May 23, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patti Luchetti
PENOBSCOT SCHOOL
207 594-1084

Penobscot School Offers Opportunity to Host Foreign Students

Summer arrives soon, bringing good weather and new groups of foreign students to study English at one of two intensive three-week immersion programs at Rockland's Penobscot School.

All those interesting students from many countries need homes and residents of the greater Rockland area are invited to open their homes to host them. This summer's sessions run July 5-26, and August 2-23.

 "We say 'If you have a warm bed and clean sheets, you can host a student,' although it's nice if they have their own room,"  said Patti Luchetti, office manager for Penobscot School.

"The benefits to students and hosts are great," she added. "It's an opportunity for the host to learn more about another country, and to give people from other countries a real one-on-one relationship with an American."

Students and hosts retain the bonds of friendship long after the English course is completed, she said. "Many still have reciprocal visits, years later."

Last year's students included people from  Italy, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Niger, China, Japan, Spain, a Buddhist monk from Tibet, and a man from nearby Quebec.

This year's classes will include students from Moldova, Russia, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Japan and Korea, among others.

Students spend a long day at school Monday through Friday. Classes begin at 8:30 a.m. and go through 1:30 p.m. when they have a choice of an organized activity or free time around town. At 4 p.m. a few students prepare dinner for the rest. Students return for dinner at 6:30 p.m., except Wednesdays, and wrap up the

day around 8:30 p.m.

"Hosts are expected to provide dinner for their students on Wednesdays," said Luchetti. Hosts and students also spend weekends together.

Students usually arrive on Saturday to meet their hosts and spend Saturday night and Sunday with them before classes begin on Monday. A few events planned by the school each session to include students and hosts include an international student-public reception on the first Tuesday, a Saturday trip to Vinalhaven and a picnic supper at someone's seaside home.

Transportation to the school each weekday morning is the host family's responsibility, Luchetti explained. Students hosted by Rockland families walk to school and hosts from Thomaston, Rockport and Camden often form car pools. The school provides rides to return students home in the evening.

All students speak some English, although levels vary, and communication with the host family is an important part of the student's immersion in English. Last year, students ranged in age from 16 to 68, but an important note about our program is that most of our guests are adults, Luchetti added.

The English program at Penobscot School started in 1988 and many local families enjoy hosting students so much, they have opened their homes every summer. There are also opportunities for weekend or day hosting for families farther out of town.

"We love it when hosts can be involved with the student's school activities," said Luchetti. "Hosts can volunteer for afternoon activities, come to dinner and go on the field trips."

For more information on hosting and a list of students planning to attend the English immersion this summer, please contact Penobscot School, 28 Gay St., Rockland, 594-1084.

Penobscot School Opens Spring Term

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2008
Contact: Patti Luchetti
PENOBSCOT SCHOOL
tel: 207 594-1084

A new 4-week term for students of foreign languages at Penobscot School will begin April 28, but along with the continuation of existing classes will be some unusual new offerings.

May Term teachers at Penobscot School, (l to r) Asia Czasak (Polish for Family and Friends); Julien Covos (French); Thais Priestess (French Knitting Workshop); Nohora Estes (Having fun speaking Spanish). Classes at the Rockland school begin April 28.

Two new language classes will join the extensions of beginner, advanced beginner, intermediate and advanced French and Italian, and an International Film Weekend will run on Friday and Saturday, May 2 and 3.

Nohora Estes, a native of Colombia who has taught Spanish in the area for 11 years, will launch a Having Fun Learning Spanish class. This is designed to be a practical conversational class using present and past tenses, "the easy way to learn a language," said Estes.

Estes, who also teaches Latin dance, likes to include cultural activities in her classes as well. Fee for Having Fun, which meets Tuesdays and Thursday at 5:30 p.m., is $88.

Polish for Family and Friends is another new class that will be taught by Asia Czasak on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Czasak, daughter of Polish immigrants to Maine, will focus on pronunciation and common expressions within the themes of travel and family.

Czasak said the course is designed primarily for people with family in Poland or those who would like to travel there. She is a Montessori teacher who grew up speaking Polish and has traveled to Poland several times. Fee is $132.

A brand-new concept will take place at Penobscot School two Mondays in May. A French Knitting Workshop, or Atelier de Tricotage, offers knitters who know at least advanced-beginning French an opportunity to converse in French about their favorite pastime. All-level knitters are invited to bring their current project, yarns and needles for 90 minutes of French conversation. A handout with vocabulary, French knitting patterns and references will be distributed by teacher, Thais Priestas. Fee for the workshops May 12 and 19 is $25. Workshop leader Tha•s Priestas studies French at Penobscot School. She loves to knit and she makes frequent trips to France.

Michael Shell introduces the techniques of Authentic Communication, a language of negotiation and understanding; based upon the teaching of Marshall Rosenberg in his Conflict Resolution class. Shell will use the textbook Non-Violent Communication, A Language of Life by Michael Rosenberg in the seven classes, that will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30-8:30 pm, starting May 7. Fee is $165. Shell has studied nonviolent communication for five years and is trained as a Life Coach. He can be reached at 322.2356 or wellnesscoach@gmail.com.

All those interested in classes or workshops or films should contact Penobscot School, 28 Gay St., Rockland, 594-1084, www.languagelearning.org, for more detailed information.

Penobscot School Offers Intensive French Cuisine

March 24, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

contact: Patti Luchetti
Penobscot School 207.594.1084

Re: French Immersion Cooking Class APRIL 5

Cook, Eat, Improve French Language Skills

Intermediate-level French students who yearn to be intermediate-level French cooks have an opportunity to improve both skills in a French Immersion Cooking Class, Saturday, April 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Penobscot School.

Both the language and the cooking will be taught by this year's French exchange teacher, Julien Covos, who comes from Angers in the Loire Valley. Covos loves to cook, and believes the ability to cook is in his genes.

"My father was a chef for more than 25 years, but I wouldn't let him teach me anything," said Covos. "I wanted to learn on my own, so I experimented."

For a $45 fee, students may learn more about the vocabulary, techniques and ingredients of French cooking while experiencing the challenge of a language immersion setting. Students will cook and then eat the meal they have prepared together.

The menu planned by Covos is: Tartare aux Deux Saumons et la Mangue (Two salmon and mango tartar); Ratatouille aux Trois Poivrons et Chips de Jambon Cru (Bell peppers ratatouille with raw ham chips); Noix de St.-Jacques et Asperges a la Creme de Pamplemousse (Scallops and asparagus with grapefruit cream); Blanquette de Veau a l'Ancienne (Old-style veal blanquette with rice, mushrooms and veggies); Salade de Chevres Chauds a la Provencale (Provence salad with goat cheese croutons) and Tarte Tatin a la Bretonne (Breton-style apple tatin pie).

Most of the dishes have a twist on the classic French preparation, but the Blanquette de Veau is a completely traditional dish, said Covos. "This is one of the five most famous French dishes, so it's good to be able to do it. For instance, if your mother-in-law is coming over."

"The rest are not completely typical French food. Anyone can buy a book and make beef burgundy," Covos said. "These dishes are

to impress people!"

Recipe handouts will be in French and English. Registration deadline is Wednesday, April 2. Students are urged to bring an apron and an appetite. Contact Penobscot School, 594-1084.

Wanna really know Italian? Buy a Renaissance Man an espresso

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patti Luchetti
Date: September, 2007

Those who are fortunate enough to sit down with Giovanni Perlini over coffee will not just get a language lesson. They will find a broadly educated Italian who can discuss every Fellini film ever made, in detail, and just as easily go on at length over the future of the European Union and the impact in Italy over the increasing power of a re-emerging Russia.

Not opera, though. Art and literature, sure. Politics, no problema. But Perlini is not admitting to opera.

Giovanni Perlini has always followed his curiosity. And now that curiosity has led the former librarian and working class student of history to Rockland, where he will teach Italian at the Penobscot School
for the 2007-2008 school year. This year, Julien Covos, a young Frenchman from the Loire Valley, and Perlini, who hails from a small village near the fashion capital of Milan in northern Italy, will teach beginner to advanced classes as well as intensive weekend sessions for travelers.

“I am very curious,” admits Perlini, when asked about his varied interests. “Maybe too curious.”

Perhaps, but he doesn't appear eager to rein it in. It is that curiosity that led him from his small village to Spain, England, France and Eastern Europe in search of history in the making.

“I was in Sarajevo just after the war (in 1989) to help rebuild homes. Just after the Dayton agreement,” he says, over a cup of coffee in downtown Rockland. “I was curious to see it. I belong to a generation that does not know war. It is not a common situation in Europe and we are privileged. I took a chance to see it and to see how people are affected by war.”

He was in East Germany just before the Berlin Wall came down and in Czechoslovakia just after the Velvet Revolution, where he saw Czechs voting in democratic elections for the first time in half a century.

“I had a sense of being in history,” says Perlini, looking thoughtfully out the window at the passing traffic. “There were great expectations for the future and the wheel of change. And, yes, after a few months the
map of Europe changed. It meant the end of a nightmare, because it was a continent divided into two worlds that were segregated, east and west. People who shared the same history and culture and values were
separated, violently, and against their will. Finally, they could rejoin.”

“Now? The enthusiasm is diluted.”

This spring he was in Moscow for a month, talking to people about the Putin legacy. Perlini says Europeans fear the increasing hard-line talk from Moscow because Europe is dependent on Russian energy supplies and
he doesn't see the European Union as being an effective counter-balance to Russian power. He doesn't think the EU can act as one decisive governing body.

“The EU constitution? It would be difficult to follow that path. The EU was enlarged and added too many countries too quickly before it consolidated an institutional frame. Now, it is difficult to have agreement between so many countries on even a small constitutional charter,” he says.

As passionate as he is about politics, history, and international affairs, Perlini says his perfect day is one filled with art.

“My perfect afternoon would be to go for a bicycle ride and then go to the museum...and then, after that, to the theater. Or to a movie. You know? A good movie. Fellini...all of them are masterpieces...Visconti,
Bertolucci...yes, the museum and a movie. That would be the perfect day.”

Italian and French classes start the week of September 24. For more information contact the Penobscot School at 594-1984 or register on-line at www.languagelearning.org.