Students

Meet Teresa Perez. Everything she says about Perla and Cintia as teachers is true! Both CHICLE and our students are lucky to have the teachers we have. Teresa didn't mention her involvement with NC Friends of Safe Passage, a group that recently did a Sunday presentation for us. If you don't know about Safe Passage, please visit their website. It's an amazing program with an historical connection to NC. Latino USA had a moving story about Safe Passage on their November 18th show. It's on their website as of today (2 weeks ago link) and also available as an iTunes podcast. Teresa writes:

"If you ever walk by CHICLE on Thursday morning, you might hear lots of laughter and load voices.

CHICLE has been blessed with some amazing student assistants over the years. We are about to lose one of the best but hoping she'll be back. Olivia was a great help with the children's program as we changed directors and had the most classes and students we have ever had. We had camps for Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and French. Olivia helped with all of them. 

This month, we like you to meet one of our advanced French students, Hal Beresford. We remain in awe of our multilingual students (and teachers)! Hal is taking our advanced French conversation, that meets Tuesdays from 5:30-6:30. It has been going for years now and students can join at any time.

Hi. I work as an analyst programmer at Duke University Medical Center where I help clinical researchers collect, manage, and analyze data from their projects. In my free time, I study French, Japanese, and also Spanish. Rather than my finding those languages, they found me. I happened to land in communities where they are important and that has motivated my learning.

I came to CHICLE for the

Meet Pat Thompson

This week we'd like to introduce another of our Spanish students—Pat Thompson. Pat has provided us with some wonderful photos from her travels. Her art background is reflected in her photos.

"I love learning (or trying to learn) languages. And I've needed to know at least a bit of some of them in my job. Based on my knowledge of French and italian, I tried to read Spanish on my own when doing art history research (with limited success!) Then I went to Spain with my husband and regretted not begin able to speak Spanish with a fellow librarian I met at the Prado. So, when I retired from my position as head of the Art Library at UNC in 2007, I had the time and the motivation to study Spanish formally, since it would be useful in my reading, my travels, as well as practical in the increasing "Hispanohablante" community of Chapel Hill/Carrboro.

Meet Hannah Wood

This week we would like to have you meet Hannah Wood, a truly assiduous Spanish student. Our Spanish program for home schooled children has grown and Hannah is the first student to "outgrow" it. Hannah has finished our adult Level Three course and will be taking Intermediate Conversation this coming session. Here's what she wants you to know about her.

"!Hola! My name is Hannah Wood. One of the most important things to know about me is that I love dragons!! I also enjoy the martial art Aikido and I love swimming! I am sixteen years old and a sophomore in high school, and I have been homeschooled for almost six years now.

Meet Lindsay Miller

This week we'd like you to meet one of our interns, Lindsay Miller. Lindsay and Ricki Dean have worked with us this fall, thanks to UNC's excellent student-run APPLES Service Learning program. and Darcy Lear, teacher extraordinaire. Lindsay worked with our children's Spanish program and Ricki helped us with marketing. We are very grateful for their help. Here's some information about Lindsay. She really is just a first year student, albeit an very mature one.

"I am a first year student at UNC Chapel Hill from State College, Pennsylvania. As an undecided major, my first semester on campus was all about taking courses in new and different subject matter.

Meet Anahid Vrana & Barbara Harris

It is appropriate that our anniversary issue is also a "Meet" issue. Anahid Vrana and Barbara Harris have been taking Italian at CHICLE for a long time. They are part of the reason we're still here!

Anahid (on left of photo): I am taking Italian lessons at CHICLE because I have always wanted to be fluent in a second language and at this time in my life I have not reached that goal. I selected the Italian language for several reasons: I love opera; I am an art consultant and the history of art in the Western world is embedded in Italy; it is a playful and lyrical language—I like the way is sounds; and, lastly, I hope to visit Italy often in the future.

Kristi Webb

Kristi Webb is another of our assiduous, multi-talented language students. She writes:

"I am a psychologist in private practice in Chapel Hill. I sing in the Chapel Hill Community Chorus and my group The Percolators performs at farmers’ markets and coffee shops, playing old-timey and gospel music. [Kristi is in the center of the photo.]

I love languages and they come easily to me. I learned French at an early age and have lived and studied in France. I am taking Spanish partly for fun, and partly because I believe it is welcoming and polite to be able to talk to the Spanish-speaking members of our community.

Meet Lisa Reeves and Bernard Luscans

Today we'd like you to meet Lisa Reeves and re-meet Bernard Luscans, who first taught French with us in about the year 2000. As far as we know, this is the only wedding we can take credit for.

Lisa: "Growing up in Canada meant we had to take French in elementary school. Back in 2007 I decided that it would be nice to pick up French again, so I took a class at CHICLE. I never expected that I would fall in love with and marry my teacher, Bernard! We were married in a quiet ceremony with friends at home in front of the fireplace in February of 2009. Bernard and I live out in the countryside of Chapel Hill with our many rescued cats. I work at UNC as a statistician/project manager in research."