Students Adopt A Multilingual Vision

By Larissa Lytwyn

Cendant Mobility, a Danbury-based global relocation management company, in conjunction with the Newtown High School Career Center, sponsored a recent panel discussion between bi- and multilingual professionals with Newtown High School World Language students on the advantages of learning a secondary language.

Students in all levels of French, Spanish, and Latin spent their class time interacting with panelists.

“Cendant Mobility first came about two years ago, and we thought their message was so important we wanted to bring them back,” said Career Center Director Peg Ragaini.

The panel featured professionals including Cendant Mobility international assignment consultants Anabel Batista, Anna Marie Almonte, and Yasmin Hamzi as well as Eitan Kilchevsky, a Danbury Hospital-based pediatrician, and Ray Vandewater, an area artist.

Ms Batista, a native of the Dominican Republic, moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., when she was 7.

“I am fluent in both Spanish and English, and, living and working in the Danbury area, that has been very helpful to me,” she said.

She graduated from Western Connecticut State University with a bachelor of science degree in social work in 1999.

“My cultural background is very important to me, and my fluency in Spanish has opened a lot of doors,” Ms Batista told students. “I travel frequently to the Dominican Republic, where I still have family.”

She said she enjoyed her native country’s lush white-sand beaches and food the most. Still, the link to her native country is a somewhat tenuous one.

“My nieces and nephews don’t speak Spanish because they were born and raised in the US and never had to,” she said.

Julie Holmes, a global account manager for Cendant Mobility, said that part of the company’s education initiative is emphasizing the ever-increasing global connectiveness of modern society.

“It’s becoming increasingly necessary to learn a second or even a third language in career and just in one’s personal life,” she said.

Ms Almonte, a native of Italy, did not know any Spanish when she met “this really hot guy” from the Dominican Republican at a job she held several years ago in Brookfield. Further, the man did not speak any English.

“You never know what life is going to throw at you!” she laughed, continuing, “I am now married to that man from the Dominican Republican and we have a beautiful 15-month-old son, Benjamin.”

Ms Almonte said she is raising her son to speak Italian and Spanish as well as English, a skill she is confident will help him throughout his life.

“I remember all too well my own first day of kindergarten,” said Ms Almonte. “I didn’t know any English and I was crying. That won’t happen with my son.”

Ms Hamzi introduced herself to students in Arabic, a language most students mistook for French. Ms Hamzi, a native of Egypt, did not come to the United States until 2000, when she was 18. When she left Egypt, she was nationally ranked second in tennis.

“I first joined the women’s tennis team in Gainesville, Ga.,” she said. “After a year, I transferred to California State University at Sacramento.” She attended the university on a full scholarship on account of joining the school’s tennis team. She graduated from California State University with a degree in international communication last May and shortly thereafter joined the Cendant Mobility team.

In addition to fluency in Arabic and English, Ms Hamzi speaks French, a skill she acquired as a student in Egypt.

“It is so important to learn a language other than your native one,” she told students. “The world is getting smaller and our need to communicate is getting bigger.”

Leah Fahey, a sophomore at Newtown High School, is a first-year Spanish student. “I took Spanish because I knew it was a language spoken widely throughout the world,” she said. “I’m really enjoying learning it!”

Leah said she appreciated the panel members’ personal stories. “I think their message is an important one,” she said, “and I understand how important it is to be bilingual, or multilingual, or whatever you can!”

Two years ago, she said, her family welcomed a foreign exchange student. “It was a wonderful experience,” she said. “I would love our family to host another student. I’d also love the opportunity to travel abroad myself someday!”

Ms Holmes said Cendant Mobility strives to reach students on all grade levels, from high school students to grade schoolers.

“We recently made maracas with a second grade class for a presentation on Mexico,” she said. Experiencing cultural diversity, she said, enhances students’ sensitivity to different cultural norms.

One exercise the Cendant Mobility team likes to do with students is have them use chopsticks to eat a variety of American foods. The students quickly learn how chopsticks are uniquely utilized for Asian-style cooking!

“Students learn how awkward and challenging it can be to adapt one’s habits to other cultures, and hopefully, makes them more sensitive to people from different nations,” said Ms Holmes.

Asian languages in particular are being used more and more widely. A recent World Census Bureau study revealed that Mandarin Chinese is currently the top language spoken in the world, followed by Hindi and English.

For more information on Cendant Mobility, visit www.cendantmobility.com.