When the big moment came, and Herricks senior Kripa Bhagat met first lady Michelle Obama recently, she suddenly found herself at a loss for words.
That was an unusual moment for the articulate and multi-lingual Bhagat, who is concurrently studying Spanish, Italian and Chinese, with plans to major in international relations or foreign languages when she goes to Barnard College next fall.
The Herricks senior was among students and teachers from 21 schools that are part of the Asia Society’s Confucius Classrooms Network who went to Washington, D.C. last month to hear a speech Mrs. Obama delivered at Howard University about the Obama administration’s “100,000 Strong” Initiative. She attended the event with Lori Langer de Ramirez, who chairs the ESL and World Language Department in the Herricks District.
The Confucius Network seeks to further Chinese language and cultural education program in high schools throughout the U.S., linking those schools with partner institutions in China. Herricks High School is linked to a school in Shanghai, according to de Ramirez.
Kripa Bhagat was a natural candidate to attend the Jan. 19 conference, de Ramirez said, because of her “high level of maturity” and her foreign language advocacy as the only Herricks High School student learning three languages
The “100,000 Strong” initiative seeks to dramatically increase the number of American students to studying in the most powerful and populous country in Asia.
“American has no better ambassadors to offer than our young people,” Obama told her audience at Howard.
Obama’s remarks were followed by a roundtable discussion among students who spoke about their experiences in learning Mandarin while they were studying in China. The event coincided with the arrival of Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington that same day.
The student representatives from the respective Confucius Network schools then met Mrs. Obama, and Kripa Bhagat was at a loss for words in what she recalls as a “surreal” moment.
“I had no idea what to say to her. I’m a really outgoing person, but I didn’t know what to say to her. I told her I liked her dress,” Bhagat said.
And she said Mrs. Obama thanked her for the compliment, and the moment became an indelible memory.
But getting the chance to meet other students who share her enthusiasm for learning languages was equally memorable for Bhagat, who had a conversation in Mandarin with other Confucius school students.
“For me here, I have the passion for languages, but to meet other people who have that same passion is something else.” she said.
Bhagat spent the last two summers studying Chinese, which she started studying at Herricks last year. She spent six hours a day in a summer program sponsored by the China Institute in Manhattan, talking her way into an advanced program last summer that the institute previously had not offered.
She started studying Spanish in sixth grade and began studying Italian, which she said she learned readily because of the structural similarities between the two languages. But learning Chinese was a completely different experience.
“It’s a little bit tougher because the writing is more complicated and the pronunciation is more elaborate,” she said, adding she “wanted to hit a random wheel of languages.”
At home, the Herricks senior speaks Gujarathi, an Indian dialect, with her mother.
But more than just a random learning activity, Bhagat sees language as a way to bridge cultural boundaries.
“It’s a special thing to have a motivation to help other people through the study of languages. It helps to improve understanding of cultures,” Bhagat said.
Bhagat said she aspires to study abroad, believing an immersive experience to be indispensable to mastering a foreign language.
Herricks may eventually initiate a Chinese exchange program, according to de Ramirez, who visited the high school’s companion school in China last fall. She has yet to work out how the student exchange would be framed.
“We’ll sponsor whatever kind of trip the parents are comfortable with,” she said.
