By Abigail Bender

University of Maryland’s Language House living-learning program hosted its annual Around the World event in St. Mary’s Hall on Wednesday, where students showcased the cultural and linguistic traditions of nine languages: Persian, French, German, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and Japanese.

The Language House is an immersive program in which students choose a language cluster, live with other students seeking to learn the same language and interact with a native speaker to enhance their fluency, according to the university’s School of Languages, Literature and Cultures.

The Around the World event is a culmination of each cluster’s experience in the program, where they share cultural food, crafts and activities with attendees. 

“This is kind of their chance to show off what they’ve learned about the language and the culture, to teach others about it, and to also be able to go around and learn about the others and that are not in their own language,” said Charlee Bezilla, associate director of the Language House living learning program, said.

Bezilla said the event helps familiarize students with the traditions they might know little about.

“So you can learn about the food, you can learn about the traditions and the dress and the tea ceremony,” Bezilla said. “It’s a way to kind of go beyond the surface level of what people might know stereotypically about the culture.” 

At the Persian cluster’s table, they featured information about the importance of offering tea in Tajik tradition to show hospitality, aiming to educate attendees about broader Persian cultures. 

At the Russian table, cluster mentor Katya Sorokin, a junior international relations and criminology and criminal justice double-major, highlighted the importance of literature in Russian culture. 

“So here, students can create personalized bookmarks that translate their English name into Russian, and they can also grab some Russian tea, eat some candies and some crackers called sushki that are eaten with Russian tea,” Sorokin said.

The table also featured elements such as Russian nesting dolls and more information about what literature means in this culture. Literature serves not only as a pastime but also as a joint intellectual experience. 

“Russian-speaking people typically drink tea and like to read, sometimes just to relax,” Sorokin said. “So it’s kind of a cohesive event.”

Sophomore international relations major Julia Creighton is part of the German cluster. The group’s poster board featured information about abendbrot, which is a low-effort meal that Germans eat for dinner. It requires no cooking, and its elements were featured for attendees to try. 

The table featured German cheeses, cold cuts and butter cookies. The German cluster also featured poster boards that taught attendees how to say the foods displayed in German.

Creighton said the group chose to showcase specific food and activities that they felt encapsulated German culture and what they have learned throughout this year.  

“We all live in one apartment, and we speak German in the apartment,” Creighton said.

The Language House is the oldest living-learning program at the university, according to the university’s 2025-26 academic catalog. Sharing what students have learned through the Around the World event celebrates all that this program offers to each student in their cluster. 

“There’s no other university that has quite as many languages in one program, so we’re really proud of that,” Bezilla said. “ I think it’s very special, because the students get to grow their language skills over time through working with others in their daily life, and it prepares them for all types of different careers, different internships, graduate school. So it’s a really wonderful experience.”

Featured Image: University of Maryland’s Language House students share cultural and linguistic traditions at its Around the World event on April 29, 2026. Photo by Abigail Bender.