In March, schools around America celebrate National Foreign Language Week to embrace the importance of learning a new language to students. Foreign Language Week is celebrated at PAHS on the week of March 7 through March 11. The languages that were involved in Foreign Language Week were French, German, and Spanish.

The Foreign Language Club announced that they were going to have a poster contest for National Foreign Language Week. This year’s slogan is, “Celebrate Humanity Through Language”. 

The Foreign Language Club had rules for students that were interested in participating. The rules were the following: The slogan for the week must be in English and the foreign language students are studying. The slogan had to be part of the poster. Students had to check with their teacher to make sure that their foreign language version was correct. Students were only able to enter the contest once. The poster must have had color. Finally, all posters were due by Friday March 4th with no exceptions. 

Mrs. Nicole Stiles is the advisor for Foreign Language Club at PAHS ,“Our goal is to celebrate the cultures of all the places in the world where French, German, and Spanish are used,” Mrs. Stiles explains. Stiles is also the French teacher at Pottsville Area High School. Some of her favorite things about Foreign Language Week include,” I love to hear our students read the Pledge of Allegiance during the morning announcements in French, German, and Spanish. I also really like seeing all of the poster contest submissions and displaying them in our classrooms.”

As the German teacher of PAHS, Mr. Lynn says what his favorite thing about National Foreign Language Week is, “Foreign Language Week is recognizing the top achieving students and hearing the announcements in a foreign language.” Mr. Jeremiah Lynn also says that he has “no major events planned besides the poster contest,” but he is excited for students to show their “creative side.”

Ms. Lloren Reichert thinks, “Foreign Language Week is important because it promotes the study of foreign languages.” Reichert also says, “Knowing a foreign language can be beneficial in a future career. Many adults have told me that they wished they would have taken a foreign language in high school.” One of Ms. Reichert’s favorite memories is, “When the Spanish teachers took students to Puerto Rico. The students were so excited to learn about Puerto Rican culture and to speak Spanish outside of the classroom.”