Helga Lenart-Cheng
Alex Branch
Issue date: 9/16/08 Section: News
At least seventenn new professors have been added to the Saint Mary's faculty for this fall, and at least a few students will be getting to know Helga Lenart-Cheng personally.
An instructor in the department of modern languages, Lenart-Cheng is a woman who professes value-based education.
"I love wholistic approaches, looking at the whole person. I think language allows you to do that. I never thought of language as a teaching and mechanical thing, but rather a person should try to express themselves," she said.
Lenart-Cheng tells her students, "Not to worry about how many grammatical mistakes they make, but just speak and say what you can. If you can't say what you want for now, that's fine, but just say yourself."
In addition to wholistic education, Lenart-Cheng also believes in having an opinion. "You have to have your own position. Being able to balance your own position and be open to others is difficult," she said, "A lot of people slip there and say 'Oh, it doesn't matter. All of them are right,' but I think the challenge is to be able to say 'I believe in this, for this and this and this reason.'"
"It's easy to slip in the other direction and say that all the positions carry the same value, but I don't think that's true. I think for a college student, that's the most important skill they should learn," she said.
Cheng also brings a unique historical perspective to Saint Mary's College. "I grew up bilingual German and Hungarian in communist Hungary. It was the best history lesson for me to be in high school and see the wall fall down, to see all that happening."
Lenart-Cheng will be bringing her historical perspective to bear in her January Term class this year, 'Without the Iron Curtain: Democratization and Transition in Eastern Europe and Russia.'
Lenart-Cheng has come to Saint Mary's College with an extensive history in education, but not in teaching. She has a Masters Degree in French and German, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in comparative literature, but says this is her first full-time teaching job.
"I'm looking forward to this year. I'm sure I'll learn as much as my students will, and I have very high expectations," she said.
This semester, Lenart-Cheng is teaching Spanish III and French Conversation, and in Spring 2009 she will be teaching a French Literature course based in life-writing.
An instructor in the department of modern languages, Lenart-Cheng is a woman who professes value-based education.
"I love wholistic approaches, looking at the whole person. I think language allows you to do that. I never thought of language as a teaching and mechanical thing, but rather a person should try to express themselves," she said.
Lenart-Cheng tells her students, "Not to worry about how many grammatical mistakes they make, but just speak and say what you can. If you can't say what you want for now, that's fine, but just say yourself."
In addition to wholistic education, Lenart-Cheng also believes in having an opinion. "You have to have your own position. Being able to balance your own position and be open to others is difficult," she said, "A lot of people slip there and say 'Oh, it doesn't matter. All of them are right,' but I think the challenge is to be able to say 'I believe in this, for this and this and this reason.'"
"It's easy to slip in the other direction and say that all the positions carry the same value, but I don't think that's true. I think for a college student, that's the most important skill they should learn," she said.
Cheng also brings a unique historical perspective to Saint Mary's College. "I grew up bilingual German and Hungarian in communist Hungary. It was the best history lesson for me to be in high school and see the wall fall down, to see all that happening."
Lenart-Cheng will be bringing her historical perspective to bear in her January Term class this year, 'Without the Iron Curtain: Democratization and Transition in Eastern Europe and Russia.'
Lenart-Cheng has come to Saint Mary's College with an extensive history in education, but not in teaching. She has a Masters Degree in French and German, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in comparative literature, but says this is her first full-time teaching job.
"I'm looking forward to this year. I'm sure I'll learn as much as my students will, and I have very high expectations," she said.
This semester, Lenart-Cheng is teaching Spanish III and French Conversation, and in Spring 2009 she will be teaching a French Literature course based in life-writing.