Cumberland County students learn about a new culture by learning new languages

Students in Cumberland County Schools are gaining beneficial insights through the World Language Program, according to teachers and a program specialist.

Carmen Villalobos, a curriculum specialist with the program, is originally from Puerto Rico.

“First-hand, I know the importance of language,” she said.

Villalobos, who has been working for Cumberland County Schools for more than 30 years, has three children who all speak multiple languages. Students who learn a new language develop a new perspective of the world, she said.

Throughout the last decade, the district has received more than $2.5 million in grants for the World Language Program, Villalobos said. More than 115 language teachers in the school system are part of the program.

In North Carolina, 12 school districts have been recognized for their Go Global North Carolina Confucius Classrooms, Villalobos said. Two of them are at Seventy-First High School, she said.

The Confucius Classrooms, is a Chinese language learning program for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

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Jinghong Qi, who is originally from China, teaches Chinese to students at Seventy-First High School. She has been teaching for a little more than 25 years.

“They learn the culture, the curriculum, the students,” she said about international teachers. “The students see a different world from the teachers.”

In 2014, Qi was able to take her students on a nine-day trip to China. The trip raised the students' ability to appreciate other cultures, she said.

“They got to practice the language we learned in the class and they also got to see the things that we couldn’t cover in the classroom," she said.

The students were excited to apply what they learned in real life, Qi said.  

In addition to Chinese, students at Seventy-First High School also have the opportunity to learn Arabic.

Arabic Teacher Azza Ghazaly at Seventy-First High School, originally from Egypt, said she was an English teacher in Egypt for nearly 20 years before applying to teach Arabic in the United States. 

“I love teaching. I love being with students and I love when I see them graduate,” she said. “Now, I see my Egyptian students they are doctors, they are engineers, they are lawyers and I feel very proud.”

Ghazaly is bilingual in Arabic and English. She began learning English as a second language in school, starting in kindergarten.

Although, Ghazaly has only been to the United States twice, she is an Arabic teacher at Seventy-First High School this school year though the Teachers of Critical Language Program. The application process for the Teachers of Critical Language Program through the U.S. State Department was extremely time consuming and competitive, she said.

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Ghazaly was the only teacher chosen through the program to teach in the United States, Villalobos said.

“Language gives them (students) that perspective beyond their classroom, beyond their community,” Villalobos said. “It provides them with global skills…through learning a (new) language.”

Along with Chinese and Arabic, Latin, French and Spanish are also being taught in Cumberland County Schools.

“When you learn a language,”  Villalobos said. “You learn a culture.”

Health and education writer Ariana-Jasmine Castrellon can be reached at acastrellon@gannett.com or 910-486-3561.

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