Thread: NC Spanish spoken here

Spanish spoken here
Parents lining up for language immersion child-care programs


By Remy Scalza, Correspondent
CHAPEL HILL -- It's playtime at Tiny Steps daycare, and 1-year-old Maya Brooke is learning her animals.
Lying on her back, she stares at a toy overhead where Tweety, Bugs and Daffy twirl round and round. Her teacher points, pronouncing the animal names slowly.

"Pajarito. Conejo. Pato," she says, listing the animals in Spanish while Maya looks on.

Tiny Steps, or Pasitos in Spanish, is one of a growing number of Spanish-immersion day cares in the Triangle. With names like Spanish for Fun and Mi Escuelita (My Little School), these centers work just like normal day cares except Spanish is the only language you'll hear inside.

And while English-only laws are sprouting up across the country, Triangle parents -- white, black and Hispanic -- are lining up to enroll their kids in these Spanish-language programs.

"We're basically full all the time, with a big waiting list," said Adriana Martinez, owner of the Spanish for Fun Academy in Chapel Hill. Martinez's school has 79 children, with another 80 waiting for a spot to open.

"It's a year-long wait to get in," she said. "We're looking to expand but can't find the space."

Dramatic growth in the Hispanic community has fueled a sudden interest in Spanish for the pre-kindergarten crowd. North Carolina's Hispanic population now stands at about 600,000, and nearly 10 percent of the state's population now speaks a foreign language at home.

With Spanish increasingly important in the workplace, classroom and community, many parents are eager to give their children a head start on the new language.

"There's a growing awareness in our community that being bilingual is an asset," said Linda Chappel, a vice president at Child Care Services Association, a Triangle nonprofit that helps parents find and pay for day care.

Last year, 42 percent of all families who got referrals from Chappel's Orange County office said a bilingual staff was an important criterion in their choice of a day care. "A lot of families want their child to have that advantage, the advantage of being bilingual," Chappel said.

In Orange, Durham and Wake counties, more than 100 providers offer Spanish day-care programs, according to data from the Child Care Services Association. Many of these are bilingual schools, with some instruction in Spanish and some in English. But growing numbers are true immersion programs, where everything from story time to arts and crafts is entirely in Spanish.

And enrollment -- for the most part -- is made up of children who don't speak Spanish at home.

At the Spanish for Fun Academy, located within walking distance of UNC Hospitals, 85 percent of the children are from a non-Hispanic background, said owner Martinez. "A lot of our parents work in the hospitals," she said. "They have a lot of contact with people who don't speak English [and] think it's useful for their children to learn Spanish."

Carol Brooke, mother of Maya, knows firsthand how valuable Spanish can be in the Triangle. Brooke is a lawyer at the North Carolina Justice Center in Raleigh, a nonprofit legal service that provides support for immigrants and other groups in need.

"I work with migrant farm workers, and all of my clients speak Spanish," Brooke said. "I know how important it's going to be for [Maya] to speak Spanish in her lifetime."

Maya started at Tiny Steps when she was 4 months old. Five days a week, from early morning drop-off to pickup around 5 p.m., she gets a steady stream of Spanish from her teachers, all of whom are native speakers.

So far, though, Maya hasn't had much chance to show off her new skills.

"She just says a few words," her mom explained, "all in English."

Today Maya is bundled up in a heavy jumper and boots, crawling around the center's fenced-in outdoor play area. When she starts fidgeting with the zipper, her teacher -- a 32-year-old immigrant from Mexico named Mahli -- gives her a stern warning in Spanish.

"!No te quites el sueter!" she said. ("Don't you take off that sweater!") Maya's hands fall to her sides.

"She understands Spanish very well," Mahli said. "I'll tell her to do something, and she knows what to do."

Young children have an extraordinary capacity to absorb and understand languages, explains Kateri Carver-Akers, head of The Language Center, a Chapel Hill immersion school for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds.

"Children under the age of 10 learn languages very easily," she said. "Zero to 6 is the strongest [time]. Basically they learn it with no effort at all."

Carver-Akers' school has 24 students in its Spanish-immersion program. The benefits of studying Spanish at an early age go well beyond language skills, she says: "Statistically, children have more flexible cognitive abilities when they are bilingual. You get better SAT scores. You get a better job."

These benefits don't necessarily come cheap, however. A full-day program at The Language Center costs around $1,100 a month, about the same price as other immersion courses in the area. Still, Carver-Akers' says the cost is no higher than at a lot of English-language day cares.

And she said immersion brings another potential benefit: "A bilingual person almost always develops into a philosophically flexible person," she said. "And that's basically what tolerance is."

At the Spanish for Fun Academy, owner Martinez says she has seen impressive results as well, especially with early starters. Students who began learning Spanish while still in the cradle are now confident speakers. "All the toddlers speak Spanish very well," she said. "They're fluent ..."

Still, researchers warn to keep the gains in perspective.

"It can be misleading to say the younger the child is, the easier the learning," said Dina Castro, a scientist at UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute who specializes in young second-language learners.

Toddlers may learn to use a second language for basic needs, Castro explains, like asking for food or toys. But that doesn't mean they'll be able to express themselves in more sophisticated ways when they're older.

And once children leave the immersion environment, second language skills may fade quickly. "It's wonderful that they start early. ... But that's the beginning of the process," Castro said. "If you don't support the child in continuing to learn the second language, they're going to lose it."

Though her daughter is still in diapers, Maya's mom, Brooke, is already planning for the future. When the time comes, she's thinking of enrolling Maya in a dual-language program offered at Carrboro Elementary. Kindergarten through fifth-grade students in the program are taught for half the day in English and half in Spanish.

"If you don't use it, you lose it," said Carver-Akers, who is opening a private language-immersion elementary school in Durham next fall. "It's not like riding a bike." She says interest in the school shows parents are beginning to see the importance of a second language.

"Most people in the world are bilingual," she said. "And we're just the opposite as Americans."

For now, however, Maya is still working on her first word. On Friday afternoon at Tiny Steps, she waits in the baby room, the last to leave.

Mom and dad come in, and the room is suddenly filled with a strange language: English. It's time to go home. On the way out, propped on mom's hip, Maya tries to wave goodbye to her teacher.

"Adios, Maya," Mahlie said. "Te veo el lunes." ("I'll see you on Monday.")




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The Chapel Hill News
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/news/story/11630.html

Yes, we must all learn spanish if we want to survive in our ENGLISH SPEAKING country.