language spoken. Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese & Arabic follow behind it. Three out of these five languages are not represented in Staples’ World Language Week, citing an even larger need for further lingual and cultural diversity in schools.
A reason why this diversity is also important is because of the lack of such in Westport. With 86% of Westport’s population being white and 87% of families speaking only English at home according to the United States census, it varies significantly compared to a large part of the country, illustrating even more of its importance.
“Many of our students choose to take more than just one language,” Noonan said. “Celebrating World Language Week helps spread the word so that future polyglots can take advantage of the variety of languages we offer at Staples.”
