Hey there!
Today I asked my parents about what they dislike about the community we are in.
Their response really stood up to me. They said that they do not, do not, do not like (not even a bit) how the communication system is set up. Even though it is extremely obvious that there is a major population of Spanish speakers, when there are meetings at schools,church,etc., they give the information in English. "How do they expect us to understand what their message or advice is? How do they expect us to participate if we have trouble communicating?" That is why there are interpreters, so make good use of them! They enforce the idea of being bilingual/speaking another language, but they do not show it since they do not give the information at the reach for everyone.
Or, when they do have another person translating, it still is more English and not all of the information is conveyed.
Now my turn.
I definitely, definitely agree with my parents!!
But something I hate about this community is that there is not really a respect.
There are many ways the people do not show respect but the main one that just bothers me a lot is the respect some people show towards the invalid,people who have trouble learning/developing. I have seen how people stare at them, or try to copy the way they walk or so.
One day during passing period, I saw how these guys pushed this boy who has trouble walking- he went to special classes ... they laughed at him and went away as if nothing had happened.
The security man did not really do anything about it. I wanted to help him but he did not want anyone near him...he was hurt (not only physically but mentally as well). I just couldn't help but to have this strong feeling of hate and frustration.
These are just two of our community's weaknesses/issues.
I also hate when people get bullied because they are still people even though they are invalid. People should get a better thing to do, but I mean those people that are bullies must have something wrong in their little heads. Invalid people can be very nice and can be good friends to have. They are very funny once you get to know them, but people think they are just fragile and think they are cool because they are controlling these innocent people. We should take a stand towards the bullies and not let them control the students of RLHS.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with your parents about the communication system because it is difficult to have your parents really know what you are doing if there is no other resource to show. Depending on the area you are in and if there is a majority of diverse speakers other than english i think that the resource should always be present.
ReplyDeleteHey, Kathy,
ReplyDeleteI think that this problem of communication between languages is being quickly rectified on its own, and if we just wait it out, everything will be fine. Let me explain.
How many people of your own age do you know who can't speak English? I'm guessing that the number isn't very high. Sooner or later, these people will be parents, and replace the parents who are here now. If this new generation can already speak english and spanish, then in a few years, this problem of communication will not exist.
I totally get your point. I understand that later on most people will know English and will have no problem at all, BUT what about right now?
DeleteHow do you think parents feel?
They feel left out and not only that but they also develop the idea of not being noticed.
There has been a lot of protests and arguments in the district but they do not get the message/issue or cannot fight back.
I think they should make good use of interpreters.
I personally have never had to deal with the problem with communication before because my parents both speak English. Though, this post was interesting to me because I have never thought about it before and I now realize how serious of an issue this can be. I believe that a way to fix this is to translate more often than we already do.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the flaws the communication system has that you addressed. To also add to what you said because of the communication problems this also adds to the lack of parental involvement in student activity because of the language barrier such as in school presentations,activities,etc. Also recently there was a recent protest in a school in Round Lake *I forgot which one* where they fired bilingual teachers because they don't want a bilingual program anymore just regular classes and I strongly disagree because of the diversity our community has we need resources. I also believe more languages should be included and more translators to help this problem.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the communication system being a problem in Round Lake. Many times my parents do not understand what presentations are trying to say or what the message is. Usually I have to try to interpret the message but I'm not a perfect translator. This is probably the reason why not many parents are participating in school events since they don't know what is going on.
ReplyDelete