<p>Fair point. Could the students not translate for their parents?
While the majority of ELS students in our district are probably Hispanics, we do have 27 languages represented, including Krewol, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc… Maybe the UCs should have interpreters for Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese? How about Hmong? or Khmer or Lao in Lowell, MA?</p>
<p>“For the families, not the students. I’m pretty sure that there are families at colleges whose kids speak fine English, but whose parents or grandparents do not.”</p>
<p>The kids would be the translators. No additional translators would be needed.</p>
<p>I serve on a scholarship board that provides assistance to first generation college students, mostly from Spanish-speaking families. The students are very skilled in both languages and will be able to handle college coursework in English. Their parents are mostly monolingual and often visiting a college campus for the first time, which can be intimidating.
The problem with having students translate the information is that it gets shortened or garbled, and the parent’s questions in reverse have the same issue. The process of applying to college is confusing enough. It’s so much more effective to communicate the official message of the school in a language that the whole family can understand.
As a public relations matter, it says to the family that the school truly cares about welcoming them and their potential future student.</p>
<p>A monolingual family is unlikely to be familiar with the US higher education system, to be able to ask relevant questions (EFC? FAFSA? ECs?) or understand the answers. </p>
<p>I agree that it would be nice to have staff able to answer in the many languages spoken not only in the US but abroad (remember the thread started with international students?). I wonder how one would handle mixed groups. My own cohort of international students back in college included German, Spanish, Swedish, French, Turk, Israeli, Kenyan, Malaysian, Japanese, Greek. I’m sure I’ve forgotten several other nationalities. Really, what is nice and what is practicable are quite different things.</p>
<p>This reminds me of a parents’ meeting at our highly diverse high school. It was actually about college applications. One set of parents showed up, who spoke only Krewol. There was no one available to translate, much to their frustration.</p>
<p>Absurd to expect an American university to supply tour guides in anything but English.
The students are required to take TOEFEL and do well enough, so they should be able to listen to and understand a generic presentation about admissions…they were all partying too hard the night before (or are really jet lagged). Who cares if they don’t understand English? If they don’t understand they can go to school in China, no? </p>
<p>My father in law went to MIT as an international student from Egypt. First langauge Greek then Arabic, then French (in school) then Italian, then ENGLISH. Never asked for or needed any additional support. </p>
<p>As for groups of kids touring college, I vote against it for all but the most focused students.</p>
<p>There is a great difference between tourist tours and prospective student tours. At a time when colleges are forced to reduced expenses, translators for free tourist tours is unlikely to be practical. Prospective students need to understand English to attend. the most persuasive counterargument is the one regarding parents.</p>
<p>As for group tours of kids, I can see the positives, but also worry that peer pressure could make kids reluctant to ask questions which would make them seem “uncool”–such as asking about religious groups; extended library hours; availability of part-time jobs; etc. I also fear a certain “group think” could set in, with the socially dominant kids decreeing which schools are better than others.</p>
<p>Conversely, I found it very helpful to take a few nearby tours with my son’s best friend and his dad, to share thoughts.</p>