Meet the International Language Department

In this article Alexius talks about the international language learning teachers.

Meet the International Language Department

By Alexius Nyna Burnett

At Grants Pass High School, the international language learning program, which includes the Spanish and German electives, are not just about learning a new language and vocabulary but instead expanding the knowledge of new cultures, lifestyles, diversity, and connecting to the rest of the world beyond an individual's primary lens. The teachers at GPHS who are guiding their students by opening these doors are the two Spanish teachers, Profe Jimena and Sr. Ville, as well as the German teacher, Frau Nash. Let's take a closer look at the teachers behind this program, who bring out all of these new opportunities in life, and help students to see what they can learn from the world outside of the bubble they find themselves in.

Sr. Ville

Leading into the Spanish program we have Sr. Ville who is from Guadalajara, Mexico, and is a very handsome husband to a supportive wife, father to three biological children and one step, and has a whole army of six bio grandchildren and two step grandchildren. Sr. Ville's greatest passion would be music as he is a musician, more specifically a guitarist. He has been teaching Spanish 1, 2, 3, and 4 for a very long time here at GPHS, as well as guitar classes . The way he teaches is full of so many different and unique ways. He likes to incorporate music into his lessons and to just add some fun and share his passion into his class. He also sets a rule to speak only Spanish in class from bell to bell to help encourage students to feel comfortable speaking it, but of course, they are allowed to speak English if it’s an emergency or he says it’s okay. He really would like all his classes to feel safe and have a happy atmosphere, and let his students know that he is there for them at all times. Sr. Ville believes that his personality influences the way he teaches, as he is a people person and an idealist. He does believe that if people want to make the world a better place , then they must be aware of their surroundings. So as a teacher, he tries his very best to help contribute with the community/parents from making his students form into respectable citizens, so he can help make the world a better place, as he said, “One student at a time”. So that is a heavy reason why Sr. Ville wanted to become a teacher. A day in the life of Sr. Ville is that he wakes up, gets ready, eats breakfast with his wife, comes to school and teaches, during lunch he heads back home where his wife and he would eat together and play cards or board games if given enough time. He goes back to teaching, finishes school, and heads home, where he’d eat dinner as he doesn’t eat it no later than five because back in Mexico, where he grew up, they had early dinners. Then he’d take medicine to stay on top of his health, and sometimes go on walks or watch movies with his wife, check his social media, and even do his “extra job”. He helps out with LTI, which is for foreign language tests, where he just needs to listen to them. A few fun facts about Sr. Ville are about his family is actually from France, and in his family’s hometown, he got an honorary citizenship medal because of his family's origin from France. Then, backtracking to how he is a musician, Sr. Ville placed third place in a national contest in Mexico for playing his guitar. Lastly, a quote from him is, “If I have a dream, I pursue it till I reach it. Don’t give up”. Sr. Ville is definitely an achiever and will accomplish anything; don’t doubt him.

Photo of Sr. Ville

Frau Nash

Photo of Mrs. Nash

Now onto the German side of the program, we have Mrs. Nash, who is a big people person and is a gorgeous wife, mother of two, and a fresh new grandma to a baby boy. Originally, back in her home country, Germany, she was a teacher to teach the Foreign language English to her students and a language arts teacher. Now at GPHS, she is still a foreign language teacher, just now the languages are swapped as she teaches all the German courses. She had chosen to become a teacher because she loves the interactions she gets to have with students and how being around them, she stays in touch with what's going on in the world, their creativity, and how they “Slow down my aging,” as she would like to say. She likes to help open new doors for people with opportunities, passions for exploring the world through traveling, and navigate between cultures and open her students' eyes to a whole new world. In Mrs.Nash's classroom, she likes to keep decorations in the classroom to help students understand better with the course content, translation,and overall help them learn more. In Germany, Mrs. Nash said back in her old classroom, instead of the students heading to different classes, the teachers had to, so she most definitely enjoys keeping a classroom all to herself, where she can decorate it. She likes to converse with her students and have fun, so they don’t feel so overwhelmed and start panicking about having to speak in a foreign language the whole class period. She would like to make them feel comfortable first, so that in the future they don’t freak out, well, at least not as much. She loves to see all her students grow and develop over the years and become more fluent in German and comfortable. Some unique and fun things about Mrs. Nash is how she loves to hike, especially in Oregon with all the beautiful trails and landscapes, knitting, and cooking--but only if no one is waiting for her. She also loves to travel as she goes to Germany a lot to visit family, and also to Greece and all over Europe. However, in the future, she’d really like to visit Japan, India, Asia, and all over the world to new countries, and just branch out. If Mrs. Nash was able to speak to the whole world, she would say, “ Please, get along.” This is really important to her because we all should be united and have the common goal of living in peace. Instead of looking at what divides us, we should focus on our common humanity.

Profe Jimena

Swinging back to the Spanish part of the program, we have Profe Jimena who currently teaches Spanish 1 now but she taught the other spanish classes as well. She is a mother to two children and a beautiful wife. Back in Profe's hometown in Central Mexico, she wasn't studying for any specific career; however, her mom had recommended that she try to take a Foreign Language class. First, she had taken French, then English, and after she felt determined to study even more languages so she ended up taking Italian and Portuguese. Profe had found it super cool and in general, fun to help teach foreign languages, so she decided to take the role of becoming a Spanish teacher. In her classroom she has one super specific norm, and that is to have a community that is inclusive. She knows that itś subtle bullying and she had said, "We don't leave people out” She just wants to create a safe space and have her students be nice to each other and respectful. While her class norms do revolve mainly around inclusivity, what really stands is her motherly instincts with how much she cares for her students and everyone in her life. Profe would think of herself as a pretty extreme person, given how loving and friendly she is. She wants to make everyone feel welcome and have fun. However, if she notices something mean, she is very visible about how unpleasant she is with it. That's where her motherly instincts kick in, ever since she was younger with her siblings to now with her children and students. She gets upset when her loved ones are hurt; that's when her spicy side comes out. She also has so much love for her family that she just wants to see them happy. Profe loves to travel all over the world, and she does her trips with some sweetness. She and her mother had gone on a trip to Italy, but Profe secretly surprised her with a double trip and took her to Rome also. She had also done something similar for her sister on a surprise trip to Brazil to make her feel overjoyed as she had been down in the dumps for a while and Profe really hated that for her sister. Now her sister will always remember the sweet gesture Profe had done for her when she really needed it. A quote that Profe would give to the world is "Run to the rescue, with love and peace will follow”which is by River Phoenix and she loves this quote. When Profe had seen this as one of my questions, this was the first quote that had come into her mind.

So the international language department program isn't all just about learning a new language but also learning how to communicate better, explore more cultures, become a more structured person, and see the world from a different perspective. These three teachers, Sr. Ville, Frau Nash, and Profe Jimena, all try their very best to help guide the students at Grants Pass High School to gain all the knowledge and tools to prepare for their future lives. They will end up able to communicate with a more diverse community and overall become amazing citizens. Every day, these teachers are preparing their students to open their minds to a doorway of understanding differences in different cultures and lifestyles, and they need all the recognition they deserve for this role they choose.

Sources

Interview with Frau-Nash
Interview with Profe Jimena
Interview with Sr. Ville

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