Bilingual

If you are a teacher in debt, there's good news and bad news. There are literally dozens of programs that could potentially help wipe out your student loans. But most of them have narrow requirements that may lock you out. Just ask Troy Dale, a high school counselor from Ellis, Kan. He and his wife have $23,000 in student loans that they've been paying down for nearly a decade. At their current rate, they'll still be paying off their student debts when their oldest child enrolls in college.

Hoping to reduce the number of infant deaths, Los Angeles County officials unveiled a campaign Wednesday to educate parents about how to safely put their babies to bed. Over the last four years, 278 babies in the county have died from suffocating while they were sleeping - more than all other accidental deaths of children under age 14, officials said. The deaths are more common among Latino and black babies, officials said. "Accidental suffocation poses the greatest risk for babies from 1 day to the age of 1," said Deanne Tilton Durfee, executive director of the county Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

In the ongoing bilingual debate, we should remember that politicians from inception have engaged in bilingualism. In their case, it's known as double talk! JERRY ROSS Sherman Oaks

Re "Lawsuit: State fails some English learners," April 25 The article does not mention two approaches to help those acquiring English, both with substantial research support. One is bilingual education, dismantled by Proposition 227 more than a decade ago. Research has shown that students in bilingual programs outperform students in all-English programs on tests of English reading. Also, studies show that Proposition 227 did not result in improved English proficiency. Second, there is strong evidence that those who do more pleasure reading in English do better on English-language tests, and case histories reveal that those who succeeded in acquiring the English needed for school were dedicated readers.

Los Angeles school board member Victoria Castro stated that "if you call upon a bilingual person to do added work, they should be compensated for it." For her information, I don't know of any teacher, bilingual or not, who doesn't do added work. I have been teaching for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 12 years, and during that time I have been a student council advisor, worked on parent education classes, been a part of the LEARN council at our school, before that was a member of the leadership council, library chairperson, science chairperson, environmental chairperson, just to name a few. I am not unique.

It was just last June that the superintendent of the Oxnard Unified High School District was congratulating himself, faculty members and representatives of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Ventura County. The occasion was the announcement of a newly formed bilingual department in the Oxnard schools to help the "limited English-proficient" student gain a "greater sense of self." Those of us who were unfortunate enough to be schooled in only the English language, who were denied the pageantry of Cinco de Mayo, who never studied Simon Bolivar or the science of the Aztecs, just went ahead gaining skills in dull old mathematics, mastering written and verbal skills in the language of our country and studying the history and government of the land of our citizenship, somehow muddled through as productive Americans.

Reading 'The Bilingual Schooling Battle Flares Anew' (Feb. 20), about the confusion over implementing Proposition 227, was like reading the proposition for the first time four years ago. The voters thought they knew what they wanted; unfortunately, they did not realize the repercussions of passing Proposition 227. Why not teach all our children a second language? Everywhere else in the world children are taught one, two and sometimes three other languages. All of our classrooms should be bilingual in some way. Yes, every child in California and the U.S. needs to learn to read, write and speak English.

In response to a commentary by Carlos E. Garcia titled "Billboard in Spanish Is a Good Sign for Everyone" (May 16), I am all in favor of international marketing, but I believe in going above and beyond the call of duty. Billboards and television offer an opportunity to educate and unite diverse members of the community, as well as to advertise products. At present, advertisers seem to only serve one purpose that seems to deliver a secret message to only one segment of society.

Sadness enveloped me as I scanned Maria S. Quezada's recent article in which she boasted the merits of bilingual skills. Having taught elementary education for nearly 37 years, I was troubled by the content of this publication. With the economic situation in the public schools so disastrous that educators are forced to accept payroll cuts with a major adjustment of their budgets, I can't help recall the classical phrase quoted by Marie Antoinette of France. "If they have no bread, let them eat cake."

Mandarin was my first language, but once I started school, I refused to speak it. As the only Asian kid in my class, I felt alien enough. I wasn't about to bust out in another tongue, even in the privacy of my own home. My parents were too laissez-faire to enforce a Chinese-only regimen, as my uncle did with my cousins. We soon switched to English instead of Chinese, forks instead of chopsticks. My mom made spaghetti for my brother and me, stir-fries and soups for my dad. The one time I went to Saturday Chinese school, I told my parents I hated it and I wasn't going back.

Looking to tap the wealth of U.S. Latinos, CNN is planning to introduce a Spanish-language programming service tailored for broadcast TV stations next year. The service, CNN Latino, is being designed as an eight-hour programming block featuring news, documentaries, talk shows and lifestyle programming. It is expected to launch in late January in Los Angeles on independent station KBEH-DT Channel 63 and eventually be carried by TV stations in other cities. CNN Latino comes 15 years after the Atlanta-based news organization launched CNN en Español, a 24-hour Spanish-language news network available in about 30 million homes in Latin America and 7 million homes in the United States.

Is there a musician left in the world who Tony Bennett hasn't collaborated with? At at an age when most artists are busy dictating their memoirs, the 86-year-old singer continues to flourish by partnering with younger colleagues, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, k.d. lang and whippersnappers like Elvis Costello (born 1954). Now Bennett is expanding his repetoire again by venturing into Spanish-language and bilingual pop. His third album of duets, "Viva Duets," which will be released Oct. 22, teams Bennett with A-list Latin artists such as Christina Aguilera, Gloria Estefan and Marc Anthony.

First, Stephen Colbert had a beetle named after him. Now he's got a whole language. Scientists at Northwestern University, inspired by the faux pundit's ability to neologize, created a set of nouns for “Colbertian,” which they could use to test the effects of bilingualism. The study, released online by the journal Cognitive Science, found that bilingual speakers experienced less cognitive "interference" from their native language than monolinguals did when listening to speech in the newly acquired Colbertian.

NEW YORK — Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications touted something that its English-language broadcast rivals cannot: Prime-time ratings at its flagship TV network, Univision, have grown 7% during the current season. Ratings gains in an era of shrinking TV audiences are uncommon as major broadcasters struggle to maintain their standing. Cable channels, social media and advances in technology — including digital video recorders — continue to nibble away at viewership, particularly among younger audiences.

On the first day of the semester, Sylmar High math teacher Cesar Fuentes wasted no time: " Ven, tomen una computadora ," he said. "Go grab a laptop. " In minutes, the students flipped open the Apple computers, the lights went down and, like a digital textbook, the geometry curriculum popped onto the white board — every word written in Spanish. At Sylmar and three other high schools in Southern California, instructors are running some of the state's only rigorous bilingual math and science classes using online curriculum from Mexico.

Los Abandoned always had a flair for the theatrical. So when the L.A. bilingual band decided to stage a one-night-only reunion show at the Echoplex this Friday, four years after breaking up in memorably dramatic style, it named the event the "Resurrection" concert and timed it to celebrate Day of the Dead. The set-opening number? Band members are joking about covering Peaches & Herb's "Reunited. " "It's basically a big-ass thank-you to our fans, to our community," said bass player Moises Baqueiro, also known as Vira Lata, explaining what prompted Los Abandoned to come together for a projected 30-song show that will trace its entire creative arc and empty out its catalog.

"Sitting on the bus which is ticking to explode writing my last poem. " --Eliaz Cohen Suicide bombings are not the usual stuff of poetry, but Eliaz Cohen, a leading figure in a religious poetry scene flourishing in Israel, writes about the conflict in language as beautiful as reality can be ugly. Amid the drone of warring words, he offers a different voice, challenging political and religious convention. "Hear O Lord," the recently published bilingual collection translated into English by Larry Barak is Cohen's literary chronicle of the last turbulent decade (it's subtitled "Poems From the Disturbances of 2000-2009")