By Angel Gingras
Marilyn Matar took an interest in literature and theatre in high school, where she developed a passion for learning through teaching and mentoring her peers. For over 20 years, she’s lived out that passion, teaching French to students of all ages. Now she’s taking on a new role: director of the University of Maryland’s Language House.
“I teach French and francophone studies, and my love for language and literature is what led me to do that,” said Matar. “Time with the students and the mentors is what I love the most.”
Open primarily to undergraduates who are sophomores and above, the university’s Language House, housed in St. Mary’s Hall, is one of several of the campus’ Living-Learning Programs. It is divided into 10 different language clusters, each led by a mentor, who help students engage in an immersive experience focused on the target language they choose to study.
Events in the language house take place within individual clusters, as well as within the program as a whole. Weekly coffee chats are hosted for all clusters to demonstrate their language abilities with one another. Other events this semester included a career night and short film festival, all which returned in-person this semester after nearly 18 months in the virtual environment.
“We had cluster meetings once a week over zoom…and we would have to find ways to participate in our target language and culture online with our mentor, and there was dissonance between us and our mentor,” said Mareike Debye, a sophomore letters and sciences student in the German cluster.
Debye is one of a few students who’s been admitted to the Language House as a freshman. She credits Matar in introducing her to the program and helping her make the deadline to get inducted last spring.
“I had a lot of worries and a lot of questions about the program, and [Dr. Matar] set time aside and met with me,” said Debye.
This was shortly after Matar joined UMD faculty.
She started her position as director of the Language House in fall 2020, not only navigating her new job but also the virtual component that came with it, all while assisting the students who lived on-campus last year.
“Teaching is not part of my role right now, and I miss it,” said Matar. “I juggle a lot of different things, such as taking care of the website, preparing for events, and placing students in the residences.”
Teaching has been a big part of Matar’s career. She worked as a teaching assistant at UMD prior to earning her Ph.D. in modern French studies from the university in 2014, and taught French courses at George Washington University, the Catholic University of America and the Alliance française in Washington, D.C. before returning to UMD last fall.
Although she’s not teaching any French courses this year, Matar says she loves being able to connect with her students on a more personal level through working in the Language House.
“[Matar is] very involved and loves to interact with students,” said Andrew Hicho, a sophomore French major in the French cluster. “For instance, when a student had a survey for another class, she sent out an email to everyone about it… so it just shows that she really cares about her students.”
Matar’s love of teaching French language and literature is not the only thing that connects Matar to her students. Growing up in Lebanon, she is a native speaker of French and Arabic. When she began learning English at the age of 8, she initially struggled with it. It wasn’t until Matar became immersed in English in her 20s that she got more comfortable with speaking it.
“I share my experience of learning English with my students… what works for me and what the difficulties are,” said Matar. “I never expected that one day I’d be doing a job in English, so these are the things that I share with the students in order to help them.”
After returning from a year of virtual learning, Matar’s goal for the Language House is for students to appreciate the culture they are learning and avoid stereotypical representations. She wants her students to know that learning a language is a lifelong process and that it is okay to make mistakes.
“I tell my students not to shy away from [their language], even with all the frustrations…smaller, more attainable goals, will best help them with their language learning,” said Matar.