“[Some] teachers treat us well and watch out for our safety. When I came here, I didn’t speak English and I didn’t know how things were here. But a teacher helped me out and would explain things to me in Spanish.” -Dario

This quote resonated with me about my experience as an English teacher in Madrid, Spain for 3 years. I had the privilege to work with primarily immigrant students in Madrid’s bustling metropolis of immigrants from Latin America, China, Morocco and the Phillipines. I definitely noticed and received a different response from the newly arrived immigrants in comparison to the native Spaniards when it came to learning English. The Spanish children felt that the only way to succeed and have any kind of future was to learn English whereas some immigrants in particular from Latin Americans had quite a different opinion and only looked at learning English as a way to pass the course and wait until they were 16 to officially drop out of school.

I came into contact with one particular 5th grader from Bolivia named Triana who newly arrived to Madrid to be reunited with her mother after being apart since she was 5 years old. Unfortunately, as it was already mentioned in Suárez-Orozco, Baolian Qin, and Fruja Amthor’s article “Adolescents from Immigrant Families: Relationship and Adaption in School,” Triana was the lucky one out of her sister to be chosen due to a life-threatening illness where it put her health in jeopardy and the daunting task on her mother to get her daughter out of Bolivia to receive the proper medical attention. This also put a strain on Triana and her mother’s relationship because Triana no longer recognized her mother as a mother, but just someone who gave birth to her and left her and her sister behind in their village in Bolivia with family members.

When Triana arrived to Madrid she was in 5th grade, even though, she should’ve been in 6th grade, but because of her Spanish literacy skills being below grade level the school put her a year behind. When I met her for tutoring in English, she had a low self-esteem and absolutely no motivation to learn especially English. She felt she was cast as an outsider in the classroom because her teacher barely noticed her or even encouraged her to participate. However, when I started working with Triana on her English afterschool, she  began to want to learn English with me only and no one else because she realized I value her as a person and didn’t ignore her.

I think that is one of the hardest things as teachers is putting aside the academic content for a second and just focus on students’ well-being like in Triana’s case. If teachers were willing to get to know their immigrant students’ background a little bit more, then it would make for a more enriching classroom environment for students, teachers, and newly arrived immigrants as well as making everyone feel included. In the end, isn’t that what teaching is all about? Making interpersonal connections and understanding different points of views from each other.

MVP 8

Junqi Huang (Kay)

“The identity style chosen by a young person has implications for adaptation to the new society, including schooling experiences. In some case, the identity that is forged is highly focused on the culture of origin, with coethnics as the primary point of reference. In some of these cases, an identity that is adversarial to the dominant culture may emerge. Among children of immigrants who gravitate toward adversarial styles embracing aspects of the culture of the dominant group is equated with giving up one’s own ethnic identity. Those who develop adversarial identities tend to encounter problems in school and drop out, and they consequently face unemployment in the formal economy.”

• Doucet, F., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2006). Ethnic identity and schooling: The experiences of Haitian immigrant youth. In L. Romanucci-Ross, G. DeVos & T. G. Tsuda (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Creation, conflict, and accommodation (4th ed., pp. 163-188). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

The Cruel Reality

                  This passage reminds me of my life in America. I have been New York around five years, and what the passage says is true. People choose their identity style while adapting the new living environment. America is a huge immigrants country. It holds various cultural background people. For those people who are new to America, if they want to “survive”, they have to adapt and fit into the society. According to the passage, “those who develop adversarial identities tend to encounter problems in school and drop out, and they consequently face unemployment in the formal economy”. I remembered that my professor from intercultural class told us that there is a cruel reality in the America educational career. Many “ABC immigrants” are difficult to get jobs for teaching English in America even though they reach the proficiency level of English. I mean most of “ABC immigrants” already thought they are American. It shows they embrace the American culture and “give up” their own ethnic group; however, in some cases, the society might not be ready to accept them yet. We cannot say the low rate of English employment is related to racism because in some other cases, they are treated equally by society. Maybe, the society has its own concern.