Thirty-eight students were learning Spanish, Filipino, French, Norwegian, German, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese at the Language 101 seminar that was held at the student center last Tuesday.

“This is the first time that the International Students Association has done this for students,” said ISA President Moises Gutierrez.

At each table students were learning a language through greetings, goodbye, directions and vocabulary. Each lesson lasted 15 minutes.

Spanish greetings of “Hello” (“Hola”) and Filipino introductions of “Ako si” (“I am”) were just a few of the vocabulary lessons learned.

As Sylvia Thomas, sociology major, said while learning Norwegian, “This language was very informative.”

The instructor was also explaining Norwegian traditions.

Thomas added that she would come back and learn another language when the event is held again.

Gutierrez says that he hopes to hold the event again “if not this semester, I’m hoping next semester.”

Danita Kurtz, ISA adviser, said, “Moises is setting an excellent example to other students by organizing this event.”

She said that Gutierrez went to Japan last summer and had the idea of teaching languages and culture to Cerritos students.

Japanese was the language that Nadia Sanchez, business administration major, was most interested in.

She said, “I have taken Japanese courses before.”

Judith Moreno, philosophy major, said, “Learning the languages was awesome, and all the instructors were great.”

Moreno said that learning Spanish and Japanese were easy and that Filipino was similar to Spanish.

One of the instructors, Kathy Layaoen, engineering design major, said that 15 minutes was not long enough.

But, she said, “The turnout was terrific.”

“Students here at Cerritos seem to have no apathy for what is going on,” she added.

She too said that she would return to the event if it were held again.

“It was basic, and one or two of the languages had very similar ways of saying the same thing,” Layaoen added.

Gutierrez agrees that learning a language is basic and fun.

“I really don’t look at it as a lesson,” he said, “because it doesn’t involve a textbook.”

He added, “I was expecting only (about) 12 students to show up, but 38 students attended.”

“I hope those students who did show up will keep what they learned with them.”