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Student Media - Bishop Kenny High School

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Student Media - Bishop Kenny High School

The Shield

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Hello from around the globe

The Bishop Kenny Community embraces the different languages spoken at the school

Franchesca Peralta | Arts and Entertainment Editor

The week of February 20 to 23 was National Foreign Language Week and the Bishop Kenny community took part in celebrating it by having representatives from five different languages speak the opening and closing prayers of the day. Tuesday’s prayers were spoken in German, Wednesday’s prayers spoken in Spanish, Thursday’s prayers spoken in Latin, and the week ended with Friday’s morning prayer spoken in Albanian while the afternoon prayer was spoken in Tagalog. The students who recited the prayers were either people learning that specific language in class here at BK, or students who are fluent and speak their family’s native language.   

Junior Andre Romano, the speaker who said Friday’s afternoon prayer in Tagalog, has been fluent in four different languages for as long as he can remember. Through being able to speak Tagalog, Chavacano, and Bikol as well as English he has learned just how important it is to preserve the culture you come from.

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“[Native cultures] should be preserved because the culture greatly reflects on our values, beliefs, and personal identity,” Romano said.

Romano says that his parents and grandparents played an important role in instilling this importance in his life. Thorough learning from his parents and grandparents speaking to each other in their native languages since the age of three, Romano has grown up learning the three different languages while also learning English at the same time.

Being able to speak the languages that one’s ancestors have spoken allow us to have a tie to those who have passed and are no longer here. Speaking the languages and being exposed to them also give us the ability to never forget where our families came from and the lives they have lived.

“The languages show how our families once originated from many diverse roots and heritages,” Romano said.

Remembering where one’s family originated is an important part of knowing who you are. People should never forget where they came from and along with the help of BK celebrating National Foreign Language Week, students hopefully will never forget.

 

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