Teachers in this CT school district are working hard to teach English to the kids from as many as 189 languages, by learning some words from their own languages. - - Donna Poisl
By JAMES CRAVEN, Staff Writer
NEW BRITAIN — Bonjour. Hola. Witaj. If you live in New Britain, there is a good chance that you know I have said hello in French, Spanish and Polish. But what if I said, marhaba, or nyobzoo, or even, sawubona? Would you know I was saying the same thing in Arabic, Hmong and Zulu?
You might, if you are a teacher in the New Britain school system.
And for 11-year-old Fatima Alashram, who moved to New Britain from a small village in Yemen, that is a good thing.
The schools teach more than 10,000 students speaking as many of 189 languages and teachers and administrators go to great lengths to make sure they’re understood and learning, according to Superintendent Doris Kurtz.
Click on the headline to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
This country was built by immigrants, it will continue to attract and need immigrants. Some people think there are enough people here now -- people have been saying this since the 1700s and it still is not true. They are needed to make up for our aging population and low birthrate. Immigrants often are entrepreneurs, creating jobs. We must help them become Americans and not just people who live here and think of themselves as visitors. When immigrants succeed here, the whole country benefits.
No comments:
Post a Comment