(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Foreigners Help Fill US Teaching Positions
The New Mexico high desert is known for its beauty. The area enjoys sunny skies, and even snow in winter.
One thing missing has been teachers.
The Aztec Municipal School District serves about 3,000 students in northwestern New Mexico. But, for nearly eight years, the school district had trouble finding full-time teachers for its special education students. It instead used temporary or substitute teachers to work with children who have physical disabilities or difficulty learning.
Tania Prokop is Aztec's Deputy Superintendent. She tells VOA Americans were not interested in the full-time positions.
Aztec is not alone. New Mexico State University reported that the state had 740 unfilled teaching positions in public schools.
A study from the Learning Policy Institute estimates that nationwide, public school districts currently have a shortage of 112,000 teachers.
This year, through a program that brings foreigners to teach in U.S. schools, Aztec has eight full-time, special education teachers. All of them are Filipinos with J1 visas from the U.S. State Department. They teach some of the children who attend the district's six schools.
Aztec's Filipino teachers are trained specialists in their areas of expertise. They come to teach for three years, and the visa can be extended for up to five years. The J1 visa, however, does not lead to a green card, or permanent residency in the United States.
Prokop gives high marks to the Filipino teachers, saying it has been "a wonderful experience."
Not all of it has been easy.
Both the Filipino teachers and the American students have to get used to the differences in their cultures.
Prokop says managing the classroom is "one of the biggest things" the teachers have had to learn.
Learning in the classroom is not just limited to reading books and doing homework.
Prokop said that many of the students have never traveled far from home.
"So to have somebody come from a whole different country across an ocean and share those experiences and share pictures and share stories and share food and we're coming up to some holidays. So they'll be sharing some different experiences with holidays."
Prokop said the community welcomed the eight Filipino teachers and helped them settle into their new homes.
Riva Alipin is one of the eight. She teaches mathematics — integrated Algebra — at Aztec High School with another teacher.
"Working in America is a dream of every Filipino teacher," she told VOA. She said she believes America provides an "excellent" chance for them to improve their teaching.
Coming here to teach in America, she said, she needed "a lot of guts." In other words, one must be brave. Alipin also said it was "risky" because New Mexico is so far away from her homeland.
She also was concerned about discrimination.
"There has been news in my country that Filipino teachers have been taken for granted, not by the school admin (leaders) but by the students," she said.
"The students have bullied teachers for being a non-native English speaker. Filipinos are discriminated because of our accent" — meaning, the way they talk. But she said that, "my experience in Aztec High school proves it wrong."
She says the students are kind and respectful.
Some things the Filipino teachers will need to get used to; the food and weather. Americans eat different foods. In addition, New Mexico has very different weather from The Philippines. The eight teachers are excited about winter, since it will be their first snow.
Alipin found her job through a business called Bepauche International LLC.
Cheryl Marie Maghinay is co-owner of the company. She left The Philippines and moved to the United States over 10 years ago to accept a job as a teacher. In 2016, she launched her company to help other Filipino teachers find work. This year she helped place teachers in schools across the country, from Florida to Montana and Colorado.
Bepauche is based in Farmington, New Mexico, where Maghinay was a high school teacher. She told VOA almost 1,000 teachers a year contact the company. Of that number, 100 to 200 find jobs in U.S. schools.
Maghinay works with the teachers before they start in their new positions. She said it is not easy for them when they first arrive.
But she adds that the foreign teacher program increases understanding between people from different countries.
"I see the benefits and I see the beauty in diversity. You know, different people come together and learn together. Different practices and also knowledge about each other's culture. It's really, it's really nice."
The U.S. State Department says 3,252 foreign teachers were given exchange visas in 2018. The countries sending the most teachers were the Philippines, Spain, Jamaica, China and France. The top five states with the most foreign teachers were North and South Carolina, New Mexico, Texas and California.
In Illinois, 138 teachers from Spain work in public schools under the visitor exchange program. The state has been taking part in the program for 22 years.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) told VOA it plans to hire an International Teacher Recruitment Specialist "who will be responsible for establishing relationships with other countries."
In an email to VOA, Jackie Matthews, an official with the ISBE, said the goal is to employ teachers who speak English and can "teach in areas of need." But, she called it a "short-term solution while ISBE continues to support 'grow our own' teacher programs."
What is causing the shortage of teachers?
Matthews said Americans give different reasons, including pay, pensions and working conditions. The ISBE says another problem is that educators are not always being prepared to teach subjects where there is the highest demand in U.S. schools. Illinois' biggest shortages are in bilingual and special education.
I'm Bryan Lynn. And I'm Anne Ball.
重点解析
重点讲解：
1. be known for 因......而出名；以......著称；
We are a people used to be known for "self-restraint".
我们是曾以“克己”著称的民族。
2. be interested in 对......感兴趣；对某方面感兴趣；
I thought she might be interested in Paula's proposal.
我觉得她对葆拉的提议可能会感兴趣。
3. get used to 习惯于；适应；
You quickly get used to using the brakes.
你很快就会习惯使用刹车的。
4. in addition 另外；此外；
In addition to the tractor, we have acquired a new rice transplanter.
除了拖拉机，我们又添了一台插秧机。
参考译文
外国人帮助补充美国教学职位
新墨西哥州的高地沙漠以其美丽著称，该地区天空晴朗，冬天甚至还会下雪。
这里缺少的一件东西是教师。
阿兹台克市学区在新墨西哥州西北部为约3000名学生提供服务。但是，近8年来，学区一直难以为接受特殊教育的学生找到全职教师。只好使用临时教师或代课教师去帮助身体残疾或有学习困难的儿童。
塔妮娅·普罗科是阿兹台克市的代理负责人，她告诉美国之音，美国人对全职工作不感兴趣。
阿兹台克的情况并不是唯一的，新墨西哥州立大学报道，该州的公立学校有740个空缺的教学岗位。
来自学习政策研究所的一项研究估计，在全国范围内，目前公立学区缺少11.2万名教师。
今年，阿兹台克通过一项吸引外国人到美国学校任教的计划，拥有了8名全职特殊教育教师。他们都是菲律宾人，持有美国国务院颁发的J1签证，他们教一些在该区域的6所学校上学的孩子。
阿兹台克的菲律宾教师是在他们专业领域中训练有素的专家，他们来教三年的书，签证最多可延长五年。然而，J1签证无法让他们获得绿卡或在美国的永久居留权。
普罗科对菲律宾教师给予很高的评价，他说这是“一次美妙的经历。”
并非所有事情都那么容易。
菲律宾的老师和美国学生都必须适应他们之间的文化差异。
普罗科说，管理课堂是老师们必须学习的“最重要的事情之一”。
在教室里学习不仅仅限于看书和做作业。
普罗科表示，许多学生从未离开过家乡。
“所以，让一个来自大洋彼岸不同国家的人分享这些经历、照片、故事和食物，我们就要一起去度假了。他们会在假期里分享到一些不同的经历。”
普罗科普表示，社区欢迎这8名菲律宾教师，并帮助他们安顿好新家。
里瓦·阿利平是这8位教师中的一位，她和另一位老师在阿兹台克高中教授数学——综合代数。
“在美国工作是每位菲律宾老师的梦想，”她告诉美国之音。她说，她相信美国为他们提供了一个改善教学的绝佳机会。
她说，来美国教书，她需要“很大的勇气”。换句话说，一个人必须勇敢。
阿利平还说这是“危险的”，因为新墨西哥离家乡很远。
她还担心受到歧视。
她说：“在我的祖国，有报道说菲律宾教师所做的工作被认为是理所当然的，不是学校管理部门（领导）这样认为，而是学生有这种看法。”。
“学生们欺负老师，因为他们是非英语母语者，菲律宾人因为口音，也就是他们的说话方式，而受到歧视”。但是她说，“我在阿兹台克高中的经历证明这是错误的。”
她说学生们和蔼可亲，很有礼貌。
菲律宾教师需要习惯的一些事情，比如食物和天气。美国人吃不同的食物。此外，新墨西哥州与菲律宾的天气截然不同。8位老师对这里的冬天感到兴奋，因为这将是他们第一次见到雪。
阿利平是通过贝波切国际有限责任公司（Bepauche International LLC）找到这份工作的。
谢丽尔·玛丽·马吉奈是这家公司的共同所有者，10多年前，她离开菲律宾，接受了一份教师的工作后移居美国。2016年，她创办了自己的公司，帮助其他菲律宾教师找工作。今年，她帮助全国各地的学校安置教师，从佛罗里达州，到蒙大拿州和科罗拉多州。
贝波切公司位于新墨西哥州的法明顿，玛格海娜是那的一位中学教师。她告诉美国之音，每年有近1000名教师与该公司联系。其中，100到200人在美国学校找到了工作。
在老师们开始新工作之前，玛格海娜和他们一起工作。她说，他们第一次来美国，这不是件容易事。
但她补充说，外教项目增加了来自不同国家的人们之间的理解。
“我看到了益处，也看到了多样性中美好的事情。你知道，不同的人聚在一起学习，不同的实践方式，以及对彼此文化的了解。真的很好。”
美国国务院表示，2018年，有3252名外国教师获得了交换签证。派遣教师最多的国家是菲律宾、西班牙、牙买加、中国和法国。外籍教师最多的五个州分别是北卡罗来纳州和南卡罗来纳州、新墨西哥州、德克萨斯州和加利福尼亚州。
在伊利诺伊州，138名来自西班牙的教师通过公立学校的游客交流项目在这里工作。该州已经参加这个项目长达22年之久。
伊利诺伊州教育委员会告诉美国之音，它计划聘用一名国际教师招聘专家，“负责与其他国家建立关系”
该委员会的一位官员杰基·马修斯在给美国之音的一封电子邮件中写道，伊利诺伊州教育委员会的目标是聘用会讲英语、能“在需要的地方教书”的教师。但是，她称这是一个“短期解决方案。同时，该委员会继续支持‘发展我们自己的’教师项目。”
是什么原因造成教师短缺呢？
马修斯说，美国人给出了不同的理由，包括工资、养老金和工作条件。伊利诺伊州教育委员会表示，另一个问题是，教育工作者并不总是准备好在美国学校需求最高的地方教授课程。伊利诺伊州最大的不足是双语教育和特殊教育。
布莱恩·林恩和安妮·鲍尔报道。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
