Arts & Life
November 28, 2017
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Celebrating Foreign Languages Day CYNTHIA PEREIRA Contributing Writer
The Department of Foreign Languages highlighted all the languages Towson has to offer at Foreign Languages Day on Nov. 15 in the University Union. Faculty and student representatives of the department had the opportunity to share a piece of their culture with the Towson student body with food, activities and events. “It’s a great way to showcase not only the languages that we teach and the culture, but the vibrant community of students we have in our department who are really engaged in learning,” said event coordinator and Spanish professor Diego del Pozo. The University offers 12 different foreign languages throughout the department that include languages from almost every continent. At Foreign Languages Day, there were different tables at the event led by each foreign language department and affiliated clubs such as the TowsonUDEP Movement for Environmental Education (Towson-UDEP MEE). Attendees experienced traditional Japanese snacks and egg rolls, learned to write their names in Hebrew and
Arabic, and enjoyed traditional Italian fruit bread, among other cultural activities. The students were also able to learn about the environmental research and work that is being done through the Towson-UDEP MEE club. “We help fundraise money and send money to impoverished schools in Peru, and help build lesson plans that the schools can use for their young students,” said senior international studies major Santiago Villarreal. The afternoon started with a guitar performance by a guitarist duo named Duo Amaral. The duo is composed of Israeli and Portuguese guitarists Jorge Amaral and Mia Pomerantz-Amaral, who play Spanish music. This act was followed by the students having the opportunity to walk around to each table at the event and learn about the different languages and cultures. “It’s my first event here at Towson and it is cool to look at different cultures and try different foods,” said senior deaf studies major Joy Stephanie Telan. “I love that I was able to learn how to write my name in different languages like in Arabic and Hebrew.” Towson faculty Thamiris Cunha led students and professors in a samba
Photo by Natalie Jeffrey/ The Towerlight
Duo Amaral performs at the Towson Foreign Language Department’s Foreign Languages Day event. lesson. Cunha is a teaching assistant teaching Portuguese at Towson through a Fulbright Scholarship. She is originally from Brazil and has gone to school at places such as Peking University in China and Universidad de Salamanca in Spain. Cunha explained how learning about different cultures and traveling has impacted her life. “When you learn languages, when you open your mind to different cultures, it’s amazing,” Cunha said. “It changes the way you see the
world. It’s a life-changing opportunity. It’s incredible.” The Samba lessons were shortly followed by a solo performance by Eyal Bor, a professor of Hebrew. He performed the Hava Nagila, a traditional Hebrew song, on the clarinet. He and his wife Hana Bor, who is an associate professor and program director of Jewish and Hebrew studies at Towson, were in charge of the Hebrew table at the event. Later on, attendees played a big game of Kahoot! in which they joined an open
online quiz and answered questions about different cultures and languages. The winners won prizes that were provided by the foreign languages department such as a picture of Cuba’s unique cars and a gift basket of Italian goodies. The eventful afternoon was brought to an end with a huge game of Bingo where participants learned the names of different objects in different languages. “I encourage everybody to take a foreign language because it is a life changing opportunity and opens your mind to the world,” del Pozo said.
New film adaptation could be the start of a franchise MATT MCDONALD Columnist
Courtesy of thelumina.com
The 2017 adaptation of mystery writer Agatha Christie’s story, “Murder on the Orient Express,” has spurned the call for a sequel.
In 1974, Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” was translated onto the big screen, and became an instant mystery classic. Its remake in 2017, directed by and starring award-winner Kenneth Branagh, not only meets the standard of a mystery classic, but elevates the story to cinematic artistry. With the tone of its original and the style of “Hugo”, this murder mystery is not only more realistic, but even more visually stunning. “Murder on the Orient Express” follows the great detective Hercule Poirot, a idiosyncratic sleuth who can solve any case, as he faces his greatest challenge yet. When he and fifteen others, trapped on a train in the snow, learn of the murder of one of their own, he must put aside his need for rest and find out who was the murderer. Through a series of interrogations, including one of himself and his skills, Poirot encounters many sur-
prises, lies and the killer in a most unexpected way. I love the original story, and I was really excited to see this remake of it, not only because of its highly superior cinematographic nature, but because of the cast involved. While there are many movies in which I groan at a huge cast of well-known celebrities, for this movie it works. Because there are so many suspects involved in such a complex case, it was easier to distinguish who was who by knowing the actors from previous movies. These actors, including Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Willem Dafoe and Penélope Cruz, are not only well-known, but they played the parts very well. The man of the hour, however, Kenneth Branagh, executed yet another brilliant role, portraying the character of Poirot with such accuracy, I almost forgot it was him sometimes. He struck the perfect balance between quirky and confident, and even put a new spin on the famous moustache. I honestly could not find much, if anything, in this movie that I didn’t
like. Having a slight advantage in following an already established story, it took creative license where it could and kept you guessing both in the writing and the physical shots used. If I had to be picky, I would say that there were one or two characters that didn’t get as much attention as the others, but that’s being extremely critical. Going into it, I figured there would be some flaws in portrayal considering they were taking liberties with the style of the production, but coming out of the theater, I couldn’t pick out anything that was a big problem. Overall, the color scheme, sound design, production design, acting, cinematography -- every aspect of the film -- contributed to the grand scale of this story and heightened it to a much more realistic and visceral end than its predecessor. Once again, Kenneth Branagh made a brilliant movie with wonderful acting, and the story will supposedly carry on into a sequel, “Death on the Nile,” taking place in Egypt. I’m going to call in right now: there will be a Kenneth Branagh-spearheaded ACU—Agatha Christie Universe.