Over the past 20 years, Dianne Burke’s daughter, son, and husband have tapped into different language instruction at our school. Below, she shares her story.
Grace at age 2 with her dog, Pepper.
Why did you want Grace to learn Mandarin?
We adopted Grace from China as an infant, and it was important to us that she maintain connection to her culture. From the beginning, she knew this was part of her story, part of who she is.
At that time, living in Ballston Spa, she wasn’t seeing a lot of children who looked like her. She eventually met two other girls who were adopted from China through the class. She was in CRLC classes from age 4 – 8.
Grace (2nd from left) with her Mandarin class in 2009.
In what ways did language classes have a lasting impact?
Grace was really hard wired for language. We adopted her at eight months old, and after just two weeks with us, I could say ‘hug your baby’ and she would clutch her doll.
When she first came to us, she would cry, saying ‘nigh-nigh.’ We just thought it was just babbling but later found out it meant grandmother. She had been in foster care with an older woman in China before we adopted her.
Grace really excelled in French through high school and traveled to France. She majored in International Business in college, got her MBA and did a semester internship in Milan, picking up a lot of Italian.
Today, she works as the digital marketing coordinator for Mirbeau Hospitality in Saratoga. She’s heading to Spain this winter to meet her best friend, Kaia, who she met at Malta Montessori, where CRLC began providing Spanish classes.
Years later, you contacted CRLC again to prepare your son Ethan to take the NYS Regents in Spanish.
He struggled with the Spanish Regents in June, so he had to retake it in August. At the time, I was working in Clifton Park, and Kim (Andersen, founder of CRLC) would stop on her way to or from CRLC’s location in Colonie and tutor Ethan in my office. He passed the Regents with flying colors!
Today, Ethan works in construction management in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Burke/Foti family has been connected to CRLC for more than 20 years.
After Ethan, your husband hired CRLC to provide language services and instruction at the elementary school where he was principal.
Hoosic Valley is a very small school district, and it was rare then to have ENL (English as a New Language) learners. A Korean family moved in, and he needed a translator for parents and ENL for students. Kim helped set up language instruction and services. Later, Spanish speaking students moved into the district and CRLC helped again.
Ethan, 12, and Grace, 7, in Times Square, New York City.
How has your language experience shaped your children and family?
We taught our children the world is a big place – you should explore it and have adventures. Understanding language, culture and acceptance is a very big part of that and something we value as a family – being comfortable out in the world. Having Capital Region Language Center in our lives has been invaluable. Kim is such a wonderful person and resource for our community.