What if you could find a piñata, a bocce ball, kubb, bamboo pole dancing and amazing snacks all in the same place? Students who happened upon the quad last week were in luck, because these were just some of the offerings the WLLC brought to campus.

On Sept. 29, The Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (WLLC) held its annual Around the World Lawn Games event in the lower quad. This event offered a broad collection of different games to represent cultures from around the world that Augustana’s language department teaches.

All seven language programs (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Scandinavian studies, and Linguistics) that are a part of the WLLC came together to create a fun and exciting afternoon with games and snacks for their students.

“It’s always nice to do something that’s outside, that’s culturally specific and that’s culturally relevant to the languages and cultures we teach. But that is not the same as the stuff that we do in the classroom,” German professor Lisa Seidlitz said.

Each of the countries and languages that helped put the Around the World Lawn Games event together was represented in its own unique way. Some countries had games that students could play and others had snacks from specific countries as well.

“It was really amazing and all-encompassing,” junior Savonia Mahr-Threw said. “All the professors were involved, and they made sure there were students there and that you didn’t feel like you were left out at all.” 

To increase student participation even further, some language professors offered their students extra credit to attend the event. This event introduced many students to the many languages Augustana offers through the WLLC.

“We’re hoping to help build a sense of community among our students, to help them meet people from other language programs and to help them understand the cultures that they’re studying in a much broader way,” Seidlitz said.

The stream of students taking part in this event didn’t ease up for an entire hour. Students stayed and traveled from game to game to try everything.

“I learned how welcoming everybody is,” Mahr-Threw said. “How welcoming and open each department is and how much fun everyone is.”

Overall, this year’s Around the World Lawn Games event was well received by students, and the WLLC will have this event again next year.

“We’ve all had so much fun doing it,” Seidlitz said. “It’s a nice way to see our students outside of the class and doing something fun and different. So absolutely. We’ll do this again.”

Around the World Lawn Games is not the only event the WLLC puts on. In spring, the WLLC also hosts a major and minor celebration so students can come to learn more about the programs and taste snacks from different countries.

According to the WLLC’s page on Augustana’s website, the goal of the WLLC is to help students engage with diverse languages and cultures and to celebrate the diversity of all kinds. By engaging students in an afternoon of games that showcased the diversity of the WLLC, students were able to learn about the department and have a great time doing it.