Armenian Language

With each box carried into the parking structure across the street from the Glendale Central Library, the library's collection of Armenian- language books grew. And grew. And grew some more. Movers delivered about 12,500 Armenian-language books to the library on Wednesday, a collection so large that the books are being stored in the parking structure instead of the library. The collection, donated by the now-defunct American Armenian Interna- tional College, quadruples the library's current collection of Armenian- language materials.

The Pacific Park branch of the Glendale Public Library will host a special program focusing on Armenian-American heritage. Armenian Heritage & Culture vis-a-vis the American Identity begins 2 p.m. Saturday. A panel of guests will address keeping Armenian traditions alive in the U.S., backgrounds of Armenian families, influences on Armenian society and the Armenian language. Panelists include Ardashes Kassakhian, Nareg Keshishian, Tamar Kevonian, Jenny Kilejian, Roger Kupelian, Stepan Partamian, Anahid Oshagan, Serouj Ourishian and Garen Yegparian.

Josh Kleinbaum Whenever the Glendale Public Library tried to add Armenian-language books to its collection, the library always had to pay a premium. The books are hard to find, and because they are hard to find, they are expensive. This week, the library hit pay dirt. The American Armenian International College, a school affiliated with the University of La Verne that has been closed for more than a decade, is donating its entire Armenian-language collection to Glendale.

Josh Kleinbaum Half an hour before a special service for the Feast of the Pentecost, a man named Gegham sat alone on a bench outside the sanctuary of St. Matthew's Church. As parishioners walked in, he stood, smiled and shook their hands. But for Gegham, an Armenian American, the exchanges go no further than a handshake. "He's been coming here for about three years," Pastor Keith Banwart said. "He's probably one of our most faithful members, and he doesn't speak a word of English."

The sounds of an instrument from centuries past echoed through the auditorium of Glendale Community College on Sunday as Alisa Nakashian-Holsberg played the glass armonica with a gentle touch of her fingertips. Holsberg performed to a full house in honor of Cultural Diversity Month. St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church organized the event. This year’s theme was the Armenian language. “It’s cultural diversity month in October and this year was dedicated to the Armenian language and alphabet,” said Mary Tchagaspanian, board of trustees member of St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church.

The city went Hollywood on Monday as Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams got made up and memorized lines for a public-service announcement filmed as part of the city's pedestrian safety campaign. Five public-service announcements will be shot to focus on children and senior citizens, as well as cell-phone safety and the flashing pedestrian crosswalks, city spokesman Ritch Wells said. Adams will do the tagline, "Walk defensively. It may save your life," on all the English versions of the commercial.

TODAY Soroptimist International of Glendale presents Kevin Danni telling his firsthand experience story of Sept. 11 at noon in the Glendale Hilton, 100 W. Glenoaks Blvd., Glendale. The cost is $19.50. For more information and to make reservations, call Nancy Kochi at (818) 243-1494. Clifford the Big, Red Dog will visit with children at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 245 N. Glendale Ave., Glendale. Bring a camera to take a picture with Clifford. For more information, call (818)

The students in Hasmik Chobanyan’s third-grade Armenian-language class at Jefferson Elementary School are often working on their assignments one minute and singing and clapping the next. The song the kids are singing is roughly translated to “Armenia, My Father Land.” Three students take the lead at the front of the class and lead their classmates into it. Soon, the classroom takes on a sort of party atmosphere. All of the kids in this class are part of the Glendale Unified School District’s intercultural education program, which has Foreign Language Academies as one of its programs.

Children's entertainer Taline is combining a love for her Armenian culture with her love of music. The Glendale resident travels around the world with her show, which features singing and dancing to traditional Armenian songs as well as those she and others have written and her husband has arranged. Her Christmas tour show will make its fourth annual stop on Sunday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Taline came to the United States at 15. She earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from Cal State Northridge and worked as a pre-school teacher for several years before starting her career as an Armenian children's-music singer.

State Sen. Jack Scott, a Democrat who represents Burbank, Glendale and La Cañada Flintridge, is urging those interested in shifting their professional abilities into teaching by participating in a "fast-track" teacher- credentialing exam. One exam is scheduled for June 10 and another for Aug. 5. The registration deadline for the June exam is May 11. Aspiring teachers can dramatically reduce the time to earn a teaching credential by passing the Teaching Foundations Exam also known as the Early Completion Option.

On a Saturday morning in a brightly lit classroom at the Burbank Adult School, a group of students are practicing their language skills. Except it's not English they're learning. It's not even Spanish. It's Armenian. Though its Western counterpart has been on an UNESCO endangered language list for a few years, there seems to be a demand for Armenian-language skills in Southern California, a mecca for the Armenian diaspora that has settled more steadily in the area over four decades.

Fewer Armenian Americans are speaking the language of their native country, eroding the ability of the diaspora to preserve its culture, according to an expert at UCLA who addressed a conference organized at the Central Library on Saturday. Since 1970, the use of the Armenian language has decreased dramatically in all areas of diasporan life, including weddings, baptisms, schools and newspapers, said Hagop Gulludjian, a lecturer of Armenian studies at UCLA. Language is key to the survival of ethnic identity, particularly because the Armenian diaspora appears to be permanent, he added.

There is a class at the Glendale Central Library that might not exist if not for Elizabeth Grigorian. Since 2005, Grigorian, a community outreach coordinator at the library, has taught a free class on computer basics at the library. At first, Grigorian taught her computer class for seniors in the community before noticing that many of Glendale’s Armenian-speaking adults were missing out. Grigorian arranged to teach the same computer class in Armenian. It took her seven months to translate her 125-page instructional booklet from English to Armenian.

Four years after launching the district's first Armenian heritage program at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, Glendale Unified officials on Wednesday welcomed Armenia's Minister of Diaspora Affairs Hranush Hakobyan to the site. “I am absolutely thrilled and impressed with how our kids in such a short period can be perfectly fluent in both languages, Armenian and English,” Hakobyan said through a translator. Hakobyan toured classrooms where students, many wearing traditional Armenian clothing, greeted her with songs, poems and small gifts.

What started out as a personal return trip to Armenia soon snowballed into an official visit for Mayor Ara Najarian this past week. Once word got out in Yerevan, Armenia, that Najarian was in town to attend a conference on the future of the Western dialect of the Armenian language, it wasn't long before he was invited to meet with a slew of high-ranking government officials and dignitaries, including President Serzh Sargsyan and Prime Minister Tigran...

CRESCENTA VALLEY — Garo Melikian, a father of two, attended the Armenian Cultural Day festival Sunday to see his daughters recite poetry, songs and skits in front of a crowd of hundreds at Vahan and Anoush Chamlian Armenian School. His fourth-grade daughter, Nairi, is improving her Armenian language speaking and understanding each year. She and her classmates recited poems and songs in Armenian, and Melikian could see her improvement. Watching his daughter perform is what a father lives for, he said.

The students in Hasmik Chobanyan’s third-grade Armenian-language class at Jefferson Elementary School are often working on their assignments one minute and singing and clapping the next. The song the kids are singing is roughly translated to “Armenia, My Father Land.” Three students take the lead at the front of the class and lead their classmates into it. Soon, the classroom takes on a sort of party atmosphere. All of the kids in this class are part of the Glendale Unified School District’s intercultural education program, which has Foreign Language Academies as one of its programs.

As Aline Bezdikian’s children have matured, so have the topics of her children’s books. Bezdikian wrote her first children’s book in Armenian in 1999, when her daughter Lori was 4. That book, “Lori and the Rosebud,” was geared toward 5- and 6-year-olds, and grew out of what Bezdikian regarded as a dearth of contemporary books in Armenian for children. In December, Bezdikian published her sixth book, “Letters to Dikran the Great,” which is suited to young readers closer in age to her son Nareg, who is 9, and daughter Lori, now 12. Bezdikian’s books have evolved as her children have grown, she said, because they are the primary inspiration for what she writes.

The sounds of an instrument from centuries past echoed through the auditorium of Glendale Community College on Sunday as Alisa Nakashian-Holsberg played the glass armonica with a gentle touch of her fingertips. Holsberg performed to a full house in honor of Cultural Diversity Month. St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church organized the event. This year’s theme was the Armenian language. “It’s cultural diversity month in October and this year was dedicated to the Armenian language and alphabet,” said Mary Tchagaspanian, board of trustees member of St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church.

Before Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian arrived Friday morning at Chamlian Armenian School in Glendale, there was some confusion among the school’s first-graders about which important guest they were expecting. One asked his teacher, Hooshik Minassian, if God was coming. Another child replied that God couldn’t be coming, because he was everywhere. The children’s confusion was cleared up when Mardirossian arrived, dressed in a purple-lined black robe and wearing the large medallion known as a banage, which is reserved for bishops and archbishops in the Armenian Apostolic Church of America.