The International Student Association will host an event today to give students the opportunity to practice their foreign language skills.

Languages at Lakeside will take place today from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Lakeside Dining Hall. Students must swipe in for a meal in order to attend the event.

Joe Pavlisko, president of the International Student Association and a junior majoring in economics, said there will be tables set up in the dining hall with cards on them specifying what language to speak at the table.

“It’s a really informal place for people to have the opportunity to meet some people who speak whatever language they’re interested in,” Pavlisko said.

He said he is concerned that when people see their designated language table they won’t sit down if no one is there already. If there isn’t a table for the language the students want to speak they can create a new table.

He got the idea from events held at Harvard and Yale where they set up language tables in one of their dining halls every week.

“It’s just a casual opportunity,” Pavlisko said. “I love learning foreign languages. I really like trying to talk to people in foreign languages even when it doesn’t work out that well.”

Pavlisko has taken two foreign languages, Japanese and Arabic, in the classroom.

“I feel like classrooms are a really unnatural setting to learn a foreign language,” he said. “You really learn foreign languages through conversation.”

Yichen Feng, vice president of the International Student Association and a junior majoring in management information systems and finance, said she thinks the event will benefit students.

“The best way to practice a language is to actually speak it and listen to the native speaker,” Feng said. “It’s a great way to learn.”

At the tables for each language students must speak that language only. Feng said this puts pressure on students, and, once they get comfortable with it, it’s very easy to keep going. She said the first step is the most difficult.

The International Student Association aims to help international students be more involved with campus and have a comfortable life on campus, she said.

Feng came to America when she was in high school and didn’t participate in events because she didn’t speak English very well. A program like ISA at her high school would have helped her a lot, she said.

“I think [ISA] has helped me to know a lot of other students as well as to build my leadership skills,” Feng said.

“The Languages at Lakeside is a win-win opportunity to practice foreign language for both international and American students,” said Jialin Dong, treasurer of the International Student Association and a junior majoring in accounting.

Dong said she joined ISA last year and made many friends. She said it’s an organization to help promote communication between American and international students.

Pavlisko said if student involvement is good they hope to provide dinner for future language events.

“I think we’re going to try to do [Languages at Lakeside] once a month throughout the year, depending on student interest,” Pavlisko said.

For more information about ISA, students may e-mail Joe Pavlisko at [email protected].

If You Go

What: Languages at Lakeside

Where: Lakeside Dining Hall

When: Today from 5:30 to 8 p.m.