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Tuesday, March 09, 2004
I've been volunteering at a Chinatown elementary school. Once a month we visit and the kids read to us. We help them with their pronunciation and reading comprehension and generally try to boost their confidence and engagement with reading. 80% of the kids speak no English when they start school -- the students are Asian and Latino -- but by first grade they're all conversationally fluent. That said, there are some challenges to helping bilingual kids read -- for example, I sometimes find myself reluctant to correct Spanish speakers when they pronounce "j" as "y." What is correct English and what is accent? It also makes me realize how completely idiosyncratic the English language is. There are so many specific rules and exceptions to those rules. I'm not trained as a teacher or reading coach so I don't even try to explain the rules, but once in awhile you find yourself sounding out a word with a child and you realize that you just pronounced the same letters in a completely different way in another word. Like the difference between the "u" in "huge" as opposed to "mud." I know it has something to do with the "e" at the end, but how do you explain this nuance to a first grader who's having trouble differentiating "d" from "b?"
The other day, I read with a little girl, and the language coming out of her mouth was utterly broken. The words we pronounced together sounded like random assortments of sound, drawn out to excruciatingly exaggerated lengths. She struggled with nearly every word, even if she had just sounded out the exact same word in the previous sentence. There was no continuity, no comfort of recognition or progress. I imagined that to her, a page full of English words must look like a mine field, each word a brand new terror just waiting to blow up in her face. I'm generally an impatient person, and had to struggle with myself to keep from rushing her. I can only imagine the pressure she felt, reading to some hovering stranger trying to coax words (never mind meaning) from the inchoate sounds coming out of her mouth.
I'm sure elementary teachers and reading tutors have this experience all the time. Some kids struggle more than others, but eventually they come to some level of proficiency, right? I usually leave the reading program with a sense of satisfaction -- I get to take a break from my own little obsessions and see the world through a child's eyes -- but that day I was completely depressed. It made me realize how fundamental language is -- and how much I take linguistic proficiency for granted. As an adult, struggling to learn a foreign language is a humbling experience, but a first grader unable to recognize basic letterforms is heart-breaking.
1:30 PM
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Kind of a PETA for Hong Kong movies, the Web Alliance for the Respectful Treatment of Asian Cinema lobbies Disney (Miramax, Buena Vista and Dimension Films) to release Hong Kong films in the original language, with accurate subtitles (no dubbing or subtitles from dub scripts) and with all scenes and original music intact. I had no idea how much Disney has been editing/altering these films. If you like your HK films unadulterated, visit WARTAC.
11:52 AM
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