Hello N.C. State and readers of Technician! I am Miguel A. Sanchez and I would like to introduce you to a new weekly section of Technician that will come to you every Wednesday. This section will be titled “Bienvenidos” and will be a bilingual section written in Spanish and English. While the majority of what is written will be printed in Spanish, one article per week will be printed with English printed right beside it. For articles that are not printed in English and Spanish, a QR code will be available so that you may read the article online, with Spanish and English side by side. A link will also be available on every page so that you may access our home page.
So where did this idea come from? I am a third-generation Mexican-American. My grandparents migrated from Chihuahua and Monterrey, Mexico. Because my parents and I were born in the United States, English has been my primary [and until recently] only language. Frustrated, I sought out every avenue to learn and practice my Spanish, whether it was the listening to the radio, through music, through reading or watching telenovelas on TV. However, when I got to college, I met several other Hispanics in the same boat as me — or worse — not knowing the language at all. There were others who spoke Spanish fluently but could not write it. I also met many people who had taken advanced Spanish classes, whether in high school or in college, but had little to no proficiency at all.
This is why I came up with the idea of publishing a bilingual Spanish newspaper. I want to help bridge the gap between written and spoken Spanish, increase Spanish literacy among Latinos and non-Latinos and provide an avenue for students on our campus to actively participate towards learning a second language.
I want everyone to have the opportunity to not only improve their Spanish, but also to learn more about what is going on in our local Latino community, and about what is going on around the world. We plan to bring you a great mix of hard news and feature stories, ones that will make you think twice, and ones that will make you feel hungry and ready for more (sometimes literally)! So please, enjoy this publication, every Wednesday, y ¡Bienvenidos a nuestra publicación bilingüe!