
{"id":23087,"date":"2012-01-26T10:13:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T15:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=23087"},"modified":"2012-01-25T18:51:43","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T23:51:43","slug":"carrboro-police-officers-sharpening-spanish-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/01\/26\/carrboro-police-officers-sharpening-spanish-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrboro police officers sharpening Spanish skills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Rose Laudicina<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00c2\u00bfTomaste esta noche?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a Carrboro police officer asked Javier Cid \u00e2\u20ac\u201c asking in Spanish if he had been drinking. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Usted huele a alcohol,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the officer said, telling Cid he smelled like alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tengo dos cervezas,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cid responded, holding up two fingers. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everyone always says two,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the officer laughed. <\/p>\n<p>The officer was not really pulling Cid over, and Cid was not really drunk. The two of them, along with four additional police officers, were at the CHICLE Language Institute practicing scenarios that police encounter on a weekly basis in which knowing how to communicate in Spanish would improve their ability to help the community. <\/p>\n<p>In a partnership between the Carrboro Police Department and CHICLE, Cid is teaching six police officers phrases and vocabulary in Spanish that they can use to communicate with Spanish-speaking residents on a daily basis. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to bridge the gap with our Latino community as far as communicating with them and understanding their culture more,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Capt. Cornell Lamb said. <\/p>\n<p>In every class, Cid, a native Spanish-speaker from Mexico City who has been teaching at CHICLE for nine years, puts the officers in different situations where the victim or suspect knows little English or only speaks Spanish. <\/p>\n<p>These situations include responding to domestic-violence calls, pulling someone over for speeding or being the first responder on a scene involving a hit-and-run. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I give them scenarios where they can really use the phrases and the vocabulary and work on the pronunciations,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cid said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have a textbook, but it just lists words and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell the students how to apply it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added. <\/p>\n<p>Although a majority of the 90-minute class is spent working on scenarios, sometimes it mirrors a typical high school or college language course as the officers repeat after the teacher and conjugate verbs on the board. <\/p>\n<p> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00c2\u00a1En Espa\u00c3\u00b1ol!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cid commands when a student answers a question in English, usually causing the officer to panic and respond with what seems to be the class\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 favorite phrase, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No se mueve,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d meaning, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do not move,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d causing the class to erupt into laughter. <\/p>\n<p>Lamb said he believes the course has really helped him with understanding the culture and the language, and the department is looking into making it a routine course. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My confidence level as far as being able to communicate and gather information has improved,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always know what situation you are going to walk into when you respond to a call, and we have such a diverse community in Carrboro where Spanish is one of the languages spoken.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Cid said that one of the best things about the police officers learning the language was that they would have the ability to help people in their native language, which is more reassuring.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When someone communicates in your language, it means a lot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cid said. <\/p>\n<p>While the course has taught the police officers a lot, Cid said he too has learned a great deal since they begin meeting back in November. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Law-enforcement officers do tough work,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cid said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Many people think they just give tickets or fines, and the reality is there is something more beyond that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they are doing an important job in the community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00c2\u00bfTomaste esta noche?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a Carrboro police officer asked Javier Cid \u00e2\u20ac\u201c asking in Spanish if he had been drinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23133,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23087\/revisions\/23133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}