Rihaan Bhansali
Students and faculty have conversations at French Table over lunch on Wednesday, April 2.
Grinnellians can spend their lunch time in a variety of ways. They may choose to socialize with friends or eat alone, attend a career talk or squeeze in a meeting — or they might choose to attend one of the many language or affinity tables hosted by departments on campus. Meeting weekly, these affinity tables give Grinnellians a way to practice a language or connect over common interests, and a meal.
German Table
German Table has been a fixture at the College since before Dan Reynolds, chair of the German Studies Department, first arrived on campus 27 years ago. “It’s common across the board at liberal arts colleges and universities,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds considers German Table an opportunity for students to practice the language in a low-stress environment.
“Sometimes we have guests that we introduce, sometimes we have information sessions about our major, but generally it’s a pretty free-wheeling conversation,” said Reynolds. “We’re a small department, and I think our strength is that we do develop a community among our students.”
Sara Booher `25 has been attending German Table for the past two weeks to brush up on her German speaking skills for a job she plans to apply to.
“I try my best,” said Booher. “I speak a lot of … ‘Dinglish’ [German-English], is what my high school teacher called it,” said Booher.
German Table meets weekly on Mondays in JRC 224-A from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
French Table
At French Table, French Language Instructor Laura Dupont hopes to encourage a community that feels comfortable enough to talk about anything. According to Dupont, topics at French Table range from “school, politics, travel … everything, really.”
“I just like being able to talk [in] my native language once in a while at the table,” said Dupont.
Cory Karasek `25 has been attending French Table as part of their language-learning journey.
“I want to learn as many languages as I can because I’m going to be going into the health field, and I want to be able to talk to as many patients as I can,” said Karasek. Having already learned Spanish, Karasek is now starting to learn French.
“Even if I don’t know what to say, I still get listening practice,” said Karasek.
French Table meets weekly on Wednesdays in JRC 224-C from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Computer Science (CS) Table
CS Table is one of the few affinity tables not centered around foreign language practice. Instead, Grinnellians interested in computer science meet at lunch to discuss a variety of topics related to the field, with a different topic every week. Topics range from video games as an art form to the research-sharing platform arXiv.org.
“We were a small department and wanted to build community, and food is a good way to do so,” said Samuel Rebelsky, professor of computer science.
“Now we’re a large department and want to build community,” added Charlie Curtsinger, associate professor of computer science.
“There’s a focus on having conversations about things that are related to our field but have an effect outside of academic or professional computer science,” said Curtsinger.
Adarsh Sharma `27, who attends CS Table every other week, has been interested in computer science since high school. “I got interested in startups, and every startup I’ve been a part of has been a tech startup, so eventually I got interested in tech as well,” said Sharma. “People here talk a lot about CS, I like to talk about a little bit of business with CS.”
CS Table meets weekly on Tuesdays in JRC 224-C from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.