Class of 2027: Language Takes Over

Since starting kindergarten at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in September, Atilla Secim’s English has improved by leaps and bounds.

Atilla, 5, who speaks Turkish, Arabic, some French, and is now nearly fluent in English, has lived in three different countries over the past five years. He was born in Turkey and most recently lived in Saudi Arabia. He and his family relocated to East Hampton just before September’s start of school.

“We came here for the future of our kids,” said his father, Murat Secim. He, his wife, Ayse, their children, Atilla and Cengiz, their 19-month-old son, are temporarily living in his sister’s weekend house until they establish more permanent roots. “We think they are going to get a better education here.”

Atilla is one of 18 children in Kristen Tulp’s kindergarten class at John Marshall. It’s his fourth school in three years.

The East Hampton School District, like many districts on the South Fork, has undergone a rapid transformation over the past few decades — from enrolling a vast majority of white students to one where Spanish is increasingly the primary language spoken at home. This is the third article in a series that examines the changing face of East Hampton by following a diverse group of kindergartners from a single class at John Marshall Elementary School through the school year and beyond.

According to John Marshall’s 2012-13 New York State school report card, enrollment is 51 percent Latino, 40 percent white, 5 percent black, 2 percent Asian, and 2 percent multiracial. Among the 621 students that school year, 21 percent had a limited English proficiency.

In addition to spending his day in an English-speaking classroom, Atilla meets with an English as a second language teacher several times each week, when he receives targeted instruction. Though Turkish is still the language with which he is the most comfortable (and what is generally spoken at home), his parents have recently noticed that when talking with his American-born cousin, the two speak freely in English.

Mr. Secim, 39, a native of Turkey, works in the home textiles business, selling upholstery and fabrics. A two-year contracting job recently took the family to Saudi Arabia, where Cengiz was born, but they hoped to move to the United States once their children (both have American passports) were oldenough to enroll in public school.

Ms. Secim was also born in Turkey. At the age of 9, speaking not a word of English, her family moved first to Brooklyn and then to Queens in search of economic mobility. Though her father worked as an electrician in Turkey, once in the U.S., he painted houses. Her mother stayed at home, looking after two children and taking on sewing jobs to help make ends meet.

After attending Forest Hills High School in Queens, Ms. Secim graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in economics. After college, she worked for Turkish Airlines and later for A.I.G., the insurance company. Once her two children are in school full time, Ms. Secim plans on returning to the work force.

In 2004, based on the recommendation of a family friend, the couple struck up an email correspondence. They first met in September of that year and by July of 2005 had married in Istanbul. Ms. Secim promptly moved back to Turkey, where they spent the first seven years of their marriage.

Though Mr. Secim studied journalism at Istanbul University, he eventually joined his family’s textile business. Over the course of his career, he estimates that he’s traveled to nearly 50 countries. After living in Saudi Arabia for two years, moving to New York made sense, particularly since his sister lives in Battery Park and owns a spacious weekend house in East Hampton. Ms. Secim’s brother and parents live in New Jersey.

Still, the cold weather and long distance from Kennedy International Airport have prompted the family to go in search of more convenient options. They are exploring other parts of Long Island and possibly Florida.

“There are a lot of opportunities here,” said Ms. Secim. “I finished college and would like them [her children] to get their master’s degrees and hopefully succeed in whatever they decide to do.” She sees Atilla, who likes to make people laugh, as a natural-born entertainer.

Since starting kindergarten, bananas are still a favorite snack and Jake, a classmate, is still his closest friend. Atilla is learning to count and memorizing his letters. Blue is his favorite color, and he wants to be a police officer when he grows up. During after-school hours, he takes soccer and in-line skating classes.

A sensitive, inquisitive boy, Atilla’s mind is always fast at work. “Where does water come from? Where did the trees come from?” he wonders. Lately, he peppers his parents with questions, wanting to know what happens when they get older — worrying, too, about death.

“When he comes home from school, he used to tell me about his day in Turkish. Now, he’s telling me everything in English,” said Ms. Secim, during bites of homemade revani, a sweet Turkish cake. At night, when Atilla is fast asleep, she now hears him uttering phrases in English. “When I first came to the U.S., I would translate everything in my head from Turkish to English. Eventually the new language takes over. That’s what he’s going through.”