Photo credit to Daniela Rybarczyk

Signs like this put around the school explain how to say hello in different languages.

A few weeks ago colored signs appeared in the hallways teaching people how to say hello in numerous languages. No one knew who put them on the walls or why.

The signs were dispersed all throughout the school; some were in stairwells, others in the main hallway or by the bathrooms. The various signs all start with the phrase “How to say hello in” and end the sentence with a language. Some say “How to say hello in Mandarin.” Other languages include German, French, Italian, Japanese, Greek, Portuguese, Korean, Hindi and Spanish.

The 10 signs then inform how to “spell” the phrase or use the language’s characters to write the phrase. If the language uses characters, there is an explanation of how to pronounce the word phonetically.

Senior Katie Oros expressed her initial reactions to the language signs. “When I first saw the language signs, I was a little confused on what they were for exactly, but I thought they were cool. I figured they had something to do with UNITE club.”

As Oros predicted, UNITE Club was responsible for putting the signs up around the school. “UNITE club is trying to create conversations between all students in the school. By learning simple greetings, students are able to say ‘hello’ to everyone they see in the hallway,” UNITE club leader Bailey Trondson and other members said.

The goal of UNITE club is to create unity within PV. By putting the signs up, UNITE club hoped to be a more inclusive school and teach all students how to start a conversation using the common phrase. UNITE club also hoped that by teaching students the greeting in different languages students would go out of their way to meet people they may not have had the opportunity to talk to before.

“We hope students will begin to gain an understanding of different cultures and languages,” Trondson and other UNITE club members said.

The signs not only have added some color and diversity to the PV building, but have also brought pieces of the world to PV. If you are interested in joining UNITE club, please check out their meetings every Tuesday in Room 157 after school.