There are many new Chin students coming to SHS and along with the new students, there is also a new translator and ELL teacher. The new translator is Mr. Bawi Run Mang Thang, Mr.Thang,  and the new EL teacher is Mrs. Brianna Kompara, Mrs. Kompara.

Thang is currently a junior at IUPUI and he is working as an interpreter to pay for his studies. He chose to become an interpreter because he wants to help out other kids that are going through the same situation as he went through when he first came to the U.S.

“When we first came to the U.S., we didn’t know any english,” Thang said. “We had to find other people that spoke english to help us with our homeworks, so I became an interpreter to help the students that don’t speak English, to help the Chin Community grow.”

When he sees new Chin students in the school, Thang wants to help them with their school works and at making friends. However, he also wants those students to make friends on their own so that they won’t have so much trouble when he’s not around. According to Thang, he is not only an interpreter. He says that “interpreter” is just a title because he doesn’t just translate, but his job includes helping students with their school works. When the students need help with their work, they would go to him for help and he would help them like normal teachers in SHS would do. He says that he is just like a teacher, helping students when they don’t understand what they are doing.

Van Thiang, a freshmen who started school this year, was really content of having new translator at school. Before he started going to school, Thiang always thought that it will be really difficult going to school where there’s a lot of new faces and not being able to speak english at the same time. He thought about how he was going to learn anything at school when he doesn’t even know the language, Thiang says. Although the language is really important, there are only a little bit of problem that Thiang face because he could go to Chin translator (Mr. Thang) to seek for help. Without mr. Thang, Thiang says he wouldn’t do well in school as he did now. Even when he wanted to work really hard, there was nothing that he could do because he didn’t know what his assignments were due to the language. After meeting the translator, he was really happy because Thang was there to help him when he first started school when he didn’t know anything.

“ I was always worried and unhappy about going to school,” Thiang said. “ But because he helped me, I was able to come to school with an ease mind and not worry about anything. He explained the works that I didn’t understand, so that I understand and when I do my works, I was able to do it without any problems. ”

Just like Mr.Thang, there is also a new ELL teacher that many students ask for help. The new ELL teacher, Brianna Kompara, went to Indiana University, in Bloomington, to study Spanish in order to become a Spanish teacher. She liked teaching Spanish, but she really wanted to look into ELL, so she took some ELL courses and fell in love with it.

Kompara is currently teaching ELL level 1’s and 2’s. She says that sometimes it is difficult to teach students who doesn’t speak english very well because there is a barrier between them. But the barrier doesn’t stop her from wanting to teach them because her favorite part about teaching them is seeing them develop and grow.

“It is so rewarding to see the kids learn english and grow,”Kompara said. “ Seeing them learn different things about our culture is so rewarding and it is also rewarding for me to learn about their culture.”

Kompara says she enjoys helping EL students and planning to teach ELL for the rest of her life and teach at SHS for a very long time. She hopes that the students feel good and that they learn from her. She also hopes they know how much she care and whether it is US History, math, or science, she wants them to know that they can always go to her for help.