Español, Français, Deutsch, Italiano. Campus was filled with sounds from across the globe as Iona College held its annual Foreign Language Celebration in observance of National Foreign Language Week from March 3 to March 9.

This week of cultural awareness and celebration is sponsored each year by Alpha Mu Gamma, the National Collegiate Foreign Language Honor Society.

Chapters of Alpha Mu Gamma across the country, as well as other interested schools, sponsor and organize activities throughout the week on their own campuses.

Iona’s own celebration, sponsored by the college chapter of Alpha Mu Gamma and the Foreign Language Department, is fairly new on campus.

This was its second year her at Iona.

Each day a different language was showcased by the foreign language faculty.

“Every language is invited to participate,” said Dr. Victoria Ketz, chair of the Foreign Language Department.

The week kicked off with “An Italian Day in New York” on Feb. 28, led by Dr. Thomas Mussio.

Students spent an afternoon learning about the Italian Renaissance at the Metropolitan Museum.

They culminated their experience with a roundtable discussion at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York.

The festivities continued after the weekend with the celebration of German, Italian, French and Spanish cultures and languages.

Students were invited to enjoy several foreign film screenings, including “The Edukators,” a German film, “Intouchables,” a French film, and “Un Cuento Chino,” a Spanish film.

A selection of food from each culture was also offered at the Italian Table and the Café Français in the Foreign Language house.

The weeklong celebration ended with the Spanish language day on Thursday March 6.

Complete with salsa lessons, sponsored by the Hispanic Organization for Latin Awareness (HOLA), as well as a showing of student film projects from a Latin-American Cinema class, the Spanish celebration ended Iona’s National Foreign Language Week festivities with a bang.

Though the celebration is over for this year, that doesn’t mean you should forget about foreign languages.

This year’s theme, “Don’t Let Learning a Language Slip Through Your Fingers,” reminds students not to miss the opportunity to expand their horizons and encourages students to take the initiative to get out there and learn a foreign language at any time of the year.