Among the more modest and least glitzy exhibitions that formed part of UWI's Centre for Language Learning (CLL) Open House activities on March 27 and 28, was a photographic display of the late Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's diplomatic sojourn in France between 1970 and 1972.
No better person than the 1971 Nobel laureate to emphasise the value of language as a way of acquiring "an understanding of the other," suggested Chile's ambassador to Port-of-Spain, Fernando Schmidt.
Several secondary school language students who had earlier toured French, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese and other language-based exhibits, listened to Schmidt's lecture on the role played by people such as Neruda in promoting "open minds" about the world's cultures.
There were 20 black-and-white photographs of the Chilean poet engaged in official diplomatic activities and in more informal gatherings with fellow poets and thinkers.
Ambassador Schmidt pointed to the fact that Neruda had served as a diplomat in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Singapore.
"The poet (Neruda) became universal through understanding of the other," Schmidt told the students.
Speaking with T&T Guardian, the former deputy foreign minister of Chile said the CLL exercise was important because it helped expose people to an area of study that's important to a wide variety of human pursuits.
He has himself served in countries such as South Korea, Mongolia, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Brazil.
The open day was the third of its kind. Similar activities were hosted in 2008 and 2011.
CLL director, Dr Beverly-Ann Carter, said the Open House concept has grown to include a mini film festival, food fair and "faculty outreach" which engaged the wider campus community.
Dr Carter said the centre was focusing on "keeping it innovative and finding new ways of engaging people."