Foreign Language

The creators of the language-learning software Rosetta Stone have made it simple to grasp the complexities of Spanish. But can they back it up and Dougie? " Usted and ustedes if you're talking to a group. Start with the ' yo ' form and throw it for a loop!" says "E Rap de Mandatos," a Spanish-learning tune by South River High School foreign language teacher Jodie Hogan, who rewrote the lyrics to the popular song "Teach Me How to Dougie," by Cali Swag District. Hogan has created a book of songs that break down Spanish language concepts into catchy, rhythmic verses that are sung to such melodies as Ricky Martin's "La Copa de la Vida," the "Oompa Loompa Song" from "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," and the theme from "Gilligan's Island.

The creators of the language-learning software Rosetta Stone have made it simple to grasp the complexities of Spanish. But can they back it up and Dougie? " Usted and ustedes if you're talking to a group. Start with the ' yo ' form and throw it for a loop!" says "E Rap de Mandatos," a Spanish-learning tune by South River High School foreign language teacher Jodie Hogan, who rewrote the lyrics to the popular song "Teach Me How to Dougie," by Cali Swag District. Hogan has created a book of songs that break down Spanish language concepts into catchy, rhythmic verses that are sung to such melodies as Ricky Martin's "La Copa de la Vida," the "Oompa Loompa Song" from "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," and the theme from "Gilligan's Island.

WHEN Tara Lieberman discovered that her school -- Thomas S. Wootton High in Rockville -- offered a class in the language of her culture, she was thrilled. Now her classmates could learn to communicate with people like her. But when Tara's friends told her they didn't have room for the course because it only counted as an elective, Tara, who is hearing-impaired, was flabbergasted. "ASL [American Sign Language] has a whole separate culture attached to it," she says. "Just like any other language that has its own culture, ASL should be recognized as a foreign language -- if for nothing else, then out of respect for the people who use it."

Most Americans are introduced to a foreign language in a school setting. Of course, you can always spend a lot of money on a special computer program, a series of CDs or DVDs, or an exchange program to become fluent. Or, you can simply try the Janet's World Vehicular Immersion System of language learning, administered absolutely free through your car's GPS system. Yes, in just three weeks, you can become proficient in directional conversation. Imagine impressing your friends with the phrase: "In 300 feet, exit right" in Vietnamese!

One thing you can say about Rocio Gonzalez's Spanish class: It keeps rolling along.It rolls through West Baltimore, through Odenton, through Bowie. . . .The usually drowsy commuters boarding the No. 415 commuter train from Baltimore's Penn Station to Washington's Union Station got an eye-opener yesterday: Beginning Spanish en movimiento.Underneath the "no smoking" sign in the last car, Miss Gonzalez invited her captive audience to learn and have a good time -- or at least as much fun as you can at 7:58 a.m. on a Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC)

IN FRENCH, BRIGITTE MICHEL-HEATH NEVER SWORE, NEVER SO MUCH AS A MERDE. AND when she visits friends and family in France, she still doesn't. Yet in English, her second language, she will occasionally resort to an obscenity. "It doesn't mean anything to me," she explains. "I know it's a swear word, but I have none of the emotions that go with it."Ms. Michel-Heath is a native of France. She has lived in Baltimore for 16 years, holds degrees from a top American liberal arts college and a big state university, has read more Herman Melville and Sinclair Lewis than most Americans, and can wield her accepted English with as much finesse as you or I.Yet an unfamiliar accent, like that of the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore, or an unfamiliar expression, like "to case the joint," can throw her. And the way a slight change of preposition can make meaning abruptly change course -- as in break down, break up, break in, break out -- still drives her batty.

Mark Ross would like a job in Japan, David Blonder is hoping to settle in France or southern Europe, and Mark Maltby wants to move to Spain.Right now, all three are undergraduate students at the University of Maryland College Park and plan to enter the business school this fall.But they will be seeking a business degree with a difference.Part of their training will include negotiating a mock free-trade agreement with students in Mexico or hammering out a drug policy with students in Argentina.

Omar V. Pulliam II, a retired Dulaney High School foreign language teacher and election judge who was active in area community theater productions, died Sunday of multiple organ failure at St. Joseph Medical Center. The longtime Ruxton resident was 76. Omar Vernice Pulliam II was born in Asheboro, N.C., and moved with his family in 1942 to Victory Villa in Essex. He graduated from Kenwood High School in 1951 and served in the Army from 1954 to 1956. Mr. Pulliam earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University and a master's degree from George Washington University.

Learning a foreign language is a "survival skill" for schoolchildren, and county school board members are looking for ways to expand programs beyond the 23 elementary schools that offer those classes. "I believe very strongly in early language skills," Carol S. Parham, superintendent of schools, told the board Wednesday. "It is a survival skill. It is no longer a luxury for our young people in this changing economy and world." The board was discussing ways to expand foreign language programs into the 54 county elementary schools that do not have such instruction.

WASHINGTON -- A divided Supreme Court ruled yesterday that individuals for whom English is a second language may sometimes be barred from juries if prosecutors fear that they will second-guess the translation of foreign-language evidence.Although the court could not gather a majority of justices for any one opinion, the result nevertheless was a 6-3 ruling that seemed to expand the power of prosecutors to use automatic challenges to keep minorities off juries in criminal trials.In a criminal trial, each side -- the prosecution and the defense -- is allowed a set number of automatic, or "peremptory," challenges to keep individual jurors off the case.

About three dozen students formed rows in the Duncan Hall lobby of Howard Community College and staged an impromptu demonstration of tai chi, a Chinese martial art known for its slow but precise movements. Some students were clearly novices, yet their cadence showed that, at the very least, they were fast learners. The students are enrolled in an intensive summer language program called STARTALK, a federal government initiative designed to increase the number of Americans learning so-called "critical need" languages.

Omar V. Pulliam II, a retired Dulaney High School foreign language teacher and election judge who was active in area community theater productions, died Sunday of multiple organ failure at St. Joseph Medical Center. The longtime Ruxton resident was 76. Omar Vernice Pulliam II was born in Asheboro, N.C., and moved with his family in 1942 to Victory Villa in Essex. He graduated from Kenwood High School in 1951 and served in the Army from 1954 to 1956. Mr. Pulliam earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University and a master's degree from George Washington University.

Board members Allen Dyer and Larry Cohen stood off to the side, involved in a lengthy, heated discussion just minutes after the Howard County school board voted 6-1 Tuesday morning to approve a $675.1 million operating budget for fiscal year 2011. The lone vote of dissent came from Dyer, who opposed the board spending money to provide transportation to parochial school students. During the board's discussion, Dyer said that he was displeased with the board's "lack of direction." The words riled fellow board members, including Cohen, who was now raising his voice.

Maryland has adopted a promising new strategy to deal with the U.S. shortage of skilled foreign language speakers, one that offers a model for other states. A new state law seeks to make better use of an under-valued language asset: immigrants and their descendants. Many of these "heritage speakers" converse in a foreign language at home and learn English at school. This early bilingual experience helps them in mastering critical languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Chinese and Wolof, to name just a few. Heritage speakers represent the most reliable pool of bilingual talent as our nation plays language catch-up with the rest of the world.

Arthur Lewis Micozzi, a retired Baltimore County public schools language teacher and administrator, died of cancer yesterday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. The Parkville resident was 72. Born in Mahoningtown, Pa., he earned a bachelor's degree from West Virginia University and a master's degree from what is now Towson University. He moved to Baltimore in 1958 and became a Spanish and English teacher in the Baltimore County public school system. He taught at Overlea and Kenwood high schools.

The fourth-graders from Youth's Benefit Elementary School filed into the Spanish classroom at Fallston High School. After some brief announcements, the 20 children were divided into four groups, where they made a craft project, completed an interactive PowerPoint presentation, played musical chairs and did a writing lesson. "We tried to create activities that were multidimensional," said Mary Beth Nelson, the Spanish teacher at Fallston High. "We wanted activities that would keep the kids moving and, at the same time, keep them learning."

Sister Mary Madeleine Doyle, a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame and a professor emerita of foreign language at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, died of cancer Thursday at Villa Assumpta, the Baltimore motherhouse of her congregation. She was 97. The former Gertrude A. Doyle attended public schools in Towson before enrolling at the college, where she would later become chairwoman of the foreign language department. She left Notre Dame after her freshman year and, in 1925, she entered the same teaching order of nuns who founded the college.

Arthur Lewis Micozzi, a retired Baltimore County public schools language teacher and administrator, died of cancer yesterday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. The Parkville resident was 72. Born in Mahoningtown, Pa., he earned a bachelor's degree from West Virginia University and a master's degree from what is now Towson University. He moved to Baltimore in 1958 and became a Spanish and English teacher in the Baltimore County public school system. He taught at Overlea and Kenwood high schools.

ATLANTA -- Profiles in political courage are rare, indeed, but there's an early contender for the awards Caroline Kennedy hands out every May: Bill Purcell, mayor of Nashville, Tenn. This month, defying the xenophobes, know-nothings and nativists, Mr. Purcell vetoed a local ordinance that would have enshrined "English-only" as official city policy and dictated that virtually all government communications be in English. "This ordinance does not reflect who we are in Nashville," the mayor said at a press conference.

A former Army officer and Middle East analyst has called on the nation's service academies to trade in their focus on engineering for a more modern curriculum on international relations. Andrew Exum, who led combat units in two tours in Afghanistan and one tour in Iraq, said the engineering coursework required at the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., is a holdover from the 19th century, when that was the direction of future warfare. Now, with constant challenges from unstable societies and radicalism, cultural understanding should be the new norm, he wrote in a new policy paper for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank where he is a fellow.