World language courses have long been a common way for students to broaden their reading, writing, and communication abilities beyond English. A smaller group of students passionate to take their language education above and beyond, take Honors level and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. An even smaller handful take high-level language courses, but are non-native speakers, meaning they’re speaking a language which they aren’t native to, as per Dictionary.com.
Native speakers have their identities empowered by being exposed to their language at school, said AP Spanish Language and Culture teacher Monica Rivero. However, these courses are also designed to build empathy in non-native speakers towards different cultures that they’ve never explored before, she added.
“It’s beautiful to see a student who is not a native speaker have so much passion and love for my language,” Rivero said. “Some of those students just feel like honorary Latinos.”
Rivero currently teaches Spanish II and AP Spanish, but has taught the language for more than 20 years at MHS, she said. She sees a variety of students who are immigrants, native speakers, and non-native speakers who take her class, and the coursework has always been accepting of those new to the culture, she said.
“There is so much that you can learn from just being in a classroom with another student who is a native speaker or where there’s a variety of levels and speaking,” Rivero said.
Senior Cindy Nguyen, who is ethnically Vietnamese, is enrolled in AP Spanish this year and experienced challenges with the language since she was a non-native speaker, she said. Eventually, she came to appreciate Rivero’s constructive teaching style, she added.
“On the first day of Spanish, I almost cried because I couldn’t understand everyone that well,” Cindy Nguyen said. “Some people are stronger at speaking; some people are stronger in reading and writing, but in that class, it’s very supportive.”
Junior Nhuhao Nguyen, who is ethnically Vietnamese and currently enrolled in Korean III, is used to learning new languages and cultures, she said.
“Just being able to learn another language and being able to put it to use really helps us grow our communication with other people,” Nhuhao Nguyen said. “There are some words that aren’t captured well enough in English, but it’s nice to know that there’s a word for it in Korean.”
Encouraging students to stick with a language beyond the two-year MHS recommendation has long been important to Rivero’s work at MHS, Rivero said.
“AP can be a little scary whether you’re a native speaker or not,” Rivero said. “They (students) are very driven. I’ll plant that little seed. I’ll say, ‘You’re going to take Spanish III right?’ because I want to see them in AP later on, and I will see them later on.”
While grateful for the education she has received thus far, Cindy Nguyen knows her conversational skills can see some improvement, she said.
“Personally, I don’t feel that I’m at the level where I want to be in my language journey,” Cindy Nguyen said. “Once I go more into the world, especially for college, there’s going to be more opportunities for me to be more exposed.”
Seeing her students’ progress throughout the school year is one of the many beautiful things about her job, Rivero said.
“This young girl I was just speaking to, she was telling me she was doing her senior survey, and that she wrote about how this (AP Spanish) was one of the best classes that she took,” Rivero said. “It teaches students how to be empathetic, how to learn about other cultures and know that it’s not just Mexico — there’s so much about our Spanish-speaking world.”
Though culturally Vietnamese, Nhuhao Nguyen has long been interested in and immersed herself in Korean culture, including through Korean Pop (K-pop) and Korean Dramas (K-dramas), she said.
“I also go to Korean restaurants sometimes, so I end up practicing reading their menus,” Nhuhao Nguyen said. “I’m a little shy to actually try ordering in Korean, but when I have to, I would say ‘thank you’ in Korean as I leave.”
Being a non-native speaker in a class with peers who are native speakers has never made Nhuhao Nguyen feel inferior and instead empowered her to go above and beyond with the language, she said.
“I like the environment, and I like the culture as well; it’s actually encouraged me to travel to Korea one day,” Nhuhao Nguyen said. “I want to be able to actually become fluent now and really hone the skills that I’ve developed over the years to put it to use in my future career.”
While learning a new language is hard, growth is bound to happen, Rivero said.
“When I had my students come in August, I could see that they were going to need some focus,” Rivero said. “When I saw them in January, and they gave a presentation, they could sustain conversation in some really difficult topics and academic language — it’s just the most amazing thing in the world for me to see.”