2006 Spring/Summer Programs and Events 207.594.1084www.languagelearning.org

Penobscot School28 GAY STREET

ROCKLAND, MAINE 04841 USA207.594-1084

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S P R I N G 2 0 0 6 N E W S L E T T E RPenobscot School

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Nan Ye, Chinese for Travelers

April1 Beginning Italian II Saturday Workshop8 Armenian Cooking Class: Fun Folding Phyllo 8 Beginning Spanish II Saturday Workshop20-24 Accès Cinéma Africain - African Film Access28 Fiesta en español: Spanish Fiesta 29 Beginning Chinese for Travelers29 Beginning Italian for Travelers, Day I

May6 Beginning Italian for Travelers, Day II6 Beginning French II Saturday Workshop7 Maibowle: German Springtime Celebration13 Beginning Arabic II Saturday Workshop 13 Beginning German II Saturday Workshop19-21 Intermediate Italian Immersion Weekend

June2-4 Intermediate Spanish Immersion Weekend3 Getting Acquainted with Arabic9-11 Intermediate French Immersion Weekend16-18 Intermediate Chinese Immersion Weekend24 Tuscan Italian Cooking Class – Main Course26 Summer Foreign Language Classes begin

July8-29 English Immersion Program for Adults14 Juillet Dîner Français – Bastille Day Celebration31-8/3 Teacher Training Seminar

August8-26 English Immersion Program for Adults12 Getting Acquainted with Arabic19 Korean Language and Culture Day

NEWSLETTER GRAPHICS BY MARJORIE STRAUSS

by Mac Deford, PresidentBy the time you read this, I should be

well into my first month of running theschool. I’m looking forward, not tothe ‘challenge,’ as they say — thoughI’m sure there will be plenty of that —but rather to becoming part of this fineand unusual institution, as it gets readyto celebrate its 20th anniversary thisDecember.

Over the past few months, I’ve beenamazed at how many people have toldme what a wonderful place PenobscotSchool is and how lucky I am to be partof it. Several friends have sent letterscongratulating me on the new job. I’llquote from one. Others have said muchthe same thing: “Penobscot School pro-vides a real community service and it issomething that mid-coast Maine shouldbe very proud of.” Indeed. When I tellfriends from away about my new career,and mention that this year, the school isoffering courses in Russian, Japanese,Arabic, Swedish and Chinese, in addi-tion to the old standards, French,Italian, Spanish, German and English,they are amazed to the point of disbe-lief, as was I when Julia first ran downthe list.

Languages are exciting and the key toa real appreciation and understanding ofother cultures. While English is increas-ingly becoming the lingua franca of theentire world — our enthusiastic Germanteacher Sally Burtnette-Leser told methat Germans have recently startedusing the English word “sorry” in everyday conversation — our ability to com-municate, even as a tourist, with the“locals” in their own tongue adds notjust to the pleasure of travel, but itmakes it altogether a richer experience.

I’ll never forget the expression on theface of an American private in Vietnamduring the late ‘60s. We were stoppedat a roadblock one day and the USArmy captain in charge of the convoystarted speaking serviceable Vietnameseto the Vietnamese soldiers who were

manning it: “You mean you actuallyspeak that stuff, captain?” If hisAmerican troops were impressed, youcan imagine the positive effect it hadon the Vietnamese.

In my heyday (some time around themiddle of the last century), when Ispoke passable Arabic, the car I was driv-ing had a flat tire in the middle of a for-gotten mountain village in northernLebanon. An old man walked by, and Itold him in Arabic that my spare was flattoo, so I needed a garage where I couldget my tire fixed. He just stared at me inwonder. I asked him again and receivedonly silence. A few minutes later, a cou-ple of younger men walked by and theold man approached them: “This for-eigner here has a flat tire; he doesn'thave a spare so he needs to get the tirefixed. But, I can’t talk to him. Can youfind someone who speaks his language?”When I started talking in Arabic again,the younger guys burst out laughing,“But he is speaking your language!”

So, despite the Englishization (not inmy Webster’s either) of the world, and itsglobalization, being able to communicatein a foreign language remains important.Indeed, I would maintain that a shrinkingworld — and perhaps a riskier world —makes the ability of all of us to speak for-eign languages very important. PenobscotSchool is certainly doing its share in try-ing to educate Americans to think, andultimately, act globally. It’s become acliché to mention how few of us canspeak a foreign tongue — a somewhatironic state of affairs considering that weare truly a nation of immigrants — butit’s no less true for being so oft repeated.But, we can’t do our share — ah, herecomes the pitch — without your help.

We’re facing several challenges in thenear term. We must relocate at leastpart of our classes later this year, as thelarger of our two schoolhouses, thePitts House is up for sale. We’re in con-versations with Lincoln Street Centerto line up classroom space for the fall

Penobscot SchoolLanguage Learning

and International Cultural Exchange

C E L E B R A T I N G 2 0 Y E A R S

S P R I N G 2 0 0 6 N E W S L E T T E R

2006 term. And, we’re facing increasedcompetition. When the school openedin 1986, there weren’t many places inMaine where you could study French,much less Chinese; that’s changed overthe years. While the quality of ourteaching is unparalleled, more competi-tion, at a time when transportation andother costs are rising, makes our mis-sion that much harder.

We’re celebrating our 20th anniver-sary this year and thanks to foundersJulia Schulz and Joe Steinberger, we’reon a strong, solid foundation. The wordis not merely out about us; it’s spreadfar and wide. We've got a great reputa-tion and a cadre of enthusiastic support-ers but we are slowly losing ground.

My focus will be on attracting morestudents and in an effort to keep ourfees down, we will become more activein seeking grants to support our activi-ties. Of course, we’ll also be calling onour friends and supporters to be ashelpful as they can. The school is trulya community asset — indeed, it’s nottoo much to say it’s one of the wondersof the mid-coast — and with your sup-port, we’ll continue to be one.

2 8 G AY S T R E E T, R O C K L A N D , M A I N E 0 4 8 4 1 U S A w w w. l a n g u a g e l e a r n i n g . o r gP H O N E : 2 0 7 - 5 9 4 - 1 0 8 4 FA X : 2 0 7 - 5 9 4 - 1 0 6 7 i n f o @ l a n g u a g e l e a r n i n g . o r g

The World According to Mac

by Sami Saratou Yahouza Sabo (Niger)How could I one day imagine that a

group of generous people would give methe chance to be in an environment whereit was easy for me to improve my English?

Last year, after viewing the PenobscotSchool immersion experience of one ofour English Language Program teacherson film, I asked my supervisor if I couldalso apply for a scholarship. I got the infor-mation and applied. The school wrote meback saying that they would review myrequest and I would know in one or twomonths. I found it long to wait!

Fortunately, I was selected. You can’timagine how happy I was at that time. Iwas so excited by the thought of myfuture trip. Although transportation feeswere expensive, my husband and I man-aged to make it.

In the first week of July, I flew fromNiamey, the capital city of Niger, toCasablanca in Morocco. I spent fivehours at the airport in Casablanca andafter 11 hours in the plane, I finallyreached New York City. The next day, Itook a bus to Portland, Maine wherePenobscot school staff members, Victoriaand Patti, met me. I was taken toRockland in one of the cars with Annaand Marcos from the DominicanRepublic, Bru from Spain and Juan

Penobscot School is pleased to announce its selections for the 2006Keiko Takahashi Scholarship Awards. Ms. Olufunke A. Osindele, ajournalist from Lagos, Nigeria and Ms. Violeta Totir, an actressfrom Bucharest, Romania have been awarded scholarships for theJuly session of Penobscot School’s 2006 Summer English ImmersionProgram. Baghdad-born Ms. Huda Al-Hashimi of South Portlandand Chinese-born Ms. Ya Mei Mai of Lewiston, Maine have beenchosen as the Maine scholarship recipients. Huda will attend theJuly session and Ya Mei, the August session.

Carlos from Colombia. Some of the otherEnglish students traveled in another car.

My first impression was that peoplewere warm, sweet and helpful. I reallyspent a great time in Rockland, with mywonderful host family, the sweet staff andgood people we met there.

As for the English Immersion, I’m sureit was the best way to learn a language. Itwas really relaxing. Although we had thefeeling of being on vacation, we learned somuch. The teaching methods were perfect.

It also gave us the opportunity to shareand learn from each other. Before thetrip, my picture of Americans was not per-fect. I judged them through their govern-ment, which is not their real picture.Sometimes, people are judged throughwhat we hear from the media. I havelearned that “you should not judge beforeverifying.”

This trip gave me the opportunity todo many things for the first time, such asgoing on a boat and eating many differ-ent types of food … I also discoveredAmerica, met people from differentplaces around the world and made newfriends. It also allowed me to improve myEnglish. Today it is the world’s language.As a US Embassy employee, it would behard for me to advance in my careerwithout improving my language skills.

Ya Mei Mai

Huda Al-Hashimi

I’m sure this training has helped me toget my promotion. I was working asreceptionist of the Public Diplomacy ofUS Embassy Niger when I went toPenobscot School. Now I’m working asa purchasing agent at the Embassy. Isn’tit great! I encourage everyone with themeans, to attend this course and followour world of globalization.

I don’t have enough words to thankpeople who offered me this greatopportunity to make the trip. Mythanks go to Gail Dresser and herFamily, to Victoria, Julia, Patti, Davidand … I’ll never forget you. I wish tomeet again in the future, here in Nigeror in your own country.

A Great Opportunity

OlufunkeOsindele

Violeta Totir

Keiko TakahashiScholarship Awards

by Julia Schulz, Co-FounderDo you remember 1986? Chernobyl;

the Challenger space shuttle; Spain andPortugal entered the Common Market;U.S. planes attacked Libya; “Out ofAfrica” won the Oscar for Best Picture;the Soviets freed Nathan Scharansky . . .

In the early 1980’s, I was teachingFrench at Georges Valley High Schooland UMaine-Thomaston. Joe Steinbergerhad been Director of Maine CommonCause and started a law practice inRockland.

In that year, following successful Frenchclasses with home-schooled children heldin a church basement, we re-built a garageat 28 Gay Street in Rockland. The inau-gural event in that space was our Parisianfriend Philippe Laurent teaching Tai ji in amixture of French and English. It seemedcrazy at the time, but I quit my day job,we formed a Board of Directors, filed for501(c)3 status as a school, and incorporat-ed in December of 1986.

Penobscot School grew and developedinto what we began calling “a communityinternational school” as language teachersand learners presented themselves anddemanded action. In 1992 we added a li-brary, office, lobby, attic, and patio to the28 Gay Street building. And in 1995, we

by Melissa Waterman,Trustee

Penobscot Schoolreceived an unantici-pated, but very wel-come gift from theClowes Fund ofIndiana, in 2005.The $2,500 grantfrom the privatefoundation will beused to build addi-tional support forthe school’s newCritical LanguagesProgram. The goalof this program is toincrease understand-ing of Arabic,Chinese, Russianand Japanese lan-guage and culture through classes,workshops, and curriculum develop-ment. Inaugurated in 2005, in its firstyear, the Critical Languages Programhas offered classes in all four target lan-guages, and sponsored an enthusiasti-cally received Chinese New YearCelebration. Co-sponsored by TheCamden Conference and the ChineseAmerican Friendship Association of Maine(CAFAM), a record 75 participants enjoyedthe offerings of this special February event.School administrators are giving considera-tion to expanding the language offerings inthe future.

Events in China and the Arab-speakingworld increasingly dominate the news herein the United States. Penobscot School isexcited to be able to provide opportunitiesfor local residents to delve into their lan-guage and culture in an intimate and com-fortable setting. Penobscot School’sTrustees hope that with the support ofothers like the Clowes Fund, more classesin other important languages, such asKorean, can be offered in the future.

Dr. George H.A. Clowes, his wife EdithWhitehill Clowes, and their two sons cre-ated the Clowes Fund in 1952. Today thefamily foundation seeks to enhance thecommon good by encouraging organiza-tions and projects that help to build a justand equitable society, create opportunitiesfor initiative, foster creativity and thegrowth of knowledge, and promote appre-ciation of the natural environment.Penobscot School extends a warm “thankyou” to the foundation and its boardmembers for their generous grant.

DrissEl Bouabidi

purchased the large Victorian at 18 GayStreet, named it the Pitts House after itsoriginal owner, and began to rent it to theschool for classroom use, office space, hous-ing for three foreign exchange teachers, andin these past three years, a studio forWRFR-FM.

In 2004, President David Clough andTrustees developed a strategic plan toimprove and expand the School, with a goalof finding a facility to bring all of the pro-grams and activities under one roof. A build-ing on Main Street looked promising, butafter careful consideration, the Trusteesdetermined that it was not right for theSchool. Facilities continue to be a high priori-ty, and we are actively looking for new space.

Although the physical “home” ofPenobscot School is small, its heart extendsto include thousands of students, teachers,and friends from Maine to California andFlorida to Quebec; Tokyo to Ulaanbaator;Moscow to Bari; and Ouagadougou toSantiago de Chile.

Penobscot School has been a tremendousand totally unique homegrown experiment,which has gained the maturity of nearly 20years. We are delighted that Mac Defordhas accepted the leadership of this institu-tion and hope that you will continue to beinvolved in School activities. Support Macas you have us throughout these years. Bonvent and smooth sailing to Mac!

Celebrating 20 Years

WeiweiWuCurtis

Ritsuko Kato

Critical Language ProgramReceives Grant

Sally andAh-Kau Ng