Following the demolition of Pomona College’s Oldenborg Center for Modern Languages and International Relations this summer, its language resources were relocated. The language-immersion program is now in Lawry Court, Language Residents live separately from their students and language tables are hosted in Frank Dining Hall.
Students and Language Residents said these changes have diminished the close-knit community among language learners that Oldenborg facilitated through its housing, dining and programming.
Sarah Bergmann, a German Language Resident, used to live alongside students in Oldenborg’s language hall while organizing conversation classes and cultural events. She said moving Language Residents away from students has significantly affected her experience.
“Last year, we really used to see students all the time, like you would just go out of your room and see students,” Bergmann said. “Now it’s different because we’re not there anymore.”
Adelina Grotenhuis PO ’28, who lived in Oldenborg’s Spanish hall last year, said having residential life and language tables in the same building helped residents feel closer.
“You live [in Oldenborg], and the language tables are so close that you just go there for lunch, and you see the same people all the time,” she said. “It [was] really like its own community.”
Danni Nguyen PO ’28, a resident of Oldenborg’s Korean hall last year, said the residential program gave students opportunities to apply language skills outside of traditional classroom settings.
“A lot of times when you’re learning in the classroom, it can be really hard to practice everything that you’ve learned,” Nguyen said. “It’s a really good way, I think, to apply what you do in the classroom in the real world.”
Nguyen also said the program connected language learning with cultural activities, helping residents build relationships while immersing in their language.
“If you want to learn a language, being able to apply it and use it among other people is really important,” Nguyen said.
Ignacio Moreira Morales, a Spanish language resident for the last two semesters, said the transition has changed the program’s broader sense of community.
“I don’t feel the community [is] as tight-knit as it was when Oldenborg existed,” Morales said. “There was this special place in which there was a dorm and a dining hall [that] doesn’t exist anymore, so it’s natural that the community is not the same as last year.”
While the residential experience has changed, Language Residents said participation in language tables has remained similar to previous years.
“In the beginning, everyone was kind of worried that it was going to be so different, and students will not come anymore,” Bergmann said. “But actually, it’s working out pretty well, like better than expected.”
Grotenhuis said that while the transition isn’t ideal, she recognized that some of the changes are unavoidable, and is excited for the future of language learning at Pomona.
“I think that the new building will be really cool, and I think this temporary loss of that space in the community will probably benefit the school in the long run,” Grotenhuis said. “I think it’ll be worth it.”
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