By Balan Selvamuthukumaran
When I was making my final decision on whether to come to Pomona or not, one thing that tipped the scales fairly heavily for me was the existence of Oldenborg (the Oldenborg Center for Foreign Languages and International Relations). I had talked to my admissions officer about Oldenborg, and she had assured me that it was a great place to really practice my Japanese skills and mingle with other language-learners. I, who had been especially passionate about language-learning in high school, thought that sounded just great to me, and ended up not only coming to Pomona but living in the Japanese Hall at Oldenborg. With that being said, let’s talk about the Japanese Language Table (and language tables at large!) at Oldenborg.
When you go to Oldenborg for lunch, you are expected to sit at a language table—that might be Spanish, French, Japanese… you name it. You are also expected to speak (or endeavor to speak) in that language throughout the duration of your stay at the language table. This is meant to improve language skills and build community, and it does both exceedingly well. From the first day I went to the Japanese Language tables at Oldenborg, I felt that I was in a community. I enjoyed meeting all the other Japanese students—many of whom I actually knew from my Advanced Japanese class—and doing my best to hold a conversation with them, along with Japanese native speakers and our Language Resident.
As I came to the language table more often, I realized I could recognize the majority of the Japanese community at the Claremont Colleges, which made me feel like I was part of a community. I ended up taking a Japanese Conversation class to further this, and enjoyed putting together an Athletic Festival with people in my class as well as people in the department. Though I am not taking Japanese anymore, due to a lack of time in my schedule, I still cherish the memories I have from those first few classes, as well as the continued opportunities I have to engage at the language tables.
