The Critical Languages Center is showing a foreign movie every night, Monday through Friday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 241 of B.B. Comer to promote diversity and interest in culture and language among students.

The CLC is a part of the Modern Languages and Classics Department in Arts and Sciences and offers approximately 10 Less Commonly Taught Languages with the goal of providing an opportunity for as many students as possible to acquire communicative competence in LCTL.

“We believe that interest in language begins with an interest in culture,” Sumi Woo, an administrative GTA for CLC, said. “That is, the more students that are interested in culture, the more students registering for CLC language courses.”

As a way to increase that interest in culture, CLC is hosting a free movie series for six weeks. It began Oct. 22 and will continue through Nov. 30, with the exception of Friday nights before home games and Thanksgiving break. CLC will screen a total of 24 films from 10 different countries that include Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Turkey, India, Israel, Brazil and African countries.

The 24 movies chosen were either recommended by native speakers who teach different languages at the CLC, won several famous international awards, or were well received by critics, Woo said. They are also taking suggestions for next year’s movie list, and anyone can recommend newly released movies they want to see.

Woo said one of the initial objectives of the movie nights is to promote CLC programs.

“We are a part of the Modern Languages and Classics Department in Arts and Sciences, but not a lot of people know us,” she said. “We offer a variety of language classes, both in class and online. We have Korean, Arabic, Farsi, Portuguese, Hebrew, Hindi, Swahili, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese courses, and we also have online Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese classes.”

Woo said not many students are aware of the numerous benefits of learning a foreign language. CLC’s weekly movies will also provide more opportunities for diversity among students and staff, and Woo hopes it will break down racial stereotypes.

“It is the perfect opportunity to allow many internationally-minded students, faculty, staff and community members to participate and enjoy diversity on our campus,” Woo said. “Personally, I think Alabama is relatively closed in cultures. Many people seem to hold negative stereotypes indirectly acquired through the international media. I hope more people have many opportunities to meet different cultures and understand those cultures more.”

Andrew Word, a sophomore majoring in English and Spanish, is studying Korean with the CLC. He participates in many of its events, including the foreign movie nights.

“CLC is always interested in entertaining the community of the University,” Word said. “Whether it be through showing movies or by hosting something such as the Exotic Food Tasting Trip we recently held, the department’s goal is always to foster a sense of community between students of every nationality, and drawing people out for events like this is a perfect way to do so.”

Word is looking forward to the opportunities the movie series will provide for students.

“I believe that this event offers students of all nationalities and all social backgrounds an opportunity to broaden their cultural understanding by affording them insight into the types of entertainment enjoyed in other countries,” he said.

Word said he was most looking forward to seeing “War of Arrows,” a Korean movie about an archer who sets off to save his sister from her Manchurian captors during the Manchu invasion of Korea.

“I’m looking to broaden my own knowledge of the Korean language, though I certainly don’t mean for this to sound selfish to those studying other languages,” he said. “And I feel like getting the chance to watch this and listen to the language being spoken in this theatrical environment is a wonderful chance to hear the language ‘in action,’ in a manner of speaking.”

The movie night will be every night Monday through Friday until Nov. 30, except Nov. 9, 16, and 21-23, and one free CLC T-shirt is given as a door prize every day.

For more information, visit bama.ua.edu/~clc.