The Magnet introduces first bilingual article
Magnet editor-in-chief Jose Rosas stands with fellow staff editors Andres and Victoria Contreras for a photo in front of their recent bilingual article. Rosas said the idea to translate the original article to Spanish came from a realization that he wanted to make his article easier to read for his subjects, fellow Huskies who are English-language learners. Photo courtesy OHS magnet
Owatonna High School’s student newspaper “The Magnet” featured its first-ever bilingual article, written by staff writer Jose Rosas about a meeting held on campus for Spanish-speaking baseball players.
The article began English-only, but after speaking with fellow staff editors Andreas and Victoria Contreras, the crew decided to introduce the idea of writing the article in Spanish.
“During the process of writing the story, I realized, ‘How would I be able to write the story when the people I was interviewing wouldn’t even be able to read it?’ It sparked this whole realization to expand our stories and, in the future, hopefully be able to make this a common thing to reach new communities in Owatonna,” said Rosas.
Translating the article to Spanish was no problem for Rosas, who grew up fluent in the language.
However, the process of editing and vetting the article to be published presented a new opportunity for The Magnet staff.
According to Rosas, a team of Spanish-speaking editors worked to make sure that the article read as closely as it could to the English version, while maintaining proper style.
Two editors – Andres and Victoria Contreras – helped vet the Spanish copy and make up The Magnet’s small team of bilingual writers, along with Rosas.
“When I brought up the idea, I wasn’t sure if we’d actually go ahead and do it, because we don’t like to do things just once. I think it would be awesome to continue writing articles in both English and Spanish, but we have a limited amount of staff who can understand Spanish. So we don’t want all the work to land on the shoulders of three people,” said Rosas on the potential challenges of continuing with bilingual articles.
However, Rosas’ hard work and ingenuity have not gone unnoticed.
His piece was picked up by Best of SNO, an online publication that highlights student newspapers and their articles.
Rosas’ article dives into how a bilingual meeting for English-language learner (ELL) students is helping connect local students from Spanish-speaking countries with the community through a common love: baseball.
The piece features OHS students Ebdin Gonzalez Zarate and Stheyner Rivas Ovalles and recaps their journey to Owatonna from Mexico and Venezuela.
While the article was a fun challenge for Rosas and the staff, he also hopes that it will reach an audience who might take an interest in journalism.
“I see it as a way to continue reach our Spanish-speaking community in town and hope that if there are students who have interest in journalism, that it might be a way for them to get a start,” said Rosas.
Those interested in reading Rosas’s original article can do so at https://ohsmagnet.com/38604/sports/owatonna-baseball-holds-bilingual-informational-meeting/