When the elevator doors open on the third floor of the Monroe Lane Language House, they open to a bookcase full of shoes. In many Asian households it is common custom to remove the shoes before entering a home. Within the walls of the new Asian, Middle Eastern and Italian languages house, two "shoe cases" help organize the overflow of footwear. Crammed together on the black shelves sit boots, tennis shoes and sandals of many varieties and styles.
Like their shoes, the residents of the newly opened language house are an assorted bunch. They are here from different places and different backgrounds. They are here for different language purposes, and yet they are all here together.
Inside the Monroe Lane Language House, six different language groups reside. Unlike those in the other four language houses on grounds, which each cater to one specific language, residents here struggle to master a foreign tongue in a multi-lingual environment. The 77-student capacity building is near full with students studying Chinese, Japanese, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, Farsi and Italian.
In such an environment, it is near impossible to maintain a program of total language emersion.
Within the common areas of the language house -- the lounges, seminar rooms, elevators and bathrooms -- communication in English becomes necessary.
Yet, language house director and Italian language professor, Enrico Cesaretti, assured that the building was constructed with a multi-lingual purpose in mind. Each language group has been designated its own section of the house. And language advisors from the Asian, Middle Eastern and Italian language departments ensure that within their respective areas of the house, students speak only their target language.
Lucas Hartley, first-year Law student and the house's graduate advisor, believes residents of Monroe will gain an awareness of language context, as well as language exposure.
With six different language groups "it's not as easy moving in and out of the target language, even in the house; but that's not problematic," Hartley said. "We provide an environment where people not only are able to study a foreign language, but to recognize
that their language study is always going to exist in a diverse environment. I hope it will give students a broader awareness of the context where they'll be applying that language."
Residents of the Monroe Lane Language House tout the community as multi-cultural, in addition to multi-lingual.
Language and culture, they are inseparable, said Zeina Saliba, fourth-year College student and language house advisor.
Students within the house study not only a language, but also the culture and country in which it is spoken.
And where there are many languages, there inevitably are many cultures.
"Our main goal is language emersion, but at the same time to have a cohesive community among different language groups," Saliba said.
To encourage a sense of international community, Saliba and Hartley have a number of programs and events planned for Monroe residents.
Saliba is especially concerned with uniting language students in non-language specific settings.
She intends to hold activities outside the house that will bring together all Monroe residents and also the residents of the other language houses.
Hartley hopes the University's language departments will use the house's conference rooms for seminars. He also envisions a colloquium series highlighting the many ways students can turn their interest in language into a marketable skill.
"I want [Monroe Lane Language House] to be a place where people can be aware of the breadth of opportunities available," Hartley said
House involvement with community service is also viewed as key. "We want to be recognized as those who are dedicated to serving," Hartleysaid. "We see this as being analogous to being representatives of international, outward-, forward-looking people."
Because the language house has only recently moved from conception to reality, attitudes toward programming are experimental and open, Hartley said. Without a precedent to follow, he, Saliba, Cesaretti and the house's six language advisors are free to explore many different avenues of learning and sharing.
Yet the fact that the house is new also has proved to be an obstacle.
Construction of the residence was completed only in the nick of time and although students were able to move in as planned on Aug. 24, the house remains unfinished.
The kitchen and dining areas await completion and until they are finished, house dinners, seen as staples on Monroe Lane, are conducted in the significantly less intimate setting of Newcomb Hall dining room. Lounges and common areas also currently are unfurnished, preventing students from adding homey or cultural touches to the house. The shoe-shelving units provide only two signs of occupancy along the otherwise sterile walls of the house.
Students have, however, taken it upon themselves to personalize their rooms, often in the cultural style of the language they are learning. One student in the Japanese language hallway has hung a bright blue banner decorated in Japanese script from his door. In the Arabic language section, Arab music can be heard in the hall.
Living in the house gives you the feeling of being somewhere else,Saliba said.
But with the many languages and cultures represented within the building, it is often unclear where that "somewhere else" is.
Unlike Maison Francaise where French culture dominates or the Max Kade House, where German proliferates, it is harder to define the environment of the Monroe Lane Language House.
For this reason, University officials and language house staffers see the Monroe Lane Language House occupying an important role at the school.
"University administrators want this house to be the epicenter of a language precinct on campus," Cesaretti said.
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