Barriers abound for Poudre School District English learners

When Amel Elshiekh, 48, talks to her children in her native Arabic, they answer back in English. Her youngest, Sami, makes a painful plea: "Mama, please talk English."

Some Arabic families in Fort Collins only allow their children to speak Arabic at home. Amel has never enforced that policy since her children began speaking English at school. Amel says all four of her children speak English better than Arabic."That's my fault, I guess," says the Sudanese woman who now lives in Fort Collins, 7,763 miles away from her homeland.

Her oldest, Hennd Mohamed, speaks English so well the Fossil Ridge High School sophomore is no longer classified as an English language learner. She chose to exempt out of the program in sixth grade.

She prefers English to Arabic at school and home.

"It feels like my first language, even though it's not," said Hennd, 16. "Arabic is a difficult language and I don't use it a lot, so it's a bit harder for me to speak. I'm not a big fan of it."

Amel's younger children, Rashad, Manar and Sami, are three of more than 2,000 students classified as English language learners (ELL) in Poudre School District, home to more than 29,000 students.

Learning English in Poudre School District

Nearly 3,000 PSD students have a native language other than English. Of those, about 71 percent are classified as ELL students.

There are more than 60 native languages, including English, represented in the district.

The district offers world language courses for six of those: Spanish, French, German, Latin, Chinese and Japanese. More than 12,000 students, or nearly 42 percent, are enrolled in these course. Spanish is the most popular foreign language course with 9,850 students, or nearly 80 percent of world language students this year.

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Though all of these language groups share the common struggle of communicating with the world around them, PSD Family Engagement Specialist Claudia Menendez said each group has its own unique barriers.

Menendez oversees 22 family liaisons in the district — two who speak Arabic and 20 who speak Spanish. Translators are called in for other language groups, including Vietnamese, Korean and Mandarin, as needed.

Liaisons help family members navigate the district, serve as translators and help families connect to outside resources, like food assistance and other social supports. They play a crucial role in gaining the trust of many Spanish-speaking families, Menendez said.

"They live with a lot of fear, especially if they're here undocumented," Menedez said of non-native parents who speak Spanish. "They tend to be a little bit segregated. They don't know which doors to knock on because they come from a very different education system."

Many have lived in the area for decades but never learned English, relying on their children to communicate when necessary.

"Sometimes there's that huge barrier between (parents and) the kids, too," Menendez said. "If the kids speak more English than the parents, they could choose not to share everything (from school) with their parents."

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Nancy Antunez, 30, used to solely rely on a translator to communicate with her children's teachers at Linton Elementary School in Fort Collins. She couldn't help her children with their homework and waited for an interpreter.

She started taking English classes at Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, where 484 students enrolled in ELL classes this year. Margie Wagner, coordinator for the Front Range Center for Adult Learning, said many students enroll in ELL classes to help their children.

"They're wanting to talk to their teachers, to help them with homework, to provide good guidance," Wagner said.

Antunez said the classes have helped her do just that. Though Antunez wishes her English was better, she no longer needs a translator.

"I can understand sometimes more than I can speak,'' she said. "That's the hardest thing. They're probably expecting more from me, to speak more, and I just can't."

Arabic families have different barriers. Menendez said most Arabic families in PSD come so a parent can attend Colorado State University.

She said typically at least one parent speaks English, but sometimes family dynamics prevent that from being an asset.

"It's mom's job to deal with school, so dad declines to deal with those situations," Menendez said. "They're not as helpful as they could be because there are gender roles that each one needs to fill. It doesn't quite mesh with our American way of doing things."

Amel is lucky. She and her husband, Ahmed Mohamed, both speak English. Mohamed, who has worked as a taxi driver and is now an Uber driver, is comfortable speaking the language, he said.

Amel learned British English in her native Sudan, but learning to communicate in America has been challenging. She feels at a loss for not being able to fully express herself — even with her own children.

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She took ELL classes at Front Range to try to improve her American English.

"I can express myself and what I need in Arabic best," she said. "When I try to do this with my kids, they just say, 'What is she saying?' That's my struggle. That's made it hard for me and them, too."

But Hennd said the language barrier between her and Amel doesn't bother her.

"When she speaks to me, she speaks in Arabic and I understand what she says," Hennd said. "I speak to her in English, and she understands what I say. ... I don't really think language is in the way of our relationship."

Trying to keep a culture alive

He went to CSU for a master's degree in statistics. The family moved to Fort Collins in 2004.

Though her husband has struggled to find a job in his field, they remain in America. He works as an Uber driver and tutors CSU students on the side.

"He had a great job in Sudan, but he was a little bit against the government right now in Sudan," she said. "When he moved here, he decided to stay here. He doesn't want to go back."

Moving to Denver was a culture shock, but she had the comfort of several other Sudanese families who would gather a few times each year.

Moving to Fort Collins was even more startling. Amel only knows of a handful of Sudanese families in Fort Collins, all of who she says, "are busy with their lives and work."

She misses the rich connections of her homeland, where her entire family lives in one home.

She works two part-time jobs, one at the Matthews House and another as a preschool teacher. She's earning her early childhood certification at Front Range Community College. She does her homework, helps her kids with their own and makes dinner. In Fort Collins, she doesn't have much of a social life, she admits. "People (in Sudan), we call it wide heart," she said. "They like people .They like to push people. They like to have a very deep social life."

Thursday nights, Amel attends Family Leadership Training Institute, where she's crafting a civic project to help a Sudanese orphanage, Mygoma Orphanage in Khartoum, by collecting diapers, formula and bottles, and medical and hygiene supplies.

And in between their various obligations, Amel tries to share her culture with her children. But most important is sharing her Islamic faith.

Sundays, her two youngest children, Manar and Sami, study Arabic and Islamic studies for four hours in Sunday school at the Islamic Center of Fort Collins, 925 W. Lake St. Though she misses Sudanese culture, the Islamic Center gives her family a place to connect with other Muslim community members and embrace their Arabic tongue.

"Everything in our religion is all in Arabic," she said. "I want them (her kids), when they grow up, to learn more about Islam in Arabic — in it's own language, not English."

Languages in Poudre School District

English: 23,298

Spanish: 2,113

Other (includes languages with less than 16 students): 217

Arabic: 158

Mandarin: 140

Korean: 51

German: 46

Vietnamese: 46

Portuguese: 30

Hindi: 25

Japanese: 21

French: 20

Telugu: 20

Russian: 19

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