Kunthea Tuy sits with her 4-year-old granddaughter Jocelyn Nhem outside her apartment at the Park Village Apartment Complex in Stockton (Photot: The Record)September 12, 2007
By Jennifer Torres
Record Staff Writer (Stockton, California, USA)
It's funny now to recall that trip to the dentist when the only English word she knew was "yeah."
"Hurt here? Yeah." Nahey Sarith mimed, laughing with a group of mothers at central Stockton's Park Village Apartments community, home mainly to Cambodian refugees and their children. Sarith arrived 20 years ago. "Hurt here? Yeah. Here? Yeah."
"I left, and all my teeth were gone," she joked through an interpreter.
Sarith and the other mothers talked about forms from school that they could not understand, about trips to the doctor when they had to bring their children along to help translate.
Across the country, 19.7 percent of people older than 5 speak a language other than English at home. In San Joaquin County, that figure is nearly double - 37.7 percent.
U.S. Census Bureau figures being released today examine many facets of life at the national, state and county levels - from housing costs to education levels, from commuting patterns to marital status.
The figures also show that in San Joaquin County, 233,709 people who are older than 5 speak a language besides English at home.
While many of those people are able to communicate in English, fully 10 percent of county households are considered "linguistically isolated" in that no one in the home who is older than 14 speaks English without at least some difficulty.
Such obstacles tend to swell the cultural gulfs that challenge access to education, health care and other social services among non-English-speaking families.
"People can live here for 20 years" and never venture far from Park Village grounds, said Lim Leang of the county Health Services Department. Leang serves the apartment community and knows most of its residents.
"I help to communicate with the Cambodian families," he said. "The majority of them need this kind of help."
According to the Census Bureau, almost one-quarter of county households in which Asian languages are spoken are considered linguistically isolated. That figure is smaller than among Spanish-speaking households (31.1 percent) but larger than among homes in which Indo-European languages, such as Hindi or Punjabi, are used (18.7 percent, up sharply from 11.9 percent in 2005).
Often in those households, adults rely on their children to communicate.
"If the son can't translate, Mom doesn't know what's going on," Sarith said. Sometimes, when school papers were sent home with her children, she would take them door to door to see if a neighbor could help make sense of them.
"For me, it's always difficult, because I don't have any kids to take me to the doctor," said Oeum Eang, who has lived in Park Village since 1985.
A number of community agencies offer translation services.
Based at Montezuma Elementary School, Fong Xiong is the Hmong liaison for the Stockton Unified School District.
She works with students but also eases communication between parents and teachers. "I can talk to them about their child's academics and behavior, or notify them if their child is absent and it's unexcused," she said. "That way, parents understand the process."
Xiong's counterpart, Sophaline Buth, serves Cambodian families and is based at Stagg High.
"What happens is sometimes the students manipulate their parents," Buth said. "They're the ones that have control if they speak the language. The parents rely on the kids."
Buth said she is developing parenting classes for non-English speakers and visits Park Village at least twice a month to talk about school policies and expectations and to encourage parents to be involved in their children's education.
"I go out there, I chit-chat with them and teach them," she said. "I tell them, I'm not going to fish for you. I'm going to teach you how to fish. ... These parents are very concerned parents."
According to Census Bureau figures, residents who speak a language besides English at home are more likely than English speakers to live in poverty (17.7 percent versus 11.2 percent) and far more likely to have achieved less than a high school education (37.6 percent versus 14.3 percent).
"It takes time," said Pheng Lo, who oversees the Lao Family Community of Stockton, which offers translation services as well as English-language classes. "And our experience is that many of these people do not really have a background in education when they come into this country. ... It takes practicing. Practicing at home, when you go shopping, when you are at work. I think it's easier for the younger people. They learn more English than Hmong."
Contact reporter Jennifer Torres at (209) 546-8252 or jtorres@recordnet.com.
"Hurt here? Yeah." Nahey Sarith mimed, laughing with a group of mothers at central Stockton's Park Village Apartments community, home mainly to Cambodian refugees and their children. Sarith arrived 20 years ago. "Hurt here? Yeah. Here? Yeah."
"I left, and all my teeth were gone," she joked through an interpreter.
Sarith and the other mothers talked about forms from school that they could not understand, about trips to the doctor when they had to bring their children along to help translate.
Across the country, 19.7 percent of people older than 5 speak a language other than English at home. In San Joaquin County, that figure is nearly double - 37.7 percent.
U.S. Census Bureau figures being released today examine many facets of life at the national, state and county levels - from housing costs to education levels, from commuting patterns to marital status.
The figures also show that in San Joaquin County, 233,709 people who are older than 5 speak a language besides English at home.
While many of those people are able to communicate in English, fully 10 percent of county households are considered "linguistically isolated" in that no one in the home who is older than 14 speaks English without at least some difficulty.
Such obstacles tend to swell the cultural gulfs that challenge access to education, health care and other social services among non-English-speaking families.
"People can live here for 20 years" and never venture far from Park Village grounds, said Lim Leang of the county Health Services Department. Leang serves the apartment community and knows most of its residents.
"I help to communicate with the Cambodian families," he said. "The majority of them need this kind of help."
According to the Census Bureau, almost one-quarter of county households in which Asian languages are spoken are considered linguistically isolated. That figure is smaller than among Spanish-speaking households (31.1 percent) but larger than among homes in which Indo-European languages, such as Hindi or Punjabi, are used (18.7 percent, up sharply from 11.9 percent in 2005).
Often in those households, adults rely on their children to communicate.
"If the son can't translate, Mom doesn't know what's going on," Sarith said. Sometimes, when school papers were sent home with her children, she would take them door to door to see if a neighbor could help make sense of them.
"For me, it's always difficult, because I don't have any kids to take me to the doctor," said Oeum Eang, who has lived in Park Village since 1985.
A number of community agencies offer translation services.
Based at Montezuma Elementary School, Fong Xiong is the Hmong liaison for the Stockton Unified School District.
She works with students but also eases communication between parents and teachers. "I can talk to them about their child's academics and behavior, or notify them if their child is absent and it's unexcused," she said. "That way, parents understand the process."
Xiong's counterpart, Sophaline Buth, serves Cambodian families and is based at Stagg High.
"What happens is sometimes the students manipulate their parents," Buth said. "They're the ones that have control if they speak the language. The parents rely on the kids."
Buth said she is developing parenting classes for non-English speakers and visits Park Village at least twice a month to talk about school policies and expectations and to encourage parents to be involved in their children's education.
"I go out there, I chit-chat with them and teach them," she said. "I tell them, I'm not going to fish for you. I'm going to teach you how to fish. ... These parents are very concerned parents."
According to Census Bureau figures, residents who speak a language besides English at home are more likely than English speakers to live in poverty (17.7 percent versus 11.2 percent) and far more likely to have achieved less than a high school education (37.6 percent versus 14.3 percent).
"It takes time," said Pheng Lo, who oversees the Lao Family Community of Stockton, which offers translation services as well as English-language classes. "And our experience is that many of these people do not really have a background in education when they come into this country. ... It takes practicing. Practicing at home, when you go shopping, when you are at work. I think it's easier for the younger people. They learn more English than Hmong."
Contact reporter Jennifer Torres at (209) 546-8252 or jtorres@recordnet.com.
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