What to Know
- A never-before-seen partnership in New Jersey is bringing teachers from Spain to work in classrooms at the Hoboken Language Charter School
- The goal of the partnership is to educate students as global citizens through bilingual engagement and a multi-cultural worldview
- The school is confident that learning to be fluent in a second language will translate into students with more agile minds
A never-before-seen partnership in New Jersey is bringing teachers from Spain to work in classrooms at the Hoboken Language Charter School, aptly and cleverly known as HoLa.
The goal of the partnership is to educate students as global citizens through bilingual engagement and a multi-cultural worldview. The school is confident that learning to be fluent in a second language will translate into students with more agile minds.
“Our students will have more opportunities in the future, job opportunities, and also for meeting people in other cultural atmospheres inside their own country,” Jesús Valls, a Spanish teacher, said.
Cármen García Argüelles, education advisor for the Embassy of Spain, tells News 4 New York the program allows teachers to come to the states and bring their cultural expertise and Spanish backgrounds to share with American children.
In the past weeks, Spanish native teachers have been working hand-in-hand with American teachers preparing the curriculum before school starts.
“Our staff has representation from more than 14 Spanish speaking countries with different kinds of accents and idioms among our staff members,” Jennifer Sargent, executive director of the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School, said.
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For third-grader Iria Viota, few things are better than learning español.
“Spanish is the most beautiful language I could ever speak, because there’s so many ways of saying things and I would never wanna change that,” she explained.
Fellow third-grader Pablo Ussa shared similar sentiments.
“I’m very excited that I’m gonna have new teachers from Spain and learn new things from and see how different their culture is,” Ussa said.
Parents are also excited for the possibilities that this program brings.
“Language opens up so many opportunities, specially for children who have that elasticity of their minds to learn so quickly,” mother Gina DeFina said.
Diana Garcia, another mother, said the cultural experience will help students prepare better in a global atmosphere that is becoming more and more competitive.
“Our children get to go in this evolving environment and that is something that will stay with them the rest of their lives,” she said.
