Monday's Internet Edition, May 12, 2008.
Trip to Mexico, sans Spanish skills, poses a major challenge
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DCCC's Laura Yarbrough, Laura Johnson, and Judy Ayers celebrate their climb to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico, during a Spanish immersion program excursion. The pyramid is the third-largest in the world.
Courtesy Photo |
- The tables were turned recently on three Davidson County Community College staff and faculty members when they became full-time college students in Mexico.
The DCCC employees earned diplomas in “Intensive Spanish,” completing three semesters of the foreign language in only three weeks.
Participating in the Spanish Immersion program at the International University in Cuernavaca, Mexico was a challenge for Judy Ayers, Laura Yarbrough, and Laura Johnson — all of whom spoke no Spanish when they boarded the plane for Mexico Jan. 6th.
On the flight home Jan. 28th, they brought with them a new fluency in Spanish and a renewed empathy for the growing number of Hispanic students enrolled at DCCC.
They are now able to converse with and assist the influx of Spanish speaking students at the College.
As they explored the Spanish language at the Mexican university, they found themselves quickly learning new vocabulary and grammar, and they were forced to use their new language skills since learning did not stop when they left the classroom each day.
In only three weeks, the three learned to effectively communicate in Spanish.
They said they felt fortunate to have been chosen for the Spanish immersion classes. Meeting the challenge with enthusiasm and success, they felt a little trepidation since they literally were strangers in a strange land.
They partnered with a group of 35 from Howard Community College in Baltimore, Md., a college that has participated in the immersion program for eight years.
Each day, the group spent six hours in formal Spanish instruction at the university located in the state capital of Morales, a town 60 miles south of Mexico City.
No English was spoken during their school day or at night.
In Cuernavaca, a city of about 500,000, they lived with host families who were not allowed to converse in English, so evenings were a major learning experience as well.
“We understand how a small problem can be a major one if you don’t understand the language,” said DCCC financial aid counselor Judy Ayers.
During her first week in Mexico, Ayers left her purse in her host family’s car one morning when they dropped her at the university.
“I didn’t yet know enough Spanish to communicate with my host family on the telephone, so I had to hunt down an advisor at the university, and try to explain my dilemma so I could get my purse back since we had a cultural event that afternoon,” Ayers said.
During such tours and excursions, the three were forced to practice their newly acquired Spanish skills by navigating the city, taking buses and cabs, ordering food in restaurants, and shopping in markets and stores. Because they spoke and read Spanish all day, their comprehension soared.
Each passed their “real world” Spanish tests with flying colors as well as the weekly academic assessments given in class.
All made A’s on their tests given each Friday.
“We were especially proud since none of us had scored above six percent out of 100 on a Spanish pre-test we took prior to the immersion program,” said DCCC Accountant Laura Yarbrough.
She said the three have decided to continue their independent study of the Spanish language on the website www.studyspanish.com.
All can now read, write and comprehend the spoken Spanish language even though the sentence structures differ greatly from English.
Laura Johnson, a DCCC psychology faculty who chairs the DCCC Human Services Department, said the trip made her realize how proud she is to work for a community college that believes in lifelong learning and supports such a forward-thinking approach.
“I am also blessed to work for such an incredible supervisor who did her job as well as mine during my absence. My lessons and experiences in Mexico were life changing and amazing, and they mean so much more knowing all of the support that came from so many directions,” Johnson said.
All three said one of the major advantages of the learning experience is the increased empathy for the students at DCCC who don’t know English.
“We really know how they feel now,” Ayers said. “The main thing we developed other than our Spanish language comprehension is the understanding of what these students are experiencing when they come here with no English language skills.”
Yarbrough agreed. “We are going to view Hispanic students in a way that few can. We have been there.”
The final week of their stay was a real confidence builder, according to Johnson.
“By that time, we really felt like we could do whatever we needed to do in that city,” she said.
DCCC President Dr. Mary Rittling said she hoped other teams of DCCC employees would be able to attend the Spanish Immersion program through support from the DCCC Foundation.
“The benefits to our students and college community are great,” she said. “The best way to really learn a language is to practice it. By participating in a Spanish language immersion program, our staff and faculty will better meet our Hispanic students where they are and take them further.
“Our Spanish immersion staff and faculty will also be a major resource in our English as a Second Language classes.”
Spanish is the official language of approximately 350 million people in 21 countries of the world, and it is widely spoken in many other countries where it is not an official language.
It is the world’s third most spoken language, after Mandarin Chinese and English.
The Hispanic population in the United States has grown by 60 percent in the past decade. During the 1990s, North Carolina had the fastest growing population of Hispanics in the United States, according to the U.S. Census conducted in 2000.
In the past 10 years, the state’s Hispanic population grew by 394 percent, representing over 300,000 new residents. About half of the new Hispanic population settled in rural counties.
The 2000 Census showed that 4,765 Hispanics resided in Davidson County, a 691 percent increase since 1990.
(Feb. 18)