Seattle schools embrace dual-language approach
Dual-language instruction, where students study the core subjects in English and a second language, is gaining momentum in the Seattle school district, where three more schools could join the two already offering such programs on a pilot basis. Principals in South Seattle say the model helps meet the academic needs of Spanish-speaking students. (The Seattle Times)
This is going to be my third year here in this English speaking country. Modesty aside, the adjustment wasn't that bad at all especially catching up with their language. There was the usual curiosity and fear of winter from someone coming from a tropical country. But I do not abhor anymore the cold season than when I first got here; I have my hubby with me to keep me warm during cold winter nights *wink*, and that's an advantage for me!
Another advantage is being bilingual since childhood. I remember learning the English language side-by-side with the Filipino language in school. There was even an "English Drive" way back gradeshool when the students were given penalty for not speaking English most especially during English class. When I got here, my colleagues were surprised at how fluent and fast I can cope with the English language.
My daughter's ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher told me that she already speaks English more fluently than her native tongue (which is true, oh well!). At least she understands both languages and every single word referring to her, even curse words in both languages, haha.
One time while I was waiting for my family outside the mall, a cheerful Mexican approached me and talked to me in Spanish. I was able to understand him a little (hey, I got 1.25 in Spanish 1 & 2 in college, would that make me trilingual?). But I had to tell him eventually that I only speak very little Spanish. There are Latinos, Hispanics, Mexicans everywhere here, and I'm thinking of enrolling in an advanced Spanish class so I can better converse with them. People here say we Filipinos really look Mexicans, and I agree.
Do you think learning the Spanish language would make a big advantage?
15 comments:
here in tx marisol, its very beneficial to be bilingual. more job oppurtunities and more pay. the hispanic population here is tremendous and a lot of them speaks very little to no english..so to me its very beneficial..... hasta luego amiga.... tu chiquita mucho bonita... si..
hehehe... muchos gracias marisol
CL, Whoa! Another tech savvy here...let's learn from each other. I hope this won't be your l;ast visit to my "cyberclassroom". Please feel free to share your thoughts to us about my entries. I have some pinoy blogger friends who also reside in canada, you'll see them commenting in my blog from time to time. Catcha again soon! May I link you pala? Salamat din!
ARVIN, Si, me llamo Marisol. No tengo dinero. HAHAHA Yan ang parati kong sinasabi sa kanila pag kinakausap ako ng Espanyol...
when i moved to los angeles in 6th grade, i never had to take ESL classes. they first thought i needed to because i had an accent. but, after giving me a language test, i was actually put in the gifted section instead :)
being knowledgeable in other languages is always a benefit, and will add to your employability. spanish and japanese are the two languages that are in demand.
by the way, the spanish taught here in the U.S. is not the same spanish taught in the philippines. the so-called spanish here is south american spanish, which the majority (mexicans) of the hispanics speak, whereas in the philippines, the spanish taught is the european castillan language.
in school, i opted to take french classes instead.
i refuse to be labeled a mexican. i always correct people and i proudly tell them that i'm a filipino.
I firmly believe that learning a second language is a huge advantage. It helps people become smarter and brighter.
To increase second language learning, many schools have adapted programs similar to Dual Language Immersion. Other than Spanish and English, they have incorporated Japanese, Russian, and French into the curriculum. As a result, these institutions have produced higher test scores and accountability ratings.
wow you guys can converse in spanish huh..ahaha sama din ako :-)
The thing I find rude to some who speaks spanish..they never seem to bother to ask first if you know how to speak it..they just come straight at you and talk to you in their languange. Then youre left there wondering what the h*ll he/she just said. It happend to me manytimes before. I guess I could pass for a latino look..but nahh I dont think so. I suppose they should ask first..para mnaman medyo ok...
It would definetely make a huge difference --no question about it especially when youre in Houston. You can find the most Spanish community here. Most don’t speak no English, for some that do --they have hard time.
I remember in one of my clinical rotation. I had this adult Spanish patient who doenst speak English but her daughter speaks good English. I was there in the room with them and her daughter did an excellent job translating to her mother. I wish I knew how to speak Spanish.
Also, when youre billiungual, they have this bilingual salary differential –which means you get paid a little more..
I always believed that having at least three languages under your belt is an advantage.
One of my dream is to work for the United Nations and one of their qualifications is for an individual to be bilingual, if not multilingual ... but the main language known shoudl be french and english.
I think you should go and further your studies in Spanish...
Oh, it's definitely a huge advantage to be able to communicate in Spanish--even just to understand simple conversational Spanish is already an advantage!!!! Growing up in Carson, CA I grew up in a rainbow of cultures! (even learned the cursing words too! hahaha) I'll give you an example...
My first year out of college, I remember working in East LA and on my first day I will never forget it. East LA is predominantly Hispanic area and one of the roughest areas to teach in--we're talking hard core gangsters growing up in racial divides. It's a funny stereotype, but I can see some truth to it: the only time some in that area will see an Asian is if they're buying from a liquor store or gas station. There is also a huge racial divide between Asian and Hispanics in that region (racial wars). Back and forth, it's so negative between the two groups! Oh it was rough!
Anyway, teachers aren't respected until they can prove that they're "down" (one of the crew). If you're an Asian teacher, it's even more challenging--you can almost forget about teaching there! Some think just because you're Asian, you're really be passive and not like to confront things. I've had a couple rebellious students and parents who would speak behind my back "La maestra CHINITA es una....blah, blah, blah..." (start rattling off curses) and I would catch EVERYTHING they would say!
Then they would feel really embarrassed when I confront them, they would find out that I can understand everything in their conversation. "Don't ever call me a CHINITA again, because that's not what I am!" If I'm talking to a Mexican student for example, I'd say something like, "Don't call me Chinita, because that's like me calling you a Guatemalan or El Salvadorian! I'm Filipino, and you need to learn how to get your cultures straight! ...Don't ever let that PU** word fly outta your mouth again and let me hear it again because it's ugly to hear...and hellz yeah, we use that word in our language too!"
Then of couse in my anger, I'd plug in some Pinoy history/culture about Spain and language acquisition.
(and we definitely can relate to a lot of Hispanic customs and language)! From then on, they learn not to "mess with Filipinos" because Filipinos are part of "the familia". I would laugh hearing high schoolers say that! And from then on, I was acknowledged and respected as someone to be reckoned with.
Now I know it's a bit extreme, but I think that if I were to raise my kids here in Los Angeles, predominantly Hispanic region....they might even learn to speak Espanol first before learning Tagalog. hahaha!
Sol, re: Spanish classes
Why do they totally skip the chapter on Curse Words, Bad Words and Other Vital Colliquial Spanish expressions? You have to learn that from friends and off the streets. (I think I'd ace Spanish, if they taught the more-colliquial stuff! haha...)
Part of surviving in the classroom is catching those too! *wink*
Marisol,
That was an interesting information that you could really share with your fellow teachers. America, culturally and historically, has deeply- rooted ties with its Hispanic heritage. Consider that almost one-half of America(the west from Texas to California and other states in between) was geogrpahically part of Mexico. There is a continuing flow and burgeoning populations seen in the big American cities such as New York City, to Chicago, to Los Angeles & Miami. The remotest counties in the farflung parts of Virginia and West Virginia are seeing the phenomenon of growing Latino enclaves. Already, officially and unofficially America is now a bilingual-English & Spanish nation. The flow of Latino immigrants-legal and illegal-goes on unabated. What are the implications for Filipinos such as you and me?
I was in the generation of UP graduates who had to complete 24 units of Spanish. Not only because I come from the Bicol region, and notably Iriga City, Camarines Sur, where the local dialects have thousands of Spanish words in their vocabulary, learning Spanish in college for me focused more on the grammar side. Having joined the Philippine foreign service, as a consul, where a second language is a must, my knowledge of Spanish helped a lot.
Now that I am a practising attorney in the US, which includes US immigration laws as our practice specialties, my knowledge of written and spoken Spanish comes in very handy in adding and handling Latino clients. That is a plus because that puts me in a very good position to have a steady source of clientele not only Filipinos but the entire range of Latinos from Mexico to Argentina and Chile.
How do you polish or improve your Spanish now that you are here. Improvement of your oral/spoken Spanish would be helped by tuning in to the Spanish language tv/cable channels. Your reading facility would be helped by picking up all those free Spanish language newspapers in Latino stores and restaurants. There are so many books on self-help learning of Spanish not to mention language schools.
So, you are absolutely right in starting to learn Spanish, speaking and reading, for self-improvement & professional enhancement. Once again, we are lucky that in America we Filipinos have a cultural nexus to both the English side of America and its Hispanic side. Sometimes, in spite of all our difficulties and adversities as a people, we still have blessings such as our knowledge of English and cultural links to the great Hispanic universe(the whole of Central America and South America not to mention Spain). This should easily set us apart and give us a yawning edge over other ethnic groups in the US. This is not to mention that the typical Filipino is really already multilingual. A Bicolano speaks not only the regional but other local Bicolano dialects, plus Pilipino, plus English and now Spanish. Wow!
So learn Spanish. Pass this on to your fellow teachers.
It's not only "big" but "huge" for us filipino to speak and write Spanish language.
Go for it...
Multi-lingualism is I believe a great advantage in this time and age, where international borders get more open, and the world becomes smaller.
Learn as many languages as you can, and encourage your children to do so too!
I was never good at languages at school, I was taught a little French. So these days, I find it quite difficult to learn a new language. They children I teach speak a native language, English and Thai, living here, and seem to find learning new languages really easy.
From my experience of moving to Thailand, I have seen that people who learn Thai tend to settle better and stay here longer than those who do not learn it. I think it is improtant for any people planning to move overseas to try the language.
You can also have great fun listening to what people say about you when they think you are a foreigner who doesn't understand them!!
Deb
It's always an advantage to know more than two languages (in our case, Filipino and English). So by all means, go for that Spanish course! Go, go, go, Teacher Sol! (Ok ba yung cheering?) :-)
Here in Switzerland, it's important to know German, French, and/or Italian (the three official languages) for survival and community integration (the Swiss people kasi don't speak English in general). It's good I'm not required to study Romansh, another language spoken here by the minority (Switzerland has four language territories).
A Filipino churchmate of mine here speaks fluent Ilonggo, Tagalog, English, High German, Swiss German, French, and Italian. I'm not surprised she has a nice job in Switzerland's number one travel agency. She's like Rizal or Pope John Paul II! :-)
As for me, well, I'm still in that "struggling stage," linguistically speaking.
Definitely an advantage Teacher Sol specially in countries that recognize bi-lingualism officially, like Canada
(English and French). You would get a better chance of being hired in the government if you are bilingual.Call centre specialists get much better pay for being bi-lingual. I remember my older kids learning French at primary school. Minsan kumakanta sa bahay ng French song at sumasabay and missis ko and I always joke - hwag ka ng sumabay at masisira ang kanta ! It seems that our tongue is more tuned to Spanish than French.
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