"ARGENTINEAN ARMENIANS STRONGLY NEED ARMENIA’S SUPPORT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ASSIMILATION"-INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR OF THE MEKHITARIST SEMINARY, ADRIANA SHUPARALIAN

Noyan Tapan
29.10.2009

The RA Prime Minister recently granted medals to a number of Diaspora
Armenian educators for their remarkable contribution to preservation of
Armenian identity, language and thought, as well as Armenian education
and upbringing of the generation of Diaspora Armenians.

Among the winners was Adriana Shuparalian who is proud of being a
graduate of the Mekhitarist Seminary. She assumed administration of
the seminary with pleasure after finishing her pedagogical studies and
has been director of the Seminary’s department of Armenian language
for the past 26 years.

"Armenians Today": Mrs. Shuparalian, is it easy to preserve Armenian
schools in the distant Argentina where the danger of assimilation is
hanging over Armenians like the Damocles’ sword?

Adriana Shuparalian: Students of the seminary start learning
Armenian language in pre-school and then study Armenian history in
the higher classes of kindergarten. Armenian literature is added in
the middle school curriculum. True, we don’t have many materials,
but we teach them and we use the computers due to lack of textbooks
and instructional manuals.

We first translate, explain and then discuss with the children. The
audio-visual learning is provided through the computers. For instance,
we installed Jack Hakobyan’s work entitled "We are Armenians" in
the computer, put the photos and the children listened to the story
via the computer. This is how we teach in order to teach Armenian
literature to the local students as well.

We also focus on plays because that is the only way for children
to use the Armenian language. Unfortunately, there are not many
Armenian-speaking families in our community.

Another hardship is that we are compelled to teach Armenian as a
foreign language. The plays contribute to reinforcement of Armenian
linguistic competence. The third and fourth grade students also
participate in the plays. We prepare plays and then present them
to the families and students from all community schools in order
for them to see the plays and hear the native language. As a rule,
we select comedies and our seminary puts on plays two times a year
in the capital city.

We also include dance numbers during the plays, making the "concert
tours" in other communities more interesting. This is how our school
transmits the Armenian culture to all communities. The children love
to travel for 2-3 days and perform during the "concert tours". The
plays are put on in Armenian and foreign languages in order to be
comprehensible for the public at-large.

"Armenians Today": You mentioned that you apply modern methods of
teaching. What kinds of methods do you apply?

A. S.: We are obliged to teach Armenian as a foreign language because
there are few students from Armenian-speaking families. There
are many mixed marriages. There are also Armenian families where
Armenian is not spoken in the household. In the past years, we have
been organizing 1-2 week courses at the seminary. We invite English
language methodology teachers who provide our teachers with foreign
language teacher training. We then adopt that in Armenian, prepare the
curriculum and teach our students. We have been successful to this
day, but we need help from the RA Ministry of Education and Science
and the Ministry of Diaspora to send linguists to Argentina with the
purpose to study the psychology, family status of the community and
prepare one curriculum for all Armenian schools in Argentina.

"Armenians Today": How many Armenian schools are there in Argentina?

A. S.: There are nine active Armenian schools in Argentina of which
seven are in Buenos Aires. There is one seminary in Cordoba which
functions with a minimum-day schedule. The majority of the students
are Armenian, but none of these Armenian schools can be considered
to be full-fledged.

"Armenians Today": Do the students of your school know, for example,
the works by Hovhannes Tumanyan?

A. S.: They are not familiar with all the works. We place more emphasis
on the works by Armenian historians and the work by Khorenatsi serves
as a basis for us. Only after we cover the works by historians do
we touch upon modern Armenian history and contemporary Armenian and
Diaspora Armenian literature. We can’t provide much knowledge and
detailed information, but the students know about Daniel Varuzhan,
Khachatur Abovyan, Paruyr Sevak and Yeghishe Charents. The only books
we have at our disposal are the books published by the Mekhitarist
Congregation and it is clear that those books don’t cover contemporary
Armenian literature. We don’t have the works by authors of the period
following the Great Genocide.

"Armenians Today": You mentioned that the seminary has nearly 300
students of which 60 are Armenian in the best case scenario. You
also mentioned that many foreign students wish to study in Armenian
classrooms. What is the percentage of those students?

A. S.: This year, for instance, we can say that there are 8-10 out
of 100 students. Sometimes there are more students. Let me remind
that Armenian has been taught as a foreign language only for the past
couple of years.

"Armenians Today": Could we assume that foreign students admitted to
Armenian schools have Armenian cultural awareness?

A. S.: Yes. They all know that our seminary is an Armenian seminary.

Starting from kindergarten, the students learn Armenian song and dance
and then study history. The children like Armenian culture and know
our customs as well. For instance, we play an egg-hunting game on
Easter and we explain the Navasardian celebration on August 11. We
give lectures on Armenian traditions to middle school students and
update the materials every year. There was one year when we chose the
wedding ritual and the local Argentineans participated in the event as
well. Another year we turned the lesson on customs into a play. That
is how we teach and touch upon our culture. The local students with
no Armenian linguistic competence are able to talk in Armenian using
short expressions. That is why we would like to apply more effective
methods and use new textbooks during our short class hours. We don’t
have anything. We write the compositions, prepare conversations and
come up with fairy-tales for children’s daily communication. I think
that we have succeeded to this day.

"Armenians Today": What are your expectations from the RA Ministry
of Diaspora?

A. S.: We have presented a 22-point project to the Armenian Embassy and
the Ministry of Diaspora with some sections related to the Armenian
seminary. The project was created by the principals of all seven
Armenian schools in Argentina.

First, we would like to have a Western Armenian-proficient linguist
to come to Argentina for 2-3 months, conduct studies on our students,
their families, the cultural environment, psychology, the situation,
and then work with us on the curriculum for teaching Armenian as
a foreign language. After preparing the curriculum, we will start
training teachers and preparing textbooks. I think that it will be in
vain if specialists come with their own ideas or the ideas from Armenia
and Europe. The Diaspora must be studied with its ideas; otherwise, we
will either not have results or those results will not be noticeable.

Culture is great, but our objective is language. This is how we will be
able to help the seminaries in other Diaspora Armenian communities as
well. The situation is different in the communities of, for instance,
Syria and Lebanon where the language barrier is not as huge because
Armenian is a household language in those countries. The reality in
our community is that the Armenian families don’t speak Armenian and
that will not allow us to teach Armenian in the same way.

The next issue concerns teachers. Armenian schools are private and
don’t receive government-funding. As a result, Armenian schoolteachers
are not protected by the laws, are paid less and don’t have the same
privileges that teachers of government-funded schools do. This has
a negative impact on choosing qualified teachers in Armenian schools.

This issue must be solved on the state level and we also look forward
to receiving support from the RA government and the Ministry of
Diaspora.

This will take place after the development of the corresponding
project with sponsorship from the embassy and support from the RA
Ministry of Diaspora and the Ministry of Education and Science in
order to have our Armenian teachers teach at the Armenian seminary.

"Armenians Today": It is assumed that inter-governmental contacts
and agreements are necessary for normalizing these relations.

A. S.: Yes, I also think so and here is where the RA Ministry of
Diaspora must provide assistance. The Ministry of Education and Science
also has a lot to do in terms of developing curricula. We have to
reach the point where our schools will be recognized by the government.

"Armenians Today": Are Armenian schools the only ones not recognized
by the government?

A. S.: The government recognizes Spanish language teachers at private
schools, but, for instance, only the Chinese, Korean and Armenian
schools are not recognized.

"Armenians Today": You are one of the graduates of the Mekhitarist
Seminary. What are the differences between now and then in terms of
students, the school, the teaching staff and methods of teaching?

A. S.: The first and most important difference is that in our days,
Armenian was spoken in most Armenian households and subjects like
history of the Armenian people, geography and several other subjects
were taught in Armenian. Today the focus is on English and it is simply
impossible to teach history or literature in Armenian because the
students’ vocabulary and level of Armenian proficiency are not enough
for them to study many subjects in the language. Their vocabulary is
only sufficient for daily conversation, much less other subjects.

We used to stay extra hours in school and teach the above mentioned
subjects in Armenian. We had 20 hours of lessons a week, but today we
are only given 8 hours a week. English was taught only for 2-3 hours
instead of the current 14 hours. Today schools attach more importance
to English language instruction and that comes from the government
in a very strict manner. We are obliged to preserve and teach English
to have students and manage to keep the school; otherwise, that will
not stay either.

"Armenians Today": This means that the importance of knowing Armenian
has been pushed back rather quickly in the community in the past 20-30
years. Assimilation is growing enormously and the Armenian family,
for which Armenian is no longer important, is at the core of this. How
do you think we can confront this catastrophe?

A. S.: I think that we must first and foremost reinforce the relations
with the Homeland and make them continuous. Secondly, it is extremely
important (as I have already mentioned) to have a well-developed state
curriculum for teaching Armenian as a foreign language by which we
will be able to teach the native language in all 9 Armenian schools in
Argentina. Once again, I regret to emphasize that the issue is related
to the mechanism for teaching Armenian as a foreign language because
there are unfortunately very few people who know Armenian. Those
who do know Armenian have the lowest level of proficiency. We also
need history, literature, geography and culture textbooks, fiction
books, instructional manuals and notebooks. The Armenian learners of
English see that this is applicable and can be easily used for daily
conversations. That is not the case for Armenian language. Why do
Armenian students learn English easily? The answer is simple. It is
because English is taught through a clear and well-developed curriculum
(as a foreign language) and it is rather appropriate. Our objective
is to have a similar well-developed curriculum for teaching Armenian
as a foreign language.

English language teachers keep using updated illustrated and
interesting literature, or necessary CDs that come in many forms. This
facilitates instruction and makes it more interesting and appropriate,
not to mention the contribution of television and numerous songs.

Armenian language instruction has completely failed in these terms.

There is no encouragement, the language is not used on a daily basis
and it doesn’t become conversational. Might I add that the time for
studying the subjects in school and the heavy schedule also create
obstacles for Armenian language instruction. There is no time. In
addition, children travel 1-1.5 hours just to make it to the Armenian
schools and not all parents agree to that. In a word, there are many
obstacles and I mentioned the most important ones in the beginning.

It is very important for instruction to be in Western Armenian because
Argentinean Armenians are unfamiliar with Eastern Armenian; in other
words, even if instruction is in Eastern Armenian, we will not reach
the desirable outcome because the students will not be able to apply
their knowledge. There is no Eastern Armenian speaking environment.

"Armenians Today": It is rather strange to see that the Armenian
community of Argentina still doesn’t have an administrative body which
would have bigger opportunities to raise the issues concerning the
community at the state level. I think that the community must select
a body or somebody who will express the voice of the community.

A. S.: I can only speak on behalf of the school and don’t reserve
myself the right to speak on behalf of the community. The trustees
hold consultations and work together. However, after a couple of
meetings, we realized that we school principals must work together. It
is impossible to work alone. The Mekhitarist Seminary has proposed
to create a committee, union or an administrative board of schools
which would definitely include the principals and representatives of
all Armenian schools. The only objective of the committee would be
to exchange information and experience.

We would very much like to see Armenia’s support because there are
more trained professionals here and we need them very much. But if
Armenia doesn’t wish to support us, we will combine our efforts and
implement it, whether it be the right or wrong way.