Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 29, 1995 TAG: 9508290053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Now, imagine doing that in a foreign country.
Sunao Hatorri, a 9-year-old boy from Japan, began his first day at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School on Monday without knowing a word of English or a single person.
For the first hour or so - as he jumped rope in gym class or followed his fellow fourth-graders like ducklings down the hall - a kind of panicked daze covered Sunao's small face.
But when Radford University volunteer Kumie Yagi arrived and began explaining this strange new culture in his native tongue, a toothy smile replaced Sunao's puzzled frown.
"This is such a big help," sighed Sunao's teacher, Jennifer Cole. "Otherwise, I'd worry he wasn't getting enough attention."
In her three years of teaching, Cole has always had at least one foreign student in her class. With Virginia Tech practically at its front door, Gilbert Linkous juggles a large number of international students whose parents teach or study at the university.
Lynn Thorpe, the sole coordinator for international students in Montgomery County, said she has a tough time finding enough volunteers to introduce a new student to American school life.
This year, she's found help through Radford University's International Outreach Program. They match up pupils with Radford students who can translate instructions, point to where the bathroom is, and basically smooth out those rough first days.
Yagi said she enjoyed helping Sunao, and could relate to his fear. Until her plane landed in Roanoke several months ago, she'd never seen the United States and barely spoke English. The 22-year-old freshman said she picked Radford because of the scenery and because there weren't many other Japanese people in the area.
Usually, she laughed, Japanese new to America are quiet because they're struggling with the language. But not Sunao.
Once Yagi explained the word game his teacher had assigned to the class, Sunao talked. And talked. It was all in melodic Japanese, but hearing his voice and seeing him smile was all it took for other students to respond.
"How do you say awesome in Japanese?'' classmate Ryan Johnson asked Yagi.
Ryan was trying to write a poem about fourth-graders. Sunao seemed to have a different idea for a description, looking up the word "fish" in his Japanese/English dictionary.
Ryan was fascinated by the intricate symbols in the white plastic-covered book. Yagi explained to him the three different sets of symbols that make up their language: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.
Could he imagine learning all those symbols? "Not in a million years," Ryan said.
By lunchtime, Sunao was still smiling as he struggled to eat a greasy slice of cheese pizza.
When Yagi asked if he liked school, Sunao said it was too soon to tell.
Did he like pizza? Sunao gave a fervent head nod - the universal sign for "more."
by CNB