Students can learn about countries and their cultures without having to go farther than UNM.
The World Language Expo 2008 will be hosted in Ortega Hall from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
The event will have presentations on languages and cultures from all over the world.
Marina Peters-Newell, the expo's coordinator, said the event aims to expose cultures of the world to the UNM community.
"The people who come to the event will be able to explore all languages and cultures," she said.
Participants will register when they arrive and will be able to choose which presentations they want to attend, Peters-Newell said.
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Presentations on anime and workshops on the Nahuatl language are just a few of the expo's features, she said.
"We are creating global citizens, or citizens of the world, and that is really hard to do when these citizens never travel," she said. "And I think we are set up at the University of New Mexico to be a gathering spot for people to see the world, and we do what we can with the resources that we have so that these cultures can come together."
Peters-Newell said she wants students who come to the event to learn about a part of the world they don't understand.
One presentation is about misperceptions of the Middle East.
"This is definitely in no way meant to provoke any controversy or animosity," she said. "What the presenters are trying to do here is give glimpses to what that part of the world is all about and to open people's eyes."
French professor Stephen Bishop said the event gives students the opportunity to learn about cultures they know little about.
"I'd say it is extremely important because there are hundreds of high school students that come from across the state, and for some of them, it is the first time they have been to the University," he said. "It helps encourage some of the students to want to come here and perhaps encourages them to want to take some of these languages."
Bishop said students are often surprised that the University offers classes like Japanese and Russian.
"I've seen many students in the past that are excited to see that there is a language that is less well known," he said. "It introduces students to a variety of languages and cultures that they otherwise wouldn't be exposed to because Spanish is such a dominant language."
Professor Jim Mondloch said he has participated in the event since it began three years ago. The presentations give people the opportunity to expand their knowledge on cultures they know little about, he said.
"I think it is a very enriching experience, because there is a great amount of diversity in the different languages, and that is how people live their daily lives in their culture," he said. "You have to remember that they are all human beings, but the way they live their lives is very different."
