A language barrier

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Anthony J. Hyatt
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Currently there are approximately 35 different languages spoken by students in the Bay County School District's program called "English for Speakers of other Languages," or ESOL.

"There are times when the district needs assistance in communicating with parents and students in their home language," said Sally Gentili, Bay School District resource teacher.

Mrs. Gentili's job responsibilities are to coordinate programs for immigrant, migrant, foreign exchange students and English Language Learners.

"We have a volunteer language bank for some of the more common languages like Spanish, French and German," Mrs. Gentili said. "However, there are some languages that we do not have anyone to help the district in communicating."

In the past, when Bay County has not been able to provide this service, the parents have been left to provide their own interpreters or translators, said Mrs. Gentili.

Some of the different languages spoken in the Bay District School are Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Hindi, Russian, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

"Bay County School District is in need of volunteers to serve as interpreters for different school boards or other situations as they arise," said Jean Schmidt, 325th Force Support Squadron Airman and Family Readiness Flight school liaison consultant. 

As school liaison, Ms. Schmidt is the point of contact between Tyndall Air Force Base, Bay County School Districts and the community. She also provides advice to the base commander on all student education and school operations matters and functions as an advocate for the educational needs of military children helping find resolution to school related problems or concerns and helping parents obtain information regarding the local school district.

The services of the school liaison are designed to address educational concerns that may occur due to military lifestyle, family separations during military member deployment and multiple permanent change of station moves.

Individuals interested in volunteering can sign up for a specific language bank at the Bay County School District by calling 850-747-5403 or contacting Ms. Schmidt at 850-283-4204.