Park Elementary Project
For this project, two Spanish classes went to Park Elementary to interact with younger kids, who are bilingual in Spanish and English. To prep for this experience, we spent several days preparing questions in Spanish to ask the kids so we could get to know them. We also picked books that we could read to them. Both Spanish classes would spend two half days at Park, but at different times. Each high school student was partnered with a younger kid (grades ranged from 1st to 5th).
Although the experience was really fun, I was nervous for it because I was scared to interact with children and speak to my buddy in Spanish. But when we went to Park the first day, I was pleasantly surprised at how much my buddy and I had in common. We both liked cats and science and had a few really good friends. It was easy to talk to her and reading in Spanish was fun because she would help me out with my pronunciation. It was also nice to go back to fourth grade and take a break from high school. For both days, I went with my buddy to two classes. The first time was to gym, where the kids were learning archery, and to social studies. I was jealous because they were learning more about World War I and Colorado’s history, both things that I wanted to learn about but never did (at least in school). The second day, I was able to participate in music class and math class. After spending this time with my bilingual buddy, I started wondering more about the challenges that bilingual kids face while growing up. It must be difficult to grow up stuck in between two languages because, and I’m just interpreting here, the languages would over-lap and become confusing. My buddy was able to talk in English and Spanish, but struggled reading in Spanish, while exceling in reading English. It was interesting to listen to her talk about her life, because she did a great job in school with English, but only talked in Spanish at home. In a way, it’s kind of sad to think that bilingual kids could end up forgetting (or somewhat forgetting) one of their languages, just because they aren’t being exposed to it more. Would it help if the kids had classes in both languages? It is said that humans learn other languages easier when they’re younger, so it isn’t a bad thing that these bilingual kids have exposure to more than one language. In fact, I’m a bit jealous of them because I did not have that opportunity when I was younger. After this project, I am more excited to be learning another language and I never want to stop learning. This experience of going to a local elementary school and hanging out with a younger, bilingual kid, was a great way to understand the challenges bilingual kids face, as well to appreciate the opportunity that I have to learn languages. My main takeaway from this project is continue learning, and being excited to learn. I enjoyed this project a lot. |