Dictionary Girl

(dik′shǝ ner´ē gûrl), n. 1. the name that Helen Janc Malone gave to herself in a published commentary she wrote that led to her personal copy of a Serbo-Croatian dictionary being donated to the Smithsonian. 2. what Malone became after her non-English speaking family moved to the United States.

[caption id="attachment_8658" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Helen Janc Malone, right, presenting her dictionary at the Smithsonian."][/caption]

In April, doctoral candidate Helen Janc Malone, Ed.M.'07, bid farewell to the hardcover dictionary that had been a vital part of her education after immigrating to the United States from war-torn Yugoslavia at age 13. Unlike many people, Malone's dictionary didn't get pawned off at a yard sale or packed away in her attic. Instead Malone donated her Serbo-Croatian dictionary to the permanent education collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

"When we came to this country, we came with nothing. We ran away from the war with the clothes on our backs, [but] my dad packed a dictionary," Malone says. "We came with the dictionary as a way to be able to communicate. I walked around with that dictionary under my arm, so it could be handy at any moment."

How could she have known how important that dictionary would become to her schooling? Newly arrived to the United States and not able to speak English, Malone found herself unable to communicate in a middle school classroom where no one else spoke Serbo-Croatian.

"It was tough because you have the dictionary, but mostly you rely on nodding or gestures," she says. "People would speak louder or wave their hands as though I'd understood without realizing I wouldn't magically pick up vocabulary from that."

In February, Malone wrote a commentary in Education Week that caught the attention of a curator at the Smithsonian. The piece, "An Immigrant Student's Story: I Was a Dictionary Girl," shared her personal experience and made suggestions for how English language learner educators can work with immigrants from countries for which they do not have language partners.

"The response was overwhelming," Malone admits. "I had no idea people would read it."

Then, the following message appeared in the comment section: "I was very interested in your experiences and your challenges of being a school-age immigrant. Do you still have the dictionary your father gave you? Do you have any other artifacts from ESOL or that relate to your school years and learning to be bilingual? I am a museum curator interested in immigrant student stories and related artifacts for our education collection."

At the time, Malone admits she had no idea that it could be the Smithsonian.

"What? It's the Smithsonian?" was her reaction upon discovering the museum in question. "I put [the curator's] name into Google to double-check that it was real," she says. "I was in shock that the Smithsonian would read a commentary piece in Ed Week to begin with, then that she thought [my dictionary] was perfect and wanted it right away."

Within a few weeks, Malone, along with her mother and son, made the 45-minute drive from Annapolis, Md., to Washington to deliver her trusty dictionary to the museum. Malone was given a VIP parking spot and watched as the Smithsonian curator handled her dictionary with extra care.

"It was funny to see someone handling your old, raggedy dictionary with white gloves and protective bags," Malone says. A three-page essay about Malone's experience coming to America and attending school accompanied the dictionary accession, which may be part of an exhibit on the immigrant's life in the coming years.

Malone says it wasn't too difficult to let go of the dictionary. She did, however, consult with her dad before handing it over. Her father, equally shocked that the Smithsonian was interested, agreed to turn it over with one caveat: visiting rights.

"It gets our story out there," Malone says. "Not that it's unique, because there are so many immigrants coming to this country, but this just happens to be mine."