On the website Jen provided us I read the story about the little girl named Alina Percea. She is a little Romanian girl who came over to the States and worked hard, in intensive programs, to learn English. Alina excelled at learning English but now she knows little to no Romanian and neither does her mother but her mother wants her to concentrate on learning the English language. It seems to me that Alina has concentrated so hard on learning English that she has completely forgotten about her native language, which I believe is important to maintain and remember. If I was Alina's teacher I think I would applaud her English learning but also try to bring back some of Alina's Romanian culture and language as well.

A suggestion I would have for Alina, and her mom, would be to encourage them to bring back some Romanian culture in Alina's life and school work. I would want to have a show and tell time where any student could bring in stories and artifacts from their culture (or country if they are from another country like Alina) to share with the class. This way Alina wouldn't be the only one sharing her story and feeling isolated. Instead, all the students could bring in a story if they want to and connect with each other about the places they come from and the heritages they might share. So many great activities could be created to relate to one and other about the country or culture background similarities students share. I would really want Alina to share her Romanian experience because when you are learning English I don't believe it is right to completely shut out your home culture or country.

Another idea I had would be to talk to Alina's mom and get to know her and Alina, maybe I could understand why Alina's mom is very persistent to cancel out Alina's Romanian language and culture. Maybe Alina's mom is worried Alina will forget all the English she knows if she tries to remember her Romanian language as well. If it is alright with Alina's mother, I would want to give her a list of some objects in the classroom (like pencil, paper, chalkboard, desk, chair, etc) and have Alina's mom give me a list of how to say all these objects in Romanian! I think this way Alina would feel like she can discuss her native language if she'd like and not get nervous or frustrated if she feels English is too scary. We don't want her to get sad and scared of school like she did when she was first visiting the school.