 Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. Aloha y bienvenidos a nuestro programa Hispanic Hawaii. Yo soy Richard Concesión. En nuestra vida, los maestros juegan un papel muy importante de que empezamos kinder hasta que nos graduamos de la universidad. Ellos nos ayudan a entender el mundo que nos rodea y también nos ayuda a convertirlo en un buen ciudadano y también en una buena persona. El futuro de una nación depende en los maestros. Ellos tienen la responsabilidad de ayudar y también a ayudar a aquellos que se vuelvan líderes y una nación con un buen líder viene siendo una buena nación. Y hoy vamos a hablar acerca del tema la razón y el beneficio porque muchos deberíamos aprender un segundo idioma como el español. Y hoy tenemos aquí Mayra, ella es la maestra de la escuela de Waipahu High School y quiero decir bienvenida al programa. Hola, buenas tardes y mucho gusto. Y soy una de las maestras de español en Waipahu High School. Somos cuatro maestros. Actualmente yo soy una de ellas. Ok, that's great. We want to say welcome to the program. Let's start by you telling me a little bit about yourself and tell me what motivated you to become a maestra. Dime un poco de ti y por qué te motivarte a ser una maestra español. Yo soy originaria de Oaxaca, México. Oaxaca es al sur de México, muy cerca del Pacífico. Y mi intención de ser maestra siempre me ha gustado compartir y el ser maestra me da la oportunidad de compartir parte de lo que soy, de mis conocimientos, de mi cultura y sobre todo formar parte de la vida de los estudiantes que es algo que no tiene precio. I'm from Oaxaca, México. Oaxaca is at the south of Mexico by the Pacific. And I have always had the desire to share my passion about culture, my knowledge about the language but also to be part of the students' life that is something that is the best reward that we have as teachers. Let me ask you just a little bit about your program that you use at the school where you teach Waipahu High School. Tell me about the program. Dime un poco acerca del programa que ustedes usan para enseñar español en la escuela de Waipahu. Primero que nada, estoy muy agradecida con nuestra escuela Waipahu High School, que en estos momentos es una de las escuelas que más está innovando en el estado de Hawaii. Tenemos muchísimos programas, tenemos un gran líder que es Mr. Kid Hayashi, que nos apoya en todo lo que necesitamos para los diferentes programas, no solamente para word languages. Uno de los beneficios que tenemos es que nuestro programa es muy grande. Tenemos siete idiomas que se enseñan en la escuela, pero el más fuerte es español, ya que somos cuatro maestros de tiempo completo y tenemos aproximadamente 500 a 600 estudiantes del total de la población de Waipahu que son 2,200 estudiantes. Sí, es una clase muy popular y como mencioné antes, somos cuatro maestros y creo que lo que ha hecho nuestro programa crezca es porque los cuatro somos apasionados del idioma, del enseñar de la cultura y hemos tenido una gran mezcla de cuatro diferentes personalidades, cuatro diferentes estilos, pero con una gran pasión de compartir eso a los estudiantes y mezclamos mucha cultura, mucha información, no tan tradicional con el libro. De hecho, no usamos libros de texto. Nos encantan los libros de texto. Nos apoyamos con libros de texto, pero nuestro sistema que utilizamos es enfocarnos a darles mucho, lo que se llama input, mucha información al estudiante que ellos vayan recibiendo para no solamente aprender el idioma, pero que lo adquieran. Nuestra idea no es que se memoricen un saludo, una conversación, pero que realmente logren ellos asimilar lo que es el idioma y que poco a poco vayan ellos produciendo lo que es el idioma. Entonces, yo creo que esa es una de las claves de que nuestro programa sea tan exitoso que mezclamos variedad desde música, hacemos festivales de baile, comida, cocinamos, cantamos, recitamos, bueno, hacemos una gran variedad de cosas. Y esto lo hacemos aquí en Guai Paju, pero tenemos un grupo. No sé si quieres que comparta eso ahora. Si, si comparta, si me gustaría saber. Entonces, todo lo que estamos haciendo en Guai Paju no solamente somos nosotros en Guai Paju, pero tenemos un gran apoyo de maestros en toda la isla de Oahu, en el estado de Hawaii. Y esa es la asociación que se llama HOAT, Hawaii Association Language Teacher. Sí, somos parte de HOAT y HOAT es parte de una asociación mayor que se llama ACFAL, que es la asociación de maestros y lenguas extranjeras en todo el país. Y nosotros somos un capítulo de esa asociación y pertenecemos a la región sureste, de suroeste, perdón, de esa organización. Y ellos apoyan a diferentes idiomas Samuano, Ilocano, Japones, Chino, Italiano, todos los idiomas ha habido así por haber. Y en especial, nosotros con español, yo represento el idioma de español en holds, es la representante de nuestro idioma y tenemos un grupo que se llama, le decimos PLC, Professional Learning Community, de maestros de Milani, Monaluahai, Campbell, Kapolei, Radford, escuelas particulares como sin hacer comerciales para la pietra y otras escuelas, este, Joala, y nos apoyamos entre nosotros, entonces estamos creando como una familia de maestros porque el beneficio es para los estudiantes, vamos más allá de lo que es el nivel profesional de lo que hacemos como maestros pero apoyar para que la comunidad crezca allá aún más un entendimiento mejor de lo que es aprender un idioma, es no solamente traducir, porque traducir no puedes hacer, no puedes hacer en tu celular. Claro, hoy en día la traducción es muy fácil protener una conversación y entender la que otra persona dice, yo entiendo, sí, muy, déjame preguntarte sobre tu programa, que yo fui, tú me invitarte, yo fui a la escuela y tuve la oportunidad de conocer los estudiantes. Háblame de ese programa, tiene un nombre específico. Sí, nuestra escuela, nuestra escuela es parte de la asociación, se llama ALTSP, es la American Association of Spanish Teachers, the Teachers of Spanish in Portuguese y al ser parte de esa organización nosotros tenemos la habilidad de crear una sociedad honoraria hispánica. Hay sociedades honorarias para todas las otras clases curriculares pero tenemos un en específico para español, hay una también de japonés y me parece que italiano tiene otro y francés. En el caso nuestro tenemos la de español y nuestra escuela, cada año hacemos una ceremonía muy especial y en la isla me parece que son como unas seis, siete escuelas públicas que tienen esta sociedad honoraria. Es un poco de trabajo extra para los maestros, pero en Waipahu nos encanta hacer cosas para los estudiantes. Así que esta sociedad honoraria cada año inducimos estudiantes que muestran excelencia en su aprendizaje del idioma y que tienen una motivación especial y yo sé que esos chicos con esa motivación que tienen en un futuro tal vez quieran viajar a un país hispano o tal vez ser maestros de español entonces esos estudiantes son los que tienen el GPA o las mejores calificaciones y no solamente en español tienen que demostrar liderazgo una gran actitud en otras materias tienen que tener un mínimo de 3.5 GPA para poder pertenecer a nuestra sociedad honoraria hispánica. Es mucho trabajo. Es mucho trabajo y aparte lo bonito de esas sociedades es que yo solamente soy como el medio el medio entre la organización es que es el sponsor la que patrocina la escuela pero es para los estudiantes de hecho ellos son los que tienen que organizar la ceremonia que tú fuiste en los estudiantes fueron los que organizaron ellos organizaron todo ellos lo toman muy en serio cuando tenemos los candidatos a ser nominados para la sociedad ellos leen las cartas que los chicos escriben tienen que escribir una carta de intención por qué quieren ser miembros de la sociedad de hecho como mencionamos cuatro maestros nomina sus estudiantes que creen que merecen que merecen esa sociedad para que ellos deciden cumplen los requisitos para poder ser admitidos y los chicos ellos leen las cartas revisan analizan quienes merecen y así es como los intucinos usted recebió un premio de honor por ser una de las maestras de excelente háblame un poco de eso reconoce el reconocimiento por ser miembros de la asociación whole Hawaiian association of language teachers somos creo que aproximadamente 120 maestros de diferentes idiomas niveles en la universidad principalmente UH hasta high school que aquí en hawai tristemente es el unico nivel que empezamos a dar lenguas extranjeras excepción de Washington Middle School y una escuela en Aina Jaina las unicas escuelas públicas que tienen programas de lenguas extranjeras desde el middle school en la escuela primaria las demás escuelas tenemos solamente en high school entonces esa asociación cada año tiene un premio que se llama the excellence teaching award y como miembros de la asociación si tu eres miembro de la asociación tu ves el trabajo de algun compañero y tu decides nominarlo y cuando tu nominas le manda una notificación al maestro que fue nominado y el maestro tiene que crear un portafolio cubriendo ciertos requisitos que la asociación quiere tu envías tu portafolio y ellos analizan no se sabe cuantos maestros son nominados eso es hecho todos los años y de hecho pero esta vez fue la primera vez que Honolulu star advertiser llegó a presentar el premio entonces fue un gran honor para mi que tenemos la foto donde podemos nominar donde usted salió en el periódico donde fue nominada con el premio de excelente maestro y como todos los años hacen eso y entonces usted explicó que depende de la asociación fue son elegida si eres nominado y ellos hay un comité que decide quien recibe el premio y te notifican en una conferencia en la vera es el spring hold conference y durante ese spring hold conference es cuando anuncian quien es el ganador y nos dan un pequeño stipend por parte del periódico que es el patrocinador de este premio pero mas que el apoyo económico creo que es el haber sido nominado entre tantos maestros que son muy buenos en su área y que te consideren a ti let's see if we can put a photo can you put a photo up when she came out of the newspaper in there show the recognition here it is, here's the photo so you're receiving a word as well monetary so they can help es como una ayuda incentivo que lo puedes utilizar para tus clases personal no hay una restricción en eso y la condición de este premio es que en marzo del próximo año tengo que ir a Texas a competir contra maestros de la región suroeste a la que parten ese Hawaii que son Nevada, California Utah Washington state cinco estados cinco estados que van a competir pero su maestros mando su maestro del año wow, que bien bueno vamos a hacer otra pregunta que I got this question why department education have a requirement that every student who graduate from high school have some kind of classes learning a second language why is that requirement because some of the colleges especially in the mainland require that you need to have a two year program in a word language but because we try to help the students who have more options now in the past was mandatory for word language but now they give an option that could be arts that is good and it's important that they have arts I like that idea but that kind of divide the pie now we have to fight with arts for that requirement but this new superintendent she has been very good promoting languages actually she's from Puerto Rico I don't know if you knew that she's fluent in Spanish she has been helping helping to develop a better vision for the word language program and hopefully stays the same and there has been a big push for the seal of bi-literacy that is one of the the benefits for being part of an honor society and striving to become better at learning Spanish because that could help the students qualified to earn the seal of bi-literacy that is an award that every senior and I think it's like 35 states now in the United States they can be recognized to be bilingual or trilingual they have to be tested and if they have a passing score for that specific test they can receive that award at graduation that certifies them as bilingual wow that is great I want to know specifically what is the benefit for a person to be able to speak two or three different languages I think the major benefit besides helping you with your brain development and so many cognitive abilities I think the best thing for you to learn another language is that you're going to understand better another culture I think that would be for me the most important thing to learn another language because then you're going to understand many things that other culture does or what do they think in a certain way because it's tied up your language with your culture and the way that your ideas how do you act and how do you see the world especially here in Hawaii we will speak different languages but I think it also is good for if you're going to look for a job socio-economic as we are now into this global economic so well we are going to take a quick break and we're going to continue talking about the reason and the benefit of learning and speaking another language we have this crazy thing going on today I was just walking by and all these DJs and producers are set up all around the city I just walked by and I said what's happening guys they told me they were making music so we're doing welcome back to Spanish Hawaii I'm here with maestra Maida she is a Spanish teacher and she's here to help us to understand the benefit of learning a different language and she's a maestra de español she teaches Spanish so welcome back to the program so let's talk about we will talk about the benefit great wonderful benefit but also I want to talk about how people don't see the benefit I want to talk about how the news and the social network are putting down those who speak different language you can see right now it's increasing and different state when they see you here speaking Spanish somebody come I say it's speaking this is America what is your opinion about that I think every country has their own issues about that because even in Mexico when foreigners came you have to speak Spanish you can speak English I think it's something that every country does not just here but lately as you say we see it more and more and I personally I think that because most of us we are immigrants right so you have your own heritage you have your own culture and your background and one of the most important assets that you have is your language and I truly believe that we have to save and keep our language but of course also we need to acknowledge the language that we are here because that's what you usually do but I don't think they should be fighting against each other but complimenting each other like we can give some benefits to that learning another language and it is so nice when you are speaking in English with one person and you switch to Spanish and it's easy that you can communicate you don't have to translate or somebody else so try to understand I think that's one of the richness and like here in Hawaii I would love to learn Japanese and Chinese or someone or Hawaiian like Disney just released the Moana version in Hawaiian and I went to see it and it was amazing to see everybody speaking so it was really nice to see that let's go promote that understanding to be able to switch codes from one to another and I think because our continent America because I want to call it America the whole continent America is the whole continent I think here in the United States it's hard to understand that but living from Mexico I never thought about America as just one place but I thought about America as a whole from north to south right so I think that's one of the first things that we need to understand there is a whole continent and but of course in this specific part of the continent that is the north America the language spoken is English but all the ones that we are coming from other countries from the rest of the continent we're bringing our own language and it would be nice to be able to switch kind of like in Europe that you can switch from Italian to German to French and nobody have an issue with that and I think it's part of us if we are proud of who we are and I understand when the first immigrants start coming they prohibit their kids to keep speaking their first language to be able to integrate to the culture and that is a good thing right? It's a good thing you got to learn about the culture of the country that you are living but also you cannot forget who you are because if you forget who you are or what's your background then you cannot contribute the good things that you bring to the new culture like I have kids and we are trying to raise them by language they know their Mexican heritage and they know the American heritage because they live here and I want them to be proud of where they live but I want them to be proud of their health heritage what they are and the good things that we have of the Latinos because it's sad to hear the bad things only about the Hispanic community and not the good things that we have to offer but I think depends on us the ones who show up the good things that we have to offer that is true so let's talk about what president proposed about arming teachers el presidente puso la idea de que los maestros deberían usar arma para proteger los estudiantes because of the situation that happened and the school you know a lot of shooting so what do you think about that you think a teacher should be had their own weapon to protect the student itself well as teacher we have so many jobs not just teaching but now the one you together we do so many things but I think as any law or regulation unless has been planned and well prepared and people are trained like a properly trained I don't know it is something that if there is there is a steps that are being followed to fulfill that requirement in the extreme case that you have to do it but with the condition that you have to know what you are doing right you can just see it's an arm and you in charge and protect yourself good luck I think it has to be a specific training and it has to be a need well as a teacher we are used to do so many things in the class and that would be one more thing and but I think we need to be prepared but more than that I think as teachers and parents we need to start re-educating the family structure because that's one of the reasons right that is happening all the shooting what's going on with the families what's going on with our youth why they are having all those issues and the result is all these sad situations you mentioned so many things that you had to learn and one more thing I want to ask you what is your opinion what do you think about it because the secretary of the education her name is basic divorce she is requesting or she mentioned that she would like for the teachers and the school to be able to communicate with the police icing for illegal immigrant students what is your opinion about the secretary of education basic divorce divorce that she wants teachers to be able to communicate with the police and deliver to those students who are illegal students in the school I think as teachers we try to provide a safe environment for our students a place where they can trust and a place where they can feel that they are learning and I think in this country every different offices they have their own procedures to do things and I don't think the department of education right now has to compete with that we will have to be a whole process of law to implement to implement it because the kids they have so many rights and I think as teachers we are like doctors we don't have our hypo-practic code or like lawyers that you cannot client the same thing for teachers I think our first duty is to protect our students we are kind of running out of time we got a couple minutes before we leave and I would like to ask what is your final recommendation to anybody who wants to learn Spanish for anybody who wants to learn Spanish look for people who speak Spanish that would be great if you can find a person who is trained to speak Spanish when you are immersed in the culture they can contact you you are bilingual so they can ask you and just relate you can listen there are so many resources on the internet in websites where they can find or seek for help and also they can look for the adult community education system so they are classes in Spanish I know there are some private schools that they offer Spanish but most important to seek for the community we have a big community that is growing they can watch your show they can watch right here and learn English and Spanish they could do that too they can listen to the radio I know there is Almalatina Productions they have music in Spanish they can be with us at the Hispanic Festival in October they can all the Hawaii and the public schools all the world language classes especially Spanish they want to help us if they want to volunteer to be helpers we welcome volunteers so if they want to volunteer their time they can learn the language and they can support our students too we are at a time and I want to say gracias thank you so much for coming to share your opinion with us thank you so much alright, we run out of time we want to say thank you so much for watching Hispanic Hawaii, don't forget if you want to rewatch this program you can go to thinktechhawaii.com and many other programs within the thinktechhawaii community thank you, gracias, aloha y hasta luego