Film and Panel - Speaking in Tongues - Feb 15, Rosendale Theater 7pm

$10 suggested donation benefits The Rosendale Theater Collective

Speaking in Tongues, which took home the Documentary Audience Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, follows four diverse students and their families as they encounter the challenges and delights of becoming fluent in two languages. A panel discussion following the screening will consider how the national debate on language educatio...n is playing out locally in Ulster County.

For decades, language education has been a hot-button issue for educators, politicians, and parents, yet as pioneering activist Ling-chi Wang explains in the film, America’s linguistic richness is among its greatest strengths. Employers need multilingual skills and our national security apparatus pours millions each year into teaching “strategic languages.”

There will be a special Spanish presentation by second grade students from Rosendale Elementary School before the film. The film will be followed by a discussion on early foreign language learning. The panel will explore the issue from several angles.

Panelists include:
Gretchen Kleinsmith, a Rondout Valley High School 11th grader who began studying language in the fifth grade;
Theresa Swelha, a Rondout Valley Central School District parent of three students, two of whom began studying language in the elementary grades;
Eva Edwards, an active Rondout Valley community member and 1976 Rondout graduate and Nurse Director of the Tucker Center for Cancer Care;
Jenny Delfini, a Spanish and French teacher at the elementary level in the New Paltz Central School District;
and an officer from the New Paltz Central School District Board of Education.
Diana Zuckerman, Rondout Valley Spanish Teacher K-4 & 9 and NYS Representative for the National Network for Early Language Learning will be moderating the panel.
In addition, Rondout 9th graders Julia Freer, Molly O’Donnell and Andrea Wasylyk will be the multilingual hostesses for the evening.