Seven students and seven seniors played games designed to help students improve their English at Gaithersburg Elementary School last week.
"We come … because first, we learn new words," said fifth-grader Marc Jonathan Semou, 10. "We have fun, we get to go bowling… go on cool field trips…."
The duo was paired through the Intergenerational Bridges program run by Interages, a Silver Spring nonprofit. Interages brings children and older adults together in programs designed to help the generations interact and learn from one another. Interages has connected children from hundreds of schools with hundreds of older adults, some isolated in senior facilities, since 1986, the group's Web site says.
Annie Sapucaia, an Interages program coordinator, said adapting to a country depends on understanding how things work and having confidence that you can find your way when you don't.
Intergenerational Bridges pairs immigrant children enrolled in English for Speakers of Other Languages programs with older adults who help them make the transition to U.S. culture and learn language skills. The program, already in seven other Montgomery County public schools, made its upcounty debut this year at Gaithersburg Elementary and Rosemont Elementary, also in Gaithersburg.
"It's more of a program for kids to get familiar with the English language, just to have a place to talk," said Sapucaia.
The program helps improve children's self-esteem, she added.
"These kids have moved from different countries … they've been uprooted," she said. "And they need help with the norms and the rules here." She called the Intergenerational Bridges program "a safe place" where students can ask questions and "get more comfortable with maybe being an American in American society."
Len Taylor, 67, of Darnestown, a retired MCPS second-grade teacher, said he has connected with Jonathan Perez, 11, a fifth-grader from Mexico, talking about fishing, a common interest. Every week, the conversation starts: Did you go fishing? What did you catch? Things spiral from there, Taylor said.
He has been pleased to see Perez, who was initially hesitant, play Boggle and other board games that call for a command of the language, Taylor said.
"I'm saying, ‘My time is your time,'" Taylor said. "The conversation is wide open. That brings in family, that brings in soccer…."
Mermose Goy, 10, who moved to Gaithersburg from France last year, said he enjoys spending time with Marshall Armstrong, 87, who showed him how to count American money.
"He showed me how to be nice, how to talk to people," Goy said. The fourth-grader said he usually does not speak much in English, but with Armstrong, he is comfortable.
