Gabriela Kline with dual language teachers Eduviges Corchado-Ortiz (left) and Carissa Soto-Rodriguez (right) at Foster Elementary
Tracie Apel, Communications Specialist, Jeffco Public Schools
The Colorado Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) awarded Gabriela Kline, a dual language student at Foster Elementary, first place in the elementary category for her submission in the organization’s annual “Proud to be Bilingual” essay contest. Kline presented her essay last June to the Bueno Center, housed on the campus of CU Boulder in the School of Education.
Foster Elementary’s dual language program’s goal is to have all students bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural by the time they leave sixth grade.
“The majority of students do reach this benchmark”, says Carissa Soto-Rodriguez, dual language teacher at Foster.
“Most students then move on to a middle school that has spanish language arts courses” added fellow Foster dual language teacher Eduviges Corchado-Ortiz.
Both Soto-Rodriguez and Corchado-Ortiz encouraged Gabriela to submit her essay.
Kline likes being bilingual since “you can know more people and be more social.” Perhaps more important, is that Gabriela has family in Columbia that she visits who she could not communicate with if she only spoke English.
Kline was recognized at CABE’s annual luncheon where she received her award and read her essay. She loves to write and wants to participate in more competitions. When she is older, she would like to have a career in travel or as a food critic.
Read her essay below:
My name is Gabriela Kline, and I am proud to be bilingual. I have been bilingual since I barely started speaking. Mi mama me habla en Espanol, and my dad speaks to me in English. Being bilingual helps the brain process information better. It also gives me an opportunity to make more friends, and communicate with more people. I have been to a Spanish speaking country, and I live in an English speaking community. El Español es parte de mi identidad. Sin el, no me puedo imaginar quién sería hoy.
Being bilingual gives cognitive and speech benefits. It also helps the brain stay focused on a specific topic, switch tasks completely, or multitask. I’m not saying that monolinguistic people don’t have this ability, but bilingualism helps the brain do it better. The bilingual brain also interacts with neurologic systems. While using one language, the brain also has the other one active at the same time. I think that Spanish is an important language to speak because if you know Spanish, it will be easier to learn another language like French, Italian and/or Portuguese. Latin is the root to all these languages.
Being bilingual gives you the opportunity to make more friends, and meet more people. If I were not bilingual, I would not know a lot of my best friends and maybe in the future, my best friend will only know one language and I will be able to communicate with them. I believe that each language that you know, you know another culture. There are different types of Spanish, like Colombian Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Spanish from Spain and much more. So for example, both Mexico and Colombia speak Spanish, but the Spanish is different, but it is still Spanish. They have completely different cultures, but they are both hispanic countries.
I have been to Colombia three times in my whole life. My mom’s family lives there, and they speak almost no English. If I only spoke English, I could I could not communicate with anyone there. Knowing both English and Spanish has given me the opportunity to communicate with all my family both here in America and in Columbia. My abuelita comes every other year, for six months. When we go to the store, or anywhere else that is not home, and she needs to a questions, I can translate to the cashier, or anyone she needs to talk to.
As you can see, English and Spanish are part of my identity. Without them, I can not imagine who I would be today. Mi nombre es Gabriela Kline, y estoy muy orgullosa de ser bilingüe.