Anyone else underwhelmed by Spanish instruction in mcps?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t tell if we’re just unlucky in terms of teachers, but I have to say our experience has been very underwhelming. Thus far, most teachers have not been native or bilingual Spanish speakers. (Think: Senora Rosenberg.)

The quizzes and assignments I’ve seen at the high school level are ridiculous. I’m bilingual (studied Spanish k through 12 at private schools and earned a BA in Spanish), and the instruction and metrics seem ridiculous.

Care to comment on your kid’s experience? Care to share your school or pyramid? I will if you will.

Or Kreutzberger or Blumenfeld. Ridiculous. Everybody knows there aren't any people in Spanish-speaking countries with an ethnic heritage from Jewish Eastern/Central Europe!

Or, um, something.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-jewish-don-of-latin-american-tv-says-adios-after-53-years/

Op here.

Yes, I realize that.

But this specific Jewish woman doesn’t speak Spanish fluently nor can she pronounce words correctly in Spanish.

My Spanish is better than hers. Dramatically better.

I learned Spanish starting in K from native speakers (one from Cuba, one from Spain, one from Puerto Rico; all were well educated/affluent).

OP, as you should know, the issue here is not that her name is Rosenberg, or that she's Jewish. The issue is that she doesn't speak Spanish well (in your opinion).

Another thing that's not the issue: how affluent your native-speaker Spanish teachers were when they were growing up.

Rosenberg, Smith, O’Leary: the point is the teacher learned Spanish in the US as a student, and didn’t fully master it yet she is teaching.

And affluence and education absolutely do play a role when it comes to a native speaker’s mastery of the language. Very few Latinos growing up in MoCo today receive formal Spanish education outside of the home. Affluent kids do—both here and abroad. I grew up with kids at my private school whose parents worked at the World Bank, etc. Those kids went to special schools each week for additional classes in their native tongue (think: Greece, Argentina, China, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t tell if we’re just unlucky in terms of teachers, but I have to say our experience has been very underwhelming. Thus far, most teachers have not been native or bilingual Spanish speakers. (Think: Senora Rosenberg.)

The quizzes and assignments I’ve seen at the high school level are ridiculous. I’m bilingual (studied Spanish k through 12 at private schools and earned a BA in Spanish), and the instruction and metrics seem ridiculous.

Care to comment on your kid’s experience? Care to share your school or pyramid? I will if you will.

W school. Horrible instruction. Such a waste of time. Easiest classes ever. One teacher never knew any student's name. Never graded anything and would call homes when grades were due.

[Anonymous]

Ours is fine on paper but her accent is pretty awful. I encouraged my kid to use duolingo as a supplement as at least the words are pronounced correctly and now we are supplementing with movies and shows on TV. It’s a shame they can’t find teachers who can teach and have a good accent. I had great spanish teachers growing up and my accent is pretty good as a result. I took another language that was taught by someone who had never lived in the country (had learned the language in the military but never deployed there), and there were no real options for hearing native speakers of that language...when I eventually moved to that country, people were always trying to place my odd accent. It’s hard to shake once you’ve spent a few years doing it wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t tell if we’re just unlucky in terms of teachers, but I have to say our experience has been very underwhelming. Thus far, most teachers have not been native or bilingual Spanish speakers. (Think: Senora Rosenberg.)

The quizzes and assignments I’ve seen at the high school level are ridiculous. I’m bilingual (studied Spanish k through 12 at private schools and earned a BA in Spanish), and the instruction and metrics seem ridiculous.

Care to comment on your kid’s experience? Care to share your school or pyramid? I will if you will.

Or Kreutzberger or Blumenfeld. Ridiculous. Everybody knows there aren't any people in Spanish-speaking countries with an ethnic heritage from Jewish Eastern/Central Europe!

Or, um, something.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-jewish-don-of-latin-american-tv-says-adios-after-53-years/

Op here.

Yes, I realize that.

But this specific Jewish woman doesn’t speak Spanish fluently nor can she pronounce words correctly in Spanish.

My Spanish is better than hers. Dramatically better.

I learned Spanish starting in K from native speakers (one from Cuba, one from Spain, one from Puerto Rico; all were well educated/affluent).

OP, as you should know, the issue here is not that her name is Rosenberg, or that she's Jewish. The issue is that she doesn't speak Spanish well (in your opinion).

Another thing that's not the issue: how affluent your native-speaker Spanish teachers were when they were growing up.

Rosenberg, Smith, O’Leary: the point is the teacher learned Spanish in the US as a student, and didn’t fully master it yet she is teaching.

And affluence and education absolutely do play a role when it comes to a native speaker’s mastery of the language. Very few Latinos growing up in MoCo today receive formal Spanish education outside of the home. Affluent kids do—both here and abroad. I grew up with kids at my private school whose parents worked at the World Bank, etc. Those kids went to special schools each week for additional classes in their native tongue (think: Greece, Argentina, China, etc.).

I guess you're the expert on Latinos in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t tell if we’re just unlucky in terms of teachers, but I have to say our experience has been very underwhelming. Thus far, most teachers have not been native or bilingual Spanish speakers. (Think: Senora Rosenberg.)

The quizzes and assignments I’ve seen at the high school level are ridiculous. I’m bilingual (studied Spanish k through 12 at private schools and earned a BA in Spanish), and the instruction and metrics seem ridiculous.

Care to comment on your kid’s experience? Care to share your school or pyramid? I will if you will.

Or Kreutzberger or Blumenfeld. Ridiculous. Everybody knows there aren't any people in Spanish-speaking countries with an ethnic heritage from Jewish Eastern/Central Europe!

Or, um, something.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-jewish-don-of-latin-american-tv-says-adios-after-53-years/

Op here.

Yes, I realize that.

But this specific Jewish woman doesn’t speak Spanish fluently nor can she pronounce words correctly in Spanish.

My Spanish is better than hers. Dramatically better.

I learned Spanish starting in K from native speakers (one from Cuba, one from Spain, one from Puerto Rico; all were well educated/affluent).

OP, as you should know, the issue here is not that her name is Rosenberg, or that she's Jewish. The issue is that she doesn't speak Spanish well (in your opinion).

Another thing that's not the issue: how affluent your native-speaker Spanish teachers were when they were growing up.

Rosenberg, Smith, O’Leary: the point is the teacher learned Spanish in the US as a student, and didn’t fully master it yet she is teaching.

And affluence and education absolutely do play a role when it comes to a native speaker’s mastery of the language. Very few Latinos growing up in MoCo today receive formal Spanish education outside of the home. Affluent kids do—both here and abroad. I grew up with kids at my private school whose parents worked at the World Bank, etc. Those kids went to special schools each week for additional classes in their native tongue (think: Greece, Argentina, China, etc.).

I guess you're the expert on Latinos in MoCo.

Can you name a special school that teaches formal written Spanish and the history/culture of a specific country? One for Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador (noting most Latinos in moco are from El Salvador)? And, what’s the tuition? Who pays for it?

Affluent dc metro area parents from abroad have sent their kids to special programs (after school/mostly weekends) for decades.

If you’re from here, don’t you know someone who went to “Greek school”? Every Greek I know who grew up here went to it. Close friends went to Argentina school. And we have specialty Chinese schools in moco (including Chinese summer camps). None of this stuff is cheap. Low income kids aren’t attending costly programs.

[Anonymous]

Can you name a special school that teaches formal written Spanish and the history/culture of a specific country? One for Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador (noting most Latinos in moco are from El Salvador)? And, what’s the tuition? Who pays for it?

Affluent dc metro area parents from abroad have sent their kids to special programs (after school/mostly weekends) for decades.

If you’re from here, don’t you know someone who went to “Greek school”? Every Greek I know who grew up here went to it. Close friends went to Argentina school. And we have specialty Chinese schools in moco (including Chinese summer camps). None of this stuff is cheap. Low income kids aren’t attending costly programs.

Spanish for Spanish Speakers is the Spanish equivalent to "Greek School" or "Chinese School," and is taught in many MCPS high schools. Students receive instruction in formal written Spanish and in-depth study of the history/culture of several Spanish-speaking countries. Religion is also a major part of the Spanish speaking culture in MoCo, and many children receive cultural and musical instruction, in Spanish, within their church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had multiple kids take Spanish at Frost and Wootton. We’ve had one good teacher at wootton and the rest are terrible. Most were native speakers but I don’t necessarily think it makes them good teachers, especially at the beginning levels.

[phone]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Can you name a special school that teaches formal written Spanish and the history/culture of a specific country? One for Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador (noting most Latinos in moco are from El Salvador)? And, what’s the tuition? Who pays for it?

Affluent dc metro area parents from abroad have sent their kids to special programs (after school/mostly weekends) for decades.

If you’re from here, don’t you know someone who went to “Greek school”? Every Greek I know who grew up here went to it. Close friends went to Argentina school. And we have specialty Chinese schools in moco (including Chinese summer camps). None of this stuff is cheap. Low income kids aren’t attending costly programs.

Spanish for Spanish Speakers is the Spanish equivalent to "Greek School" or "Chinese School," and is taught in many MCPS high schools. Students receive instruction in formal written Spanish and in-depth study of the history/culture of several Spanish-speaking countries. Religion is also a major part of the Spanish speaking culture in MoCo, and many children receive cultural and musical instruction, in Spanish, within their church.

Sure.

But have you heard of the achievement gap? It’s kind of a big deal in mcps, and it’s driven by socioeconomics. So, generally speaking, a teacher who enjoyed an affluent upbringing and formal education at a private school likely speaks and writes in Spanish far better than both her American counterparts as well as peers who simply learned Spanish at home, at mcps (lol) and at church.