World Language & Culture Department

 [Courses]

Bienvenidos, Willkommen & Bienvenue to the World Language & Culture Department at HHS! 

The 2022-23 school year is off and running! Students from Profe North's Local to Global Service Learning course have been digging into food security issues and organizing a local food drive. Spanish students have collaborated with Ms. Whitney, our librarian, to write and share biographies during Hispanic Heritage Month, visited White River School for paella and bocadillos, and sampled Señora Allis-Paredes's pan de muertos to celebrate Day of the Dead. Our French students traveled to Magog, Canada to try out their skills. So nice to have a place to use what we are learning only two hours away!

Language Lunch - Every Tuesday in Room 214

The Global to Local chat series we started last year has moved to lunch this year. Every Tuesday, our World Language Club and any other students who want to join hear stories from students, staff, and community members about their  international and language-learning experiences. If you are a member of the HHS or Hartford community and have a world language or culture story to share, please contact us! Email hluchyjk@hartfordschools.net.

World Language Club

Delaney Gross started a World Language Club last year for her Honors Program capstone project. Students have run with this idea and French and Spanish Clubs have branched out to work on projects that connect language learning to our local and global communities. Watch the daily announcements and talk with Mr. Hinman, Profe Hluchyj, Profe North, or Señora Allis-Paredes for more information!

News from the French Program:

We have awesome energy in our French Program right now! We spent a day in Magog, Quebec in October, doing a scavenger hunt in French, visiting art and history museums, eating Moroccan and Lebanese food, and sampling poutine. We are collaborating with the social studies department to give students a chance to use their French skills further afield this spring with the Global Citizenship service-learning trip to Morocco in April! 

We have also started a virtual exchange with students in Cenon, Hartford's sister city in France! This summer, 10th grader Ayodele Lowe won the Sister City Committee logo contest with this design! Here he is with members of the committee and 12th grader Anthem Philip, a student representative to the committee. If you are interested in getting involved with the committee, talk with Profe Hluchyj or Anthem!

News from the Spanish Program -  

Spanish classes at HHS have been in full force! Our students collaborated with Ms. Whitney to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month writing bilingual biographies of famous Hispanic Americans and sharing them with the school through an advisory scavenger hunt. 

Our Advanced Topics in Spanish class is focused on Spain this semester and hosted a Feria de Communidades to share what we learned about each region of Spain with other Spanish classes at HHS and with students at the White River School in preparation for Chef Bunzey's bocadillos and paella. We also make a trip to watch flamenco at the Hopkins Center! 

Sra. Allis-Paredes prepared Pan de Muertos for Día de los Muertos celebrations with students in Spanish 1 and 2.

News from the German Program - 

Hartford offers four levels of German, and students learn about German history, culture and language.   Some highlights from 2022 include cooking Spätzle, baking pretzels, and wrapping up our natural science unit by taking a field trip to the Echo Center in Burlington.  We also enjoyed some German food at Von Trapp’s Lodge in Stowe!

German Exchange Program

Hartford is a GAPP school (German-American Partnership Program), which means we participate in a two-week exchange with a school in Germany.  Our current partner school is the Frankenwald Gymnasium, a high school located in northern Bavaria.  Hartford students travel to Germany as a culminating capstone experience in German 4.  During the exchange, students stay with host families and immerse in the daily life of the host community.  The exchange includes community service-learning projects in both countries.  Projects have included: working at the Listen Center in WRJ; doing trail work and river restoration; partnering with elementary school students, and refugees; working at the ice-fishing derby in Quechee; and the community food shelf in Kronach.

Spanish Immersion & Service Learning Project

Over the past ten years, HHS Spanish students have traveled on interdisciplinary service learning trips to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Peru, and Ecuador. We work as a group to raise funds and prepare for the trip by learning about the culture of the place we will visit. We have established the HHS Travel Equity Fund to ensure that any student can participate in these opportunities, regardless of economic situation. Stay tuned for future opportunities as the global health situation permits us to begin to explore the world again!   

La France (2018 & 2015) et la Martinique (2017)

During April break 2019, French teacher Scott Tarbox took his students to France.  This one of several trips he has taken with his students.

France 2019

During Spring break 2019, a group of students with chaperones Mr. Tarbox and Dr. Brzozowski, traveled to France through the Globalworks Student Travel organization.  We arrived in Paris and immediately after leaving the airport, started touring the city.   We spent two nights at a international youth hostel in the middle of Paris, visiting the Louvre, Montparnasse, the Eiffel Tower, and ate dinner at a couple of famous French restaurants.  One of our students recorded that we walked about 12 miles each day while still giving us time to visit many cool Parisian landmarks!    

After Paris, we went directly to Carcassonne in the south of France where students stayed with host families to practice their French and learn about the culture.  During the days we were there, our group toured the fortified city of Carcassonne, participated in activities at a youth center, wandered through the small villages in the region, and helped out on a restoration project.  We also hiked to several of the Cathar castles built in the 12th century and learned about their way of life.  Many tourist destinations also have a bookstore, so you can always learn more about the historic sites you’ve visited.

Some of the passing comments I heard included:  “I didn’t realize I knew so much French until I had to talk with my host family!”  and “How can I stay here longer?  France is awesome!”   The trip was an excellent way to reward students for all their hard work while still having fun.  

Martinique 2017

French culture in the Carribean: Martinique is a small island close to South America, in which locals speak both French and Martinican Creole.  We left from Montreal and arrived several hours later in the capital of Fort-de-France.  We learned the history of Martinique from our tour director and from those working in local museums.  (There was even a museum dedicated to the many different varieties of banana trees on a large farm.)

We listened to some local music on the radio while working on a small organic form, toured the city market, visited a leatherback turtle nesting site, and spent time at a local high school.  We discussed in French the differences between Vermont and Martinique, hobbies, and things to do in the area.  We also spent several days visiting other small villages and cities throughout the island and each night eating fresh seafood and regional specialties.  

Students stayed on a cliffside resort in a surfing town with a perfect view of the ocean in the evening.  Mornings included drives to cultural landmarks after a typical French breakfast of chocolate croissants, yogurt, fruit, and coffee.   Students learned the history of Martinique’s colonial past and how sugar was traditionally made from the large stalks that are actually giant blades of grass.  With so much to do, the week really flew by.

2014 Trip to Germany