Allo all, I need some assistance from my zoners. I have a new student and he is from Egypt. He and his family speak no english at all. Do any of you know of a decent translation site or books or anything that will help me to communicate with this student? He speaks Arabic which I am told is the modern day language in Egypt.
Any help will be much appreciated!! Thank yoooooooooo!!! :)
The Mir@cle wrote: Sorry... I only know how to walk like an Egyptian ;)
LOL!! I need a laugh right now. This poor little guy is just sitting there not knowing a bit of what is being said around him. I know I'll never be able to pronounce anything to him but if I can just make up some cards that say "Math", "Science", etc. Just so he knows what the subject of talk is.
So they just take a student who can't understand a word and stick him in class? Shouldn't there be some kind of language classes required prior to this?
I'm afraid we don't have any Arabic translators. This is a public school district and there is not funding for that. We have ESL teachers (English as a Second Language) but in this area we mostly have Asian or Hispanic students that need assistance. We are just recently getting more Arabic students. I've been looking on the internet all day for a decent free translation site but it seems I've got to purchase some sort of software bc of the Arabic characters. You all know how computer blonde I am so it's not been easy.
Every child in the US has a right to a free edcuation in a public school but I think that means in english. I'm not sure if we are required to provide/pay for an Arabic translator to be with him all day every day. I'll soon find out though. What do they do over there Bob for your foreign students? It would be interesting to know so I can see if we've got something similar.
What do they do over there Bob for your foreign students?
Make sure they speak English ;-)
I have no idea about the education system but I wouldn't be suprised if there are schools that teach in Arabic. I am sure someone will be able to shed some light on this.
Bob The Shrek wrote: What do they do over there Bob for your foreign students?
Make sure they speak English ;-)
I have no idea about the education system but I wouldn't be suprised if there are schools that teach in Arabic. I am sure someone will be able to shed some light on this.
Well I know we are not required to teach them Arabic. We would like to ideally help them learn English but how do you even talk to them? It would be like trying to teach a baby 4th grade work. This is definitely going to be a task for me.
Surely in the spirit of education being available to all the school has some obligation to either get him an interpreter/English teacher or give you money to buy that software. Over here we have ESOL teachers (English for Speakers of Other Languages) but I suspect that the student already know at least some English. We don't get many Arabs anyway, it's normally Asians and Somalians.
It must be so hard going to somewhere like America and not know any English. I feel so sorry for the kid.
Well this seems like a perfect example of the 'system' failing our kids. Nobody knows what to do with the kid so they just stick him in your class and hope for the best.
I guess what you're going to have to do is go out of your way and tutor him in English.. you'll both be learning at the same time. Once you make some progress, you'll take on more students.. someone will hear about the wonderful results you got and they'll start bringing their kids to you.
Next thing you know, you'll take it up full-time, become a legend in the education world and Meryl Streep will play you in the film version.
LOL Jeff..that would be cool but I'm not a teacher. I'm a social worker. In other words, when teachers don't know what to do with a student, they are brought to me. The solver of all problems!!! *puke* I don't think our system has failed this child at all. We just got him. We will do whatever we can to educate him. We just don't have Arabic translators at hand that can teach one student English. We are a public school system with 18,000 students to care for and this student just showed up one day. We didn't know in advance he was coming.
Most of the time when a foreign student comes to America, they have some basic knowledge of the language and can understand more than they can actually speak, if that makes sense. However this is not the case. Most of our Hispanic students can understand English, they just can't speak it.
We'll figure something out and he will learn. I'll see to it.