{"id":8006,"date":"2018-07-06T11:13:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T15:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=8006"},"modified":"2018-11-05T16:10:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T21:10:57","slug":"students-learn-world-languages-in-startalk-academies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/students-learn-world-languages-in-startalk-academies\/","title":{"rendered":"Students learn world languages in STARTALK academies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anesa Redd, a rising sixth-grader at Brandon Middle School, said she\u2019s been wanting to learn Russian for \u201ca long<\/em> time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t really like speaking English,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBoring\u201d is not a word any students are using to describe their experiences in the STARTALK Chinese and Russian Summer Academies hosted by Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) for the ninth year.<\/p>\n

The rising fifth-grade and sixth-grade participants use words like \u201cfun\u201d and \u201camazing\u201d when talking about the summer program\u2019s classroom activities, field trips and teachers.<\/p>\n

Anna Tichenor attended STARTALK last summer when she was a student at Princess Anne Elementary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun, especially with Ms. Wang because we did all kinds of fun activities and learned tai chi,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tichenor returned to STARTALK this summer, as a Princess Anne Middle rising sixth-grader, to continue her studies of Mandarin Chinese. In addition to learning the language, Tichenor and her peers are experiencing enrichment classes in Chinese calligraphy and brush painting as well as daily Chinese movement. Russian students also study folkloric dance and traditional Russian art and have already visited the Faberg\u00e9 and Russian Decorative Arts exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinary opportunity,\u201d said Jennifer Carson, VBCPS K-12 world languages coordinator. \u201cThey are immersed entirely in the language and culture of either Russian or Mandarin Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n

The free, four-week immersive experience is funded by the National Security Agency and is open to all VBCPS fourth-graders to apply. 75 students were selected by lottery to attend the elementary academies for rising fifth-graders, and attendees from the previous summer are invited to fill the 30 spots for advanced classes as rising sixth-graders.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jack Schmeiser, a rising senior in the Global Studies and World Languages Academy (GSWLA) at Tallwood High School who is serving as a STARTALK volunteer, attended the STARTALK Chinese Academy as an elementary student and he has been immersed in world languages ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI studied Chinese [at STARTALK]. I took a little bit of French. I\u2019m going into my fourth year of Russian, and I took a summer program to learn Hindi,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Schmeiser\u2019s studies in the GSWLA also have allowed him to travel the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to the Phillipines, India, and I\u2019m going to China next spring,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traveling and putting their new language skills to use is on the minds of this year\u2019s STARTALK participants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to learn different languages,\u201d said Xander Wilson, a rising sixth-grader at Landstown Middle School, about why he\u2019s at STARTALK. \u201cIf I ever wanted to travel to different places, I figured this would be a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can interact with people from other cultures,\u201d said Eben McCammon of his world language studies, \u201clike if you want to travel to China or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he is comfortable with Mandarin Chinese now, McCammon \u2013 a rising sixth-grader at Plaza Middle School \u2013 remembers feeling a bit stunned by teachers only speaking in the target language during his first year in the STARTALK academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, what is going on?\u201d he said. \u201cBut then we got the hang of it. They taught us by demonstrating. They helped us learn a new language in a fun way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Demonstrating Russian dances is what Zhanara Handy, a STARTALK cultural enrichment instructor, is doing to share cultural lessons and practice the language.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe introduced two dances last week,\u201d she said. \u201cOne is Trepak from Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u2018The Nutcracker.\u2019 We use colorful handkerchiefs. It\u2019s good for them to hold onto and we stop and practice the colors. The other one is the Russian polka. In between \u2013 you know, they have to catch their breath \u2013 I do little drills, speak Russian to them and ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Handy, a native of Kazakhstan, learned Russian in school. \u201cKazakhstan used to be part of the Soviet Union and I graduated from Russian school; that\u2019s why I\u2019m more fluent in Russian but I speak Kazakh as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

She speaks some Russian at home with her American husband and her fifth-grade daughter, who is attending STARTALK this summer. Handy is impressed by the program that she\u2019s only seen in action for two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program is amazing. It\u2019s so effective,\u201d said Handy. \u201cWe\u2019re thankful for this program. We moved from up north last year and are just being introduced to this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Introducing students to world languages, especially when they are young, is critical, according to Carson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s essential now in this global community that students become sensitized to other ways of speaking, other ways of expressing, other ways of living in the world \u2013 and also to gain some linguistic competence,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of our [STARTALK] students go on to study these critical languages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students like Schmeiser, who knows his studies will prove valuable in his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you learn things about the world and learn things about languages,\u201d he said, \u201cthat can really be applied to any aspect of your life \u2013 whether that be your career or just personal life. I think it\u2019s valuable because it\u2019s so versatile.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Redd, who finds English boring, is also doing her part to spread a love of world languages thanks to STARTALK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun because it\u2019s different and every time I go back to school, I teach my friends new things, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about the 2018 STARTALK Academies, visit <\/em>www.virginiabeachstartalk.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anesa Redd, a rising sixth-grader at Brandon Middle School, said she\u2019s been wanting to learn Russian for \u201ca long time.\u201d \u201cI just don\u2019t really like speaking English,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8007,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006\/revisions\/8007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}