Expats' kids learn Tagalog, bridge cultural gap

SAN FRANCISCO — Artwork and mottos created by tiny hands cover the walls of Bessie Carmichael Elementary School in the South of Market neighborhood. Beside every picture and saying is the Tagalog equivalent. In one of the classrooms, a large paper announces ‘Ikinararangal ko ang sarili ko’, with its English translation, ‘Proud to be me’. It echoes the motivation behind the Galing Bata after-school program. During my visit, the children buzzed about the floor building in make-believe solar power plants out of unit blocks and stuffed paper flowers into cut-out tea cups to give to their parents. All the while, the sounds of the Tagalog and English languages mingled in play. Among the happy students, 9-year-old Marie Dacanay reveled in a book she read with her class. “We read a Filipino book [with an old myth]," said Dacanay who learned lessons about strength in the story. “It was about a mom and dad who prayed to have a baby and they got it. Then the baby became a hero." Also in the classroom was Erlinda Villanueva, a teacher with over 30 years experience teaching – 20 years in the Philippines. The students were given Tagalog immersion sessions where no English is spoken. There were history lessons about Philippine heroes like Jose Rizal, and cooking tutorials on traditional dishes of their homeland. “When you are in America, it’s so easy to forget. The values in the Philippines and in America are so different," Villanueva said surveying her class. Coming from the concern that Filipino culture would be lost on new immigrant children, Galing Bata (“Beautiful Child" in Tagalog) was founded in early 2000. While the idea of bilingual education is nothing new, what is unique is that the program is officially recognized and supported by the San Francisco Unified School District, making it the first English/Filipino after-school program supported by a civic government. In the early days of the program during the 2001-2002 school year, Galing Bata began as an after-school program at the nearby Filipino Educational Center. The program would be moved the next year, from the center to Bessie Carmichael, becoming an official program of the school district. “At Galing Bata, we can help the children in the program develop biliteracy and develop a Filipino American identity," Galing Bata’s Program Director Tina Alejo said. “And particularly for the Filipino American children – we do not want them to lose their Filipino identity," Alejo, affectionately referred to all the students as Tita Tina, said the efforts the volunteers and staff members of the program help make their students better learners who are more secure in their identity. “What I noticed about some of the kids who have lost the language is that as they get older, they get disconnected from their parents who mostly speak Tagalog. So there is not only a generational gap, but there is a cultural gap there," said Alejo, who enrolled her own daughter in the earlier days of the program. Alejo, who works at another San Francisco school with the special education students helped developed the curricula to include kindergarten students through eight graders. Developed from years of working with bilingual students, Alejo said the program is based on the Filipino values of Gabay – Guidance, Lingap – Care and Bantay – Protection. Currently, the program has blossomed to 95 students, and while the main bulk of the enrollees are still from newly emigrated families, many other students, some of who are American-born and others without any Filipino heritage, attend the program. “We see a lot of families working two or three jobs and childcare becomes a confounding issue," Alejo said. “I think that’s where after-school services are key, because if they didn’t have programs like the YMCA or Galing Bata, then they would not know where to bring their kids." Glen Jermyn Andag, a former Americorps volunteer who started working for Galing Bata in its earlier days, acts as the site coordinator. Relearning how to speak Tagalog after losing the ability to speak it at an early age, Andag said some volunteers and families have to bridge language and cultural barriers that exist between them. “Since we are family-centered, we have to make sure we get the trust from the families and the parents," Andag said. “And for somebody who doesn’t speak the language or is not confident speaking the language, until you kind of get over that, you won’t get the confidence of the parents right away." After almost a decade of overcoming these challenges, the end of this school year will mark a major milestone for the program as the first class of the students in Galing Bata will graduate the program, prepare for high school. Back in the classroom, Villanueva, still passionate in her work in keeping the Filipino culture alive in her students, surveyed her class. “The home language should always stay with us," she said. - Philippine News