Language at AHS

The Language Chasm

Understanding linguistic diversity at AHS.

By Scott Glueckert

For many people, speaking their ancestral language is a source of pride. Freshman Justin Li, a Cantonese speaker, had this to say about him feeling connected to other speakers of Cantonese. Li said, ¨When I’m like joking around, I feel like it’s really nice that I can joke around using this language so like I feel included in those moments. It’s pretty nice.¨ According to a survey sent out to one English class per grade, 64.8% of students were native speakers of a non English language. Of the students surveyed, 33.7% spoke Spanish, 14.9% spoke Cantonese, and 6% spoke Vietnamese and many other languages were listed as well. This shows an incredible amount of linguistic diversity. ¨Linguistic diversity¨ refers to the number of languages that are spoken in an area. This is very prevalent in the Bay Area due to immigration from Latin America and East Asia, along with many other regions of the world. The varying of ethnic identity contributes to a variety of languages. It is clear that many students speak a nonEnglish language. Senior Mark Batarse has some Arabic ancestry as well as Guatemalan (Mayan), and Salvadoran. However, he does not feel as connected to his Arab ancestry. Mark said, ¨Even though I don’t speak it, I kind of you know, sympathize with it. You know I try to understand it, try to learn it, but just you know, kinda not the proper connection with it. I don’t consider myself one of those people. I have the genetics but you know you´re not that people.¨ It is clear that Batarse feels connected to his heritage. Assistant Principal Nicole Sandoval has noted that the bullying that students who speak another language face is not often because of them speaking that language. Sandoval said, “I don’t think we’ve had bullying. None that has come to me. I do think sometimes it happens internally in the ELD classes. I don’t think it’s bullying because of language I think it’s just bullying.” Senior Jason Go is of Filipino descent and his family gives him small lessons about the history of the Philippines in the context of current events. Go stated, ¨My parents like occasionally, when we´re watching like Filipino news and stuff, or whenever we hear then talking about it they would like walk us through it, like what goes on and stuff, and like at the same time they give a little history lesson about like how it was , how was it like during wars, during Cold War, World War Two, or other wars during the 1900s where

Image by: Scott Glueckert

like the Philippines were actually actively involved and those fights and stuff and how life was like during those times.¨ It has been made clear that students are able to learn about the history of their ancestral countries through family. Li´s family seems to not care very much if he passes the language down to his children or not. Li said, ¨To be honest I’m not sure what my family wants me to do my language, I´ve been thinking about it, like I wonder if I had like kids or something would I want to pass it down? It´d be cool if I did but like at the same time I don’t think they would mind I if I didn’t.¨ It is clear that different families have different views when it comes to their children passing on their ancestral languages. Sandoval has found that it can be difficult to communicate with families that don’t speak English. Sandoval commented, “One of the hardest was one that happened recently. It was a very sensitive subject and so I had to be very careful with my words and my translator had to be very careful with her words. It took, it probably took 30 minutes to have a 10 minute conversation but because we were all being so careful it was really very challenging.” It is clear that Sandoval feels that communicating with families who speak a language other than English is difficult. Sandoval hopes that students feel that they have a community at AHS. Sandoval said, “I would hope so. I’ve noticed as more people are embracing their heritage, I think like for example I have a student who plays guitar and listens to music from Mexico and that has made a little community, like he’s not designated EL (English Learner) like as an EL student but my EL students are gravitating toward him because there’s a cultural connection. So I think that if we can continue to find spaces to highlight the linguistic differences, I think there’s a lot of promise there.” It is clear that Sandoval hopes for students to feel like they have a community here at AHS. Due to the efforts of his parents, like those of so many other students, Go feels connected to his Filipino heritage. Go stated, ¨Yeah my parents they´re always trying to connect me to my like, teach us like those kinds of stuff like, Filipino history and all that kind of stuff.¨