In 2014 I attended a presentation on Salinas Oldtown and Salinas Chinatown and Latinos at the Steinbeck Center.

It was a wonderful presentation of the CSUMB oral history project and the different groups that have made Salinas strong .

At a recent workshop on blogging by seasoned blogger Bill Belew, I learned of a book and site that chronicles the experience of being bilingual in the United States from a young bicultural girl’s point of view. Hearing of this book made me realize how the interest in bilingualism is spreading and how cultures are blending more and more. It is also becoming easier and easier to find resources on bilingualism and other languages and cultures.

One of the easiest ways to promote bilingualism and multiculturalism is to read and share books about the multicultural experience. These can be in one language or bilingual. You may even find some that are written in more than three langauges. Even if you don’t know the language of the bilingual book, you can discuss the words or the way they look (if the writing system is different from English) with your child. Some books, like the famous Dora the Explorer books, will offer the possibility for expanded learning and exposure through television shows, video and games you can buy.

Share these books with friends and family. Read them to your children. Enjoy them on your own as you learn other languages. We are all kids again when it comes to learning another language! With the vast resources of the Internet and “shrinking of the globe,” there’s no reason why we can’t learn more about other cultures and languages. Check out my other site on multilingualism and read a funny contribution a friend wrote about other animals that can be “bilingual.”

The following “Letter to the Editor” appeared in the Salinas Californian on Saturday January 21, 2011. The title was given it by the paper.

Bilingual education coverage lacked balance by Susan Horcajo

The Californian adds insult to injury with its shallow article on bilingual education in the Alisal Union School District (November 27-28, 2010) and an even more dismal editorial (December 4-5, 2010). These blatantly lopsided pieces present outdated and uninformed positions regarding the role of language in education. Contrary to what these pieces imply, there is abundant research that supports bilingual education and NONE that profess monolingualism to be more beneficial.

Instead of implementing positive programs that build upon students’ knowledge and culture, the AUSD blames (more…)

Sites on Multilingualism are becoming more and more common. The Ministry of Education of New Zealand’s LEAP  (Language Enhancing the Achievement of Pasifika) site has the following key points and link. Check it out at: http://leap.tki.org.nz/Is-bilingualism-a-problem.

• There is still a widespread view that bilingualism is disadvantageous to learning.
• Early research into bilingualism tended to reinforce this negative view, suggesting that monolingual students performed better than bilingual students in a range of cognitive and learning tasks.
• A ‘container’ view of the brain, where it was thought that learning another language impacted negatively on or ‘pushed out’ the existing language, reinforced the perception of bilingualism as a problem. It has since been found that this is not the way the brain works; rather, languages are linked in the brain by a central processing unit, meaning that people can easily learn two (or more) languages.
• Subsequent bilingual research has also discredited the early bilingual research, consistently demonstrating that bilingual people have clear cognitive advantages over monolinguals. (See also the inquiry Is bilingualism an advantage? .)

Thinking about the celebration day which has just passed, I want to impress upon all my readers that you have the right to your native language. You also have the right to be EDUCATED in your native language. Many people don’t realize this and feel that they must give in to what those in power tell them. But language, power and pedagogy are all intricately linked. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas has written some excellent work on this topic, and she continues to work on this issue.

I’m here in a workshop with blogging guru Bill Belew thinking of how to blog for money. Read his book:

Bill Belew's book

I know there are so many people interested in Multilingual and Indigenous Language Education. I know there are publishers of materials and books who need to meet up with people who need materials. There are so many teachers, parents and advocates of native, mother tongue and indigenous language education who need materials. So, what can I do to take this knowledge and blog for money? (more…)

Welcome to the blog of the Multilingual Educator! Please be sure to come back frequently to read about issues of language and education from an ethnic and social perspective.

The most contentious issue these days is how the language of the Power Elite dominates the world of education to such an extent that those in control of education do not even follow the best pedagogical practices available. While children all over the world learn two or three languages in school, children in the United States are subjected to a “deficit model” and labeled “English learners”. Their whole existence hinges upon their level of English.

As research clearly shows that it takes between five and seven years to master a second language, the result of this “deficit model” is to make a child’s formative years overshadowed by a great negative cloud of identity. How children manage to live pleasant happy childhoods in spite of what we do to them is only testimonial to the resilience that children have in the face of what adults do to them!