Madre Mia – Spanish Gala Event

The Department of Languages, HITS conducted Madre Mia, a Spanish Gala event on 7 December 2021. The event commenced with a Welcome Address by Dr. A. Sherine Joy, Head Department of Languages. She welcomed the audience comprising Engineering and Liberal Arts students of various branches who were informed about the importance of hosting the event was to promote Spanish Language and opting Spanish as Non Department Elective by engineering students in their regular programme. Dr. Sherine also shared ideas of the course being introduced as Certificate Course for other streams of students. She further gave an overview about the event which comprised Spanish workshop by Ms. Sophia Khandelwal, Spanish Faculty, HITS; and Director, Mind your Language. The event also had in store, food mela, fun games, music and dance. Dr. Alexander Jesudasan, Pro Vice Chancellor, in his special address to the students informed the need to know various foreign languages, learn the culture of various countries across the world as part of globalisation and increase the possibilities of higher education and scope of employability. Dr. David Easow, Head SLAAS also gave his inputs and encouraged students to participate in the events and also motivated them to speak Spanish words.

Ms. Sofia Khandelwal in her presentation titled “Why Should You Learn Spanish” elaborated that learning Spanish broader career options, sharpens mind, networking skills, boost confidence, improves memory and enhances multi-tasking. 559 million people speak Spanish around the world. She also reiterated that if students wish to work in US they should be aware that Spanish is the second official language in US. She also emphasised the importance of Spanish in the IT sector. She highlighted the fact that Spanish companies such as Navantia, Inditex, Zara, Abenga, Indolink have business branches in India. Indian companies have also entered the Spanish market in IT services, pharmaceutical, energy industries and automobile industries. Job opportunities also includes in telecom, banking, insurance, engineering, manufacturing aviation, oil & gas, hospitality, medical fields and many more. Ms. Sofia also taught the students few Spanish words during the workshop Hola, gracias, felicidades, feliz navidad, Buenos dias, cuidate, quieres cafe, comida, bebida, madre mia and adios.

The workshop culminated by the vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Marie Evangeline, AP, Languages who thanked the management for encouraging to conduct the event, with a special thanks to Mr. Ashok Verghese, Director, HITS who was instrumental to materialise the conduct of the event. She appreciated the efforts of Ms. Sofia Khandelwal for conducting the workshop; and also thanked the Pro Vice Chancellor, Head SLAAS and Dr. Prabharan, Head Student Affairs and the coordinator of the event and Dr. Sherine the Convenor of the event. The Editorial team was also appreciated for all their efforts.

After the workshop, several events were conducted in Open Air Theatre (OAT) which commenced with fun games, Musical Chair event, the winners were acknowledged and appreciated by Dr. David Easow. There was a Spanish song rendition by Ms. Sofia Khandelwal and Mr. Chandan Parida, II Year BCA, Spanish solo song by Ms. Varsha Nair, II Year BA English and group dance by students dance team, organised by Mr. Royson, Cultural Coordinator. Spanish food mela, Tea Villa cafe was also arranged at the OAT. The event was an enthralling and exciting with enthusiastic involvement by staff and students. The event was compeered by Ms. Varsha Nair, II Year BA English; Ms. Devadharshini, II Year B.Sc. Visual Communication; Ms. Vijaya Lakshmi Alekya, II Year BA Triple Major. The students were encouraged to opt for Spanish for NE and the announcements were made to register for the NE courses using the QR code for registration.