Photo credit: Najib Joe Hakim
As soon as we finished watching Speaking in Tongues, an inspiring documentary film which follows the journey of four children as they become bilingual while immersed in dual language programs, my husband turned to me and declared: “We have to do the same for Vanessa.”
The award-winning film, produced and directed by the husband-and-wife team of Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider, showcases the stories of four kids—and their families—from completely different backgrounds as they struggle and triumph at becoming bilingual and bi-cultural for all kinds of different reasons. It’s all about language immersion education—and you know how we feel about that—told through the extraordinary stories of these four children. The film is engaging and eye-opening. If there ever were any doubts regarding the benefits of bilingualism, Speaking in Tongues, should do away with them.
“Bilingual education is so contentious, it’s often seen as kind of a coated discussion of other things, like our changing demographics and our immigration policy,” said Jarmel who founded Patchwork Films with her husband back in 1994 with the idea to delve into current social issues via character-driven stories. “But if you re-frame it into thinking that being bilingual in any other language is an asset, then what do we look like? Kids who grow up bilingual understand from the get-go that there’s more than one perspective in the world and what would America look like if our citizens understood that our way is just one way?”
The film opens up with several examples taken from YouTube regarding the absurd English-only agenda that many continue to push for and which has sadly become part of the legislation in more than 30 states in this country. Community activist and long-time, ardent supporter of multilingual education, Dr. Ling-chi Wang, talks about how there is no other country that even with such linguistic diversity continues to be monolingual.
“We’re so stuck on this idea that English is our language and that we only need to learn English because the rest of the world is learning English,” explained Jarmel who is not bilingual, but so firmly believes in the power of bilingualism that her two children have been attending dual language public schools in San Francisco since they were in Kindergarten. “Of course we need to learn English. It’s not a matter of kids learning English or not. I think the biggest misconception, which is also the thing that is most counter-intuitive, is that kids will learn English better if they’re learning in two languages.”
It’s a well-known fact that children who speak a minority language when they enter school in the U.S. for the first time—be it Spanish, Chinese or Italian—will become proficient in English quicker and more successfully, if they continue to be taught in their mother tongue. In other words, the idea of trying to “erase” their first language by immersing them in an English-only curriculum in an effort to help them learn this country’s majority language is not only counter-productive, but it’s also a way of undermining the prestige and importance of speaking a minority language.
“One of the things I love about the immersion schools is that the kids who are native speakers of the language that’s being taught they, instead of been seen as them having some kind of deficit, they actually have an asset,” Jarmel expressed.
Photo credit: Najib Joe Hakim
One of the greatest aspects of the film is that the four children it follows come from completely different backgrounds (there’s a Caucasian eighth-grader, an Asian-American sixth-grader, a Latino fifth-grader and an African-American kindergartner) and are learning a second language (Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish) for a variety of reasons including: heritage, future career opportunities, communication with family elders.
There are several poignant moments in the film, but I won’t ruin it by telling you about them, so you’ll just have to see for yourselves. I will; however, share with you that my heart broke when I heard some of the Asian-American family members, of the one girl portrayed in the film, talking about not been able to have a relationship with their grandmother because they can’t speak Chinese and she doesn’t speak English. As I’ve mentioned in the past, nothing would hurt me more than my children not been able to communicate with their non-English speaking relatives in Peru and Puerto Rico. To me, raising them bilingual is more than just giving them a professional edge, it’s about familia and heritage.
“It’s a very powerful model,” said Jarmel. “Our desire is that there will be more of a national conversation about the value of bilingualism, which is both about creating opportunities for kids to learn a second language and for valuing the languages that kids bring into the schools because we need all of that.”
Speaking in Tongues is scheduled to air on PBS stations around the country in August, in the meantime, Jarmel is also looking to get in touch with local organizations/groups of people which advocate multilingual education to arrange community screenings. As all of you are SpanglishBaby readers because you believe in the importance of bilingualism, I strongly suggest you get in touch with her to make this happen in your communities and get the conversation on this extremely important issue rolling.
Although you have to wait until the Fall to view the film on PBS, you can purchase the DVD here or your can enter to win your very own copy, which Jarmel is graciously giving away to one lucky SpanglishBaby reader, by reading below.
The Giveaway
This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner #8 Jana!
For your chance to win a copy of Speaking in Tongues, please watch the trailer by going here, and come back to tell us why you think you’d like to watch the film.
This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Sunday, April 25, 2010. Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid and automatically deleted. Sorry, just need to keep it fair. Good luck to all!
Disclosure: A sample DVD was provided for review purposes; all opinions are 100% ours. Check out our full Disclosure + Privacy Policy.
I would love to watch this film, especially with my husband. I believe in the benefits of being bi-lingual, (or even better, multi-lingual!), but my husband hasn’t been fully on board.
We are both bi-lingual English/Spanish. I am the native English speaker, and he the native Spanish speaker. When it came to raising our children, I begged him to speak to them in only Spanish, but at the time he didn’t fully realize how important it was. He figured “they’ll learn it later”, and he was more concerned with their English fluency since we live in the United States. I tried to explain to him that English would come easily, and it was the Spanish they needed to hear/speak/read at home.
Now, many years later, our children are not speaking age appropriate Spanish. They can speak/read/understand, but they are years behind native speaking peers. They get better day by day, but an opportunity for them to be native speaker fluent has probably been missed. My husband has recently begun speaking in Spanish to them more, but he is still reluctant because now he says it “feels weird”… I think watching this film would help him realize it isn’t too late to make our household 100% Spanish speaking instead of 50/50.
I told my husband, when your 8 year old corrects your English grammar and pronunciation, I think that’s a sign that they’re doing well and can handle learning another language!
.-= Sra. López´s last blog ..Foto of the Day – A comprar… ¿con quién? =-.
My husband and I only speak English. Our daughter is beginning a dual language school in the Fall. While we are both committed to this, others in our extended family are not. I would love to watch the film not only for myself, but to show to others the value in dual language education.
What a coincidence! I was just going to blog about this today lol.
@Christy Keep up the faith! It’s always hard when extended family members aren’t on board, but sometimes many of them come around later when they see the results of bilingualism. And if not, oh well!
.-= Melanie´s last blog ..Who is Qualified to Teach in a Bilingual Program? =-.
This looks so interesting! I would love to watch this! I would love to hear all their arguments for becoming bilingual.
.-= Tati´s last blog .. =-.
I would love to watch this, and the help spread the word on it! I am a true believer that in today’s world not helping our kids with other languages is just making a dis-service to them. I want to watch it to see how I can convince educators on the importance of learning other languages.
Thanks for the great opportunity
I would love to watch this because my husband and I both speak English, but want our daughters to be bilingual. I want to learn more about the benefits of language immersion.
Hi there!
Im a Spanish mum who lives in Spain but ive decided to raise my children bilingual. I lived in Ireland for a few years so my English is ok.I ONLY speak english with my son whos two years old now and belive it or not but he understands everything and he is starting to make sentences in english .Im so proud of him!!
He watches cartoon in english, his books are in english and hopefully well join a playgroup soonish so he can meet up other kids who speak English.
I think that is amazing the way they learn two languages or m ore at the same time. Im even thinking about swapping houses with families fromn english speaking countries which would b great for them so they can listen to native speakers.
Anyway love your page , it encourages me to do what im doing coz sometimes people dont understand why i do it (Im not a native speaker>!!!)but when i hear my son speaking english I say to myself OOOHHHH Yeaaaaaaahhh well done.
This film looks wonderful! I would love watch/have a copy of this movie because I teach in a very small,rural community in which bilingualism is practically frowned upon. Parent’s look at bilingual education as a stigma being attached to there child, and instead will refuse bilingual education for their child. Our community needs to see how powerful an asset being bilingual truly is!
I’d love to see this documentary because it explores bilingualism. I work in a bilingual middle school/high school and the issues spoken about in this film are real and hit home hard. I’d love to see how the ideas and ideals are approached through the protagonists and their families. This has been a controversial issue for decades as we continue to learn more.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
I am so excited about this documentary! With today’s globalization, the need and benefit of being bilingual is tremendous. I am passionate about teaching my own children and my students about the importance of being bilingual and I think this documentary is a fantastic reinforcement tool. I would LOVE to win a copy! Thanks for posting this information and giveaway! Great topics from Spanglishbaby, as usual.
Gracias.
I would love to watch this film!! I would like to watch it with my children and family, I think my oldest son is old enough to start understanding the benefits of being bilingual and I think this film will help him (he is in the no Spanish stage right no
)
I like the film talks about bilingualism in general, not just Spanish-English bilingualism. I a believer of bilingualism, I think it just makes us stronger, so sad so many people don’t see it that way.
Thanks for the great giveaway chicas!!
.-= Silvia´s last blog ..Sorteo de Pases para el Pre-Estreno de "Letters to Juliet" / "Letters to Juliet" Prescreening Passes Giveaway =-.
I would love this movie! We are not raising our children to be bilingual, but to be TRIlingual. I speak to them in French and English while my husband speaks to them in Spanish. My method so far is to speak to them mostly in French as babies, but teach them English words at around 12 months when they are learning to talk. Since we are homeschooling and live in the US, I knew she wouldn’t have all the advantages of learning English at school like most children who are in bilingual situations, and this is why I do choose to do a lot of English. I also didn’t want her English to be mediocre. She speaks and understands English and Spanish and understands French but speaks Frenglish. I wish we had dual language schools here in Atlanta, besides super duper expensive private ones.
It would be very fascinating to watch the experiences of these four families and listen to what the movie has to say about bilingualism.
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Flower and Planting Books =-.
Because I’m very interested in this type of education for my daughter and she’s just been accepted into one of these types of schools.
I subscribe.
I’d love to see this film – my husband and I are English speaking only, but are putting our daughters in Spanish Immersion Kindergarten – 5th grade because we want them to have all the cognitive benefits and future opportunities that will come with speaking 2 languages.
This looks fascinating! I would love to share it with my graduate class/cohort of teachers in public schools. I’m really interested to see it. Unfortunately, we don’t have television access, so a community screening would be of interest to me.
This film looks wonderful. I would like to share it with a few of my family members that still think that I am holding my kids back by speaking to them in Spanish.
.-= Adriana´s last blog ..Easter pictures- Better late than never =-.