Speaking Together

Among the more difficult but rewarding jobs in my life was Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in Afghanistan in the Peace Corps 50 years ago. As a followup experience, I sometimes had contact with the (TESL) program at City College in San Francisco, which is the domestic equivalent, if you substitute the word Second for Foreign.

So it was with sadness and concern that I read in Mission Local this weekend that the program may face budget cuts as soon as next month.

Mission Local is a news site originally established as a joint effort between the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and local journalists in the neighborhood where I lived for 17 years until last spring. The site publishes articles in both English and Spanish.

When I was at KQED, Mission Local founder Lydia Chavez and I negotiated an arrangement  to share our content in both languages -- an unusual, perhaps unique deal for the two organizations at the time. Helping public broadcasting become bilingual (and ultimately multi-lingual was always one of my goals.

How people learn and use language has long been a major preoccupation for me, not only as a writer and a teacher but simply as a fellow traveler through this universe. I meet many people with amazing language skills, particularly when they are multi-lingual in their daily lives.

I relish, for example watching my 12-year-old grandson reading books in French to his 7-year-old sister. ( J'adore, par exemple, regarder mon petit-fils de 12 ans lire des livres en français à sa sœur de 7 ans. ) They are fluent in Franch and he is studying Spanish and wants to learn Japanese. It's all part of his home-schooling and her remote learning routines but it also is just pure fun for both of them.

Languages are flexible and playful and capable of adapting to the ever-changing environments where they are employed. (زبان ها انعطاف پذیر و بازیگوش هستند و توانایی انطباق با محیط های همیشه در حال تغییر را دارند.)

I know that budgets are tight, but I hope those in charge of the educational budgets at our community colleges continue to consider how important it is for our newest residents and citizens to acquire the best English language skills they can to succeed in this country.

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It's amazing to read in the Post how Nigerian girls kept secret diaries after being kidnapped that helped bring their plight to the world's attention. The power of stories to change the world should never be under-estimated. And the key element is for people to be able to identify and empathize with each other's stories, no matter how different our lives may be in their particulars.

One planet. One species. Common problems. Over 3 million of us have perished from Covid so far.

We need to mourn together. We need to share our stories and we desperately need this story to have a happy ending, or barring that, at least an ending.

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* Three people were killed and two others injured with gunshot wounds in a shooting early Sunday morning at The Somers House Tavern in Wisconsin. (CNN)

* A person has died after being shot Saturday at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, police said. (CNN)

 * As City College San Francisco threatens to lay off nearly 200 full-time faculty by mid-May, students and teachers from the school’s English as a Second Language program pleaded the college to save it during a virtual protest. (Mission Local)

* Worldwide COVID-19 death toll tops a staggering 3 million (AP)

* Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny at growing risk of kidney failure - medics union (Reuters)

* In Russia, a Military Buildup That Can’t be Missed -- Russia’s massing of tanks and infantry along its southwestern border with Ukraine was meant to send a message, analysts say. (NYT)

* Russia beefs up warship presence in Black Sea as Ukraine tensions simmer (Reuters)

* Four Sikhs among victims of Indianapolis mass shooting (AP)

* Police shooting of 13-year-old in Chicago leads to calls in the city for radical police reform (WaPo)

* Riot declared in Portland protests after police kill man (AP)

* Iran names suspect in Natanz attack, says he fled country (AP, Reuters)

* Raul Castro said he will step down and pass on control of the party to Cuba’s younger generation. His departure will leave Cuba without a Castro at its helm for the first time in over 60 years. (NYT)

* Get police out of the business of traffic stops (WaPo)

* Cuomo retreats from open news briefings that made him a star (AP)

* Oath Keeper Pleads Guilty and Will Cooperate in Jan. 6 Riot Inquiry (NYT)

* How abducted Nigerian girls seized control of their story with secret diaries (WaPo)

* How to Decode Office Body Language While Working From Home -- Learn the tricks to reading the nonverbal cues of your bosses and co-workers, from expressions in tiny Zoom windows to email punctuation (WSJ)

* ‘Forever chemicals,’ other pollutants found around the summit of Everest (WaPo)

* Family Impressed By Extra Effort Father Putting In To Hide Drinking (The Onion)

***

[Photo: Granddaughters Sophia and Daisy with birthday sign they made for me with sidewalk chalk.]

When I hear, hear you
I'm not over you
I don't wanna need you
But I need you, I need you
When I hear, hear you
I'm not over you
I don't wanna need you
But I need you, I need you

Songwriters: Benedict East / Maribelle Joyce Anes / Madeleine Jayne Rowe

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