Immigrants In USA Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Wed, 22 May 2013 01:08:00 +0000

Can Immigrants Spur Rust Belt Recovery?

Immigrants are needed, not only to work in the companies, but also to live and buy things in those towns. - - Donna Poisl

By Curtis Tate

As Rust Belt cities look for ways to dig themselves out of economic decline, it would appear immigrant workers are taking center stage in the conversation. Places like Detroit, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis are all grappling with ways to make immigrants a part of their labor forces, and expand their populations, where, in the case of Detroit, population has shrunk drastically over the last 40 years, down from 1.5 million in 1970 to around 678,000 as of 2012. For cities trying to escape recession, growing populations typically contribute to their doing so.

However, the population has decreased in Detroit and the others for a reason: economic opportunity is lacking. Businesses are not expanding here, and states are having a hard time attracting entrepreneurial talent to areas that grow more like ghost towns by the day. A comprehensive immigration plan, however, might allow for some help.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:52:00 +0000

Non-native English speaking students face language barrier challenges

High school ELL students mentor grade school ELL students and all of them are learning more. - - Donna Poisl

By Sara Feijo, Wicked Local Dedham

DEDHAM - Although Miguel Alvarez is bright and articulate, the 10-year-old faces language barriers on the daily basis.

His biggest challenge? The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, widely known as MCAS.

Miguel, who is a fourth grade student at Avery Elementary School, said he is very nervous about taking the MCAS because he sometimes doesn’t understand certain words.

“Most of the time I think I can’t do it, because I think it’s very hard,” Miguel said Tuesday afternoon, April 23, during after school homework club. “I try my best.”
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:40:00 +0000

Senate Judiciary Committee Votes to Pass Immigration Bill on to Full Senate
Mark-Up Characterized by Transparency and Bipartisan Cooperation

For Immediate Release

May 21, 2013

Washington D.C. - Today, on a bipartisan vote of 13 to 5, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to pass Senate Bill 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, out of the committe and on to the Senate floor for a full vote in the coming days. The Senate committee mark-up spanned three weeks and covered many of the 300 amendments offered on every aspect of the bill. The resulting legislation represents a concerted effort to find a workable and fair immigration policy that makes our nation stronger.

The following is a statement by Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council:

“We congratulate Senator Leahy and the entire Senate Judiciary Committee on the spirit of deliberation, collaboration, and transparency that marked the process. Many amendments added during the mark-up will strengthen the bill in the areas of high-skilled immigration, protections for vulnerable groups and due process. However, other amendments, like those attempting to deny citizenship, may have been driven more by rhetoric than reality. In addition, not providing some relief to siblings who face extreme hardships because of their separation and not ending the discrimination against same sex couples legally married in the United States is short-sighted and bad policy. Yet despite these high costs, the overall bill coming out of committee now gives the Senate an important and rare opportunity to complete the task we have been working on for years—passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill that finally moves us to our goal of fixing our broken immigration system.

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For more information contact, Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524.

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:33:00 +0000

Young Immigrants Make Personal Appeal to Obama, Biden

Understanding what the people are going through will always help legislators put a good program together. - - Donna Poisl

By JORDAN FABIAN

A group of seven young people shared their personal struggles with the immigration system during a meeting with President Obama and Vice President Biden on Tuesday.

While senators continued to haggle over the details of a bipartisan immigration bill on Capitol Hill, Obama and Biden shied away from policy specifics during a nearly hour-long talk in the Oval Office. Instead, they heard personal appeals for a complete overhaul of the system.

"[We] told just a few of the millions of personal stories that are the real moral, political case for immigration reform," Melissa McGuire-Maniau, an Air Force veteran from Florida who participated in the meeting, told reporters.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:23:00 +0000

Striking the balance between pluribus and unum

This might explain how assimilation now is different than our grandparents went through. - - Donna Poisl

By Brad Stutzman, Austin Community Newspapers Staff

By the time his family came to America, when he was 5, the component parts of Israel Isidore Baline’s life were not necessarily adding up to a sure-fire recipe for success in this, his new adopted home.

He was born in a dirt-floor hut, on foreign soil, in a non-English-speaking country. He belonged to an historically despised religious minority.

Yet Baline’s work – 125 years after his birth and 24 years since his death – remains familiar to almost every American today.

Here, in his adopted country, he’s better known to us by his adopted name – Irving Berlin. It is a remarkable triumph of American melting-pot values, that a Russian-born Jew wrote the songs “God Bless America” and “White Christmas.”
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:28:00 +0000

THIS WEEK IN IMMIGRATION

Click the HEADLINE to read stories from this week from the Immigration Policy Center.

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:26:00 +0000

US LAUNCHES APP TO HELP PEOPLE LEARN AND TEACH ENGLISH

This app should be useful for people wanting to learn American English and not British English. - - Donna Poisl

By Sumedha Jalote

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has launched a mobile application to help people worldwide access resources for learning English on simple mobile devices.

The application, called ‘American English’, consolidates the Department’s English learning content into one location, giving users access to e-books, audiobooks, quizzes, music, and games.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:20:00 +0000

Providing Noncitizens Their Day in Court and Other Resources for Immigration Bill Deliberations

For Immediate Release

May 15, 2013

Washington D.C. - As the Senate Judiciary Committee continues its mark up of S. 744, the Senators will soon be called upon to consider amendments within Title Three, relating to interior enforcement issues, which span everything from E-verify to immigration court reform. Today, our Immigration Policy Center and Legal Action Center release a fact sheet on court reform and highlight several recent reports on broader due process and biometric data issues that help put the committee’s deliberations into focus.

Providing Noncitizens Their Day in Court discusses some of the critical policy proposals found in S. 744 to ensure that everyone receives due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. For far too long, immigration courts have failed to provide noncitizens with a system of justice that lives up to American standards of justice. A noncitizen has not truly had his day in court if he is removed without ever seeing a judge, if he does not have access to counsel and necessary evidence, or if the decision in his case receives only perfunctory review.

Two Systems of Justice is a special report that explores how the justice system for immigrants falls far short of the American values of due process and fundamental fairness. In fact, the immigration system lacks nearly all the procedural safeguards we expect in the U.S. criminal justice system. Given the high stakes involved in immigration cases and the increasing criminalization of immigration law, the report concludes that we must no longer tolerate a system that deprives countless individuals of a fair judicial process.

From Fingerprints to DNA is a special report that explains the different technologies for collecting biometrics, as well as how that data is collected, stored and used. It raises concerns about data-sharing, legal protection, technological problems, then proposes changes to control and limit the storage of biometrics to benefit not only immigrants, but all people in the U.S.

To view the documents in their entirety, see:
Providing Noncitizens Their Day in Court (LAC Fact Sheet, May 2013)
Two Systems of Justice (IPC Special Report, March 2013)
From Fingerprints to DNA (IPC Special Report, May 2012)
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For more information, conact Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:12:00 +0000

How the geography of U.S. immigration has changed over time

This chart and story shows that the areas immigrants come from are different than in the recent past. - - Donna Poisl

By Brad Plumer

Where do immigrants to the United States come from? A new Pew report finds that this has been slowly changing over time. In 1992, most legal immigrants came from Latin America and Europe. Nowadays, they’re more likely to come from Asia and Africa: SEE CHART

Note that this is only looking at legal immigration. Pew has previously estimated that there are also about 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, and the overwhelming majority of those come from Latin America and the Caribbean.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:02:00 +0000

Carbondale helps draw immigrants to local culture

This new program is helping immigrants become part of their community and mentor others in their community. - - Donna Poisl

By NANCY LOFHOLM

CARBONDALE, Colo. (AP) — The ID badge pinned to Maria Eloisa Duarte's jacket is an ordinary metal rectangle bearing her name above her title, "parent mentor."

But for Duarte, it is a badge of honor. Duarte is an immigrant mother with no legal status in the United States who rarely got out of her pajamas or left her house until six months ago. This pin says that she is now a valued contributor to her community.

Her eyes well with tears when she holds a hand over it and calls it her most prized possession. She wears the badge all the time, she says, even when she isn't at Crystal River Elementary School helping kids with their subtraction and spelling and liberally doling out hugs.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:50:00 +0000

Immigrants — the lifeline of a town

This town is a modern day story of what has been going on in this country since the Pilgrims arrived. - - Donna Poisl

By Renée Loth, Globe Columnist

I AM reading a page one story in The New York Times about a dying suburban town that has been transformed by the energy and optimism of Latino immigrants. The story describes how new arrivals from Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru are taking advantage of the abandoned storefronts and cheap rents in the depressed downtown to open thriving shops and ethnic restaurants, drawing customers from more affluent communities nearby.

The immigrants are described as “the lifeblood’’ of the town, “which fell on hard times in the 1980s and ’90s after factories and mills closed and an older generation of Italian immigrants moved away or died off.” The story is so familiar I almost don’t need to check the dateline, but sure enough, the town is Port Chester, N.Y., where I grew up.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:05:00 +0000

Gay Immigrants Pose Thorny Test for 'Gang of 8'

All immigrants should be included in immigration reform, we will see what will get done. - - Donna Poisl

By Niels Lesniewski

“Gang of eight” immigration negotiators purposely didn’t include provisions for immigrants in same-sex relationships in their bipartisan bill, but the issue they so carefully avoided may rear its head this week.

As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares for its Thursday markup of the group’s comprehensive immigration bill, it remains unclear whether Chairman Patrick J. Leahy will offer an amendment to allow same-sex partners of American citizens and permanent residents to gain legal status.

Whether Leahy decides to offer it in committee or on the floor matters because the provision has a much better shot of adoption if offered during the markup than it does during full Senate debate.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:55:00 +0000

Immigration Reform Has Never Been Just A 'Latino Issue'

People from all over the world are here illegally, not just Latinos. Many people forget that. - - Donna Poisl

By CRISTINA COSTANTINI

It's rare for a TV pundit or politico to talk about immigration reform these days without mention of Republicans losing the "Latino vote." But what they tend to forget is that about 2.5 million of the estimated 11.1 million undocumented immigrants living in this country are not from Latin America. And the majority of that minority (or about 1.3 million) is from Asia.

With immigration levels from Mexico slowing, the Latin American portion of immigrants living in the country illegally is shrinking in comparison to the portions from other countries. In other words, immigration isn't just a Latino issue, and it hasn't been for some time.

Until the 1980's, the majority of immigration to the U.S. was from Europe. This changed, in part, because of initiatives like the Bracero program that brought thousands of Mexicans to the United States to work.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:17:00 +0000

Study: Most immigrants in L.A. illegally don't speak English well

In the past, immigrants had to learn English and they were successful, now there is not much need for some to learn and they will almost always earn a low income. - - Donna Poisl

By Cindy Chang

Nearly half of Los Angeles County's immigrants here illegally lack a high school diploma, and 60% do not speak English well, according to a study.

Nonprofits and foundations must work with the public sector to make sure there are enough English classes in the event of a mass legalization, said Maria Blanco, vice president of civic engagement at the California Community Foundation, which partially funded the paper released Tuesday by USC.

If newly legalized immigrants do not learn English, their job prospects are likely to remain limited.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:02:00 +0000

Rebuilding Local Economies & Fueling the Recovery
High-Skilled Immigrants Creating Jobs and Contributing to the U.S. Economy

For Immediate Release

May 13, 2013
Washington D.C. - Today, the Immigration Policy Center releases two fact sheets: Rebuilding Local Economies: Innovation, Skilled Immigration, and H-1B Visas in U.S. Metropolitan Areas and Fueling the Recovery: How High-Skilled Immigrants Create Jobs and Help Build the U.S.

Fueling the Recovery: How High-Skilled Immigrants Create Jobs and Help Build the U.S. Economy discuses that while the U.S. economy is still recovering, it may seem counterintuitive to believe that any industry would benefit from having more workers. But that is precisely the case when it comes to those industries which depend upon highly skilled workers.

Rebuilding Local Economies: Innovation, Skilled Immigration, and H-1B Visas in U.S. Metropolitan Areas discusses how immigration policy is debated at the national level, but its impact is most often felt in local and regional communities. This is certainly true for the H-1B program, which is routinely studied at the national level, but cannot be fully understood without driving down to examine the role of H-1B workers at the metropolitan and local levels.

To view the fact sheets in their entirety, see:

Rebuilding Local Economies: Innovation, Skilled Immigration, and H-1B Visas in U.S. Metropolitan Areas (IPC Fact Check, May 2013)

Fueling the Recovery: How High-Skilled Immigrants Create Jobs and Help Build the U.S. Economy (IPC Fact Check, May 2013)
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For more information, contact Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:50:00 +0000

KACE helps adults with English and reading

This organization helps immigrants learn English and also with other things to help them become successful Americans. - - Donna Poisl

By LESLIE KELLY

There’s as many reasons why people come to the Kitsap Adult Center for Education (KACE) as there are students at the center.

But they all have one goal in mind.

“To better themselves and to make their children’s lives better,” said Ann Rudnicki, executive director of KACE. “Each of them have their own story. Each of them have their own reasons why they weren’t able to complete their education. But they are all wanting to improve themselves.”

The center, formerly known as the Literacy Council of Kitsap County, is a community-based nonprofit with a mission to promote adult education in the county.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:33:00 +0000

The Fallacy of “Enforcement First” &
Lost in The Shadow of the Fence

For Immediate Release

Washington D.C. – Today, the Immigration Policy Center releases two fact sheets, The Fallacy of "Enforcement First" and Lost in the Shadow of the Fence.
The Fallacy of "Enforcement First" discusses the strategy of enforcing the border while ignoring immigration reforms, which the United States has been pursuing for more than two-and-a-half decades. This enforcement-first philosophy ignores the fact that the unworkable nature of our immigration laws is itself facilitating unauthorized immigration, and how our enforcement policies alone have not been able to turn the tide on unauthorized migration.

Lost in the Shadow of the Fence highlights the important economic relationship between Mexico and the United States. The resounding refrain we repeatedly hear from some members of Congress is that we must lengthen and strengthen the fence that separates us from one of our largest economic partners and that it must be completed before moving forward with proposed immigration reforms. While there is a need for secure borders, there is also a need for further streamlining and efficiently facilitating the daily cross-border flows of people, goods, and services important to our bi-national economic relationship.

To view the fact sheets in their entirety, see:
The Fallacy of "Enforcement First" (IPC Fact Check, May 2013)
Lost in the Shadow of the Fence (IPC Fact Check, May 2013)

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For more information contact, Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:28:00 +0000

Oxnard students master second language

A good English learning program is very important for the students' futures. - - Donna Poisl

By Anne Kallas

When the number of pupils at Marshall School in Oxnard who passed the California requirements to be classified as English-proficient jumped to 32 this year from nine last year, Principal Cindy Hallman decided to hold a celebration.

She invited the pupils and their families to a dinner Sunday at the elementary school, where they were not only treated to chicken Alfredo, lasagna, salad, bread and cakes, but they also were honored.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:52:00 +0000

Boomers need immigrants

Young immigrant workers putting money into Social Security will keep it going for many years to come. - - Donna Poisl

By The Times editorial board

The Senate Judiciary Committee took up comprehensive immigration reform late last week. And, as expected, opponents are already rushing to derail it, arguing that any bill that legalizes the vast majority of undocumented immigrants in the United States will cost billions of dollars and place an unfair burden on taxpayers.

Such arguments are merely scare tactics. There's no doubt that granting citizenship to millions of immigrants 13 years from now, as the Senate bill would, will carry a cost, but how much is unclear. Without it, though, the U.S. will face serious problems. In fact, demographers such as Dowell Myers of USC's Price School of Public Policy have repeatedly warned that the country is on the verge of an epic transition as baby boomers retire en masse and birthrates decline. A 2013 report by Myers suggests that in Southern California alone, "boomers are beginning to retire from the most productive period of their lives, creating enormous replacement needs in the workforce." In other words, the U.S. needs immigrants to help cover the retirement costs of older Americans and to fuel economic growth.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Adding It Up: Accurately Gauging the Economic Impact of Immigration Reform

For Immediate Release

May 7, 2013

Washington D.C. - Today, the Immigration Policy Center releases Adding It Up: Accurately Gauging the Economic Impact of Immigration Reform by Raul Hinojosa Ojeda, Ph.D. and Sherman Robinson, Ph.D.

With immigration reform legislation now making its way through Congress, it is imperative that we estimate as accurately as possible the full range of potential economic costs and benefits associated with any particular bill. It is especially important to establish the proper criteria for a complete, robust, and accurate fiscal scoring of any bill by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). To that end, we should consider the growing consensus of the economic literature on the strongly positive benefits of immigration in general and of the various aspects of immigration reform in particular, as calculated using a variety of different methodologies. The CBO would be well-advised to keep this consensus literature in mind as it establishes the criteria it will use for scoring immigration reform legislation.

To view the fact sheet in its entirety see:

Adding It Up: Accurately Gauging the Economic Impact of Immigration Reform (IPC Fact Check, May 7, 2013)
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For more information, contact Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524.

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:56:00 +0000

HIAS Panel Discussions Urge Strategies for Protecting LGBTI Refugees

from HIAS

HIAS kicked off the launch of its groundbreaking report, Invisible in the City: Protection Gaps Facing Sexual Minority Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Urban Ecuador, Ghana, Israel, and Kenya, with a panel discussion Monday morning at Human Rights First's offices in Manhattan, followed by additional panel discussions in Washington, DC and Philadelphia. The report was researched and written for HIAS by Yiftach Millo, an expert in forced migration; it was funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

Learn more about the report and the NY event.

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:52:00 +0000

Let's show we're a nation of immigrants

from Cecilia Muñoz, Director, Domestic Policy Council, The White House

This is the start of a national debate. Across the country, we're having a serious discussion about how we can build a fair and effective immigration system that lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

And we need your help to make sure that genuine, personal perspectives are part of the conversation. The truth is, that if we go back far enough, nearly every American story begins somewhere else -- so often with ancestors setting out in search of a different life, carving out a future for their children in this place that all of us now call home.

We want to make sure that idea isn't far from the minds of policymakers here in Washington as we work to reach an agreement to reform immigration.

To kick things off, one of the President's senior advisors sat down to share his story with you.

Watch David Simas tell his American story, then tell us yours.

When Americans from all over the country -- each with different backgrounds, each from different circumstances -- all speak out with the same voice, it's powerful in a way that's hard to ignore. We've seen it again and again, in debate after debate.

And this is the kind of issue where putting a face on the push for reform takes an abstract concept and makes it real. So share your American stories with us, and we'll put them to use.

We'll publish them on the White House website. We'll share them on Facebook and Twitter. We'll do everything we can to make sure they're part of the debate around immigration reform.

Get started here.

Thanks,
Cecilia Muñoz
Director, Domestic Policy Council
The White House

noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:47:00 +0000

Immigrants Pay Lower Fees to Send Money Home, Helping to Ease Poverty

Immigrants pay much lower fees now to send money home, helping the people here and also their family back home. - - Donna Poisl

By NATALIE KITROEFF

The first time Carmen Gonzalez sent money back to her family in Mexico, in 1991, Western Union charged her a $12 fee to wire $100. She earned that $12 working for six hours in a clothing factory in midtown Manhattan, which paid her $2 an hour.

These days Ms. Gonzalez pays $5, which she earns in less than an hour, so she sends a bit more. The family is benefiting from a financial transformation propelled by new technology and increased competition that has driven down the average cost of sending money to Mexico by nearly 80 percent since 1999.
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:40:00 +0000

Before immigration reform, Citizenship NOW! offers quick answers to common questions

Volunteers took more than 13,300 calls in a week from people needing help with their citizenship questions. - - Donna Poisl

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Immigration reform is coming, so this year’s Daily News/ CUNY Citizenship NOW! call-in was particularly meaningful. Hopefully, by the time of next year’s call-in we will be able to tell hardworking undocumented immigrants getting on a path to U.S. citizenship that the reform train has left the station, and no restrictionist, no terrorist can derail it.

Almost half of this week’s callers wanted information about how to get U.S. citizenship. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions.

Q: Where can I get help with my naturalization application?

A: New York City has lots of ......................
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noreply@blogger.com (Donna Poisl) — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:25:00 +0000

Educator takes teaching Japanese to a new level

Using her own experiences learning a new language, this teacher is this year's Teacher of the Year. - - Donna Poisl

By JULIE GREENE, The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown

BOONSBORO, MD. — Ayako Shiga knows how difficult it can be to learn a foreign language.

When she was growing up in Tokyo, she failed her first semester of English in middle school.

During a break that semester, she went to visit her father in Australia and couldn't answer the waiter when he asked her, in English, how old she was, because she didn't understand the question.

Shiga said that last experience motivated her to learn English and apply to be a high school exchange student in America.
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