If you want to congratulate Haldane valedictorian Helena Kottman on her many accomplishments, feel free to do so in English, Spanish, Italian, French, German or Japanese. The 18-year-old Cold Spring resident is fluent in all six.
Helena is also the first student in the state to receive a Seal of Biliteracy for demonstrating fluency in five foreign languages, according to the Education Department, which started the program in 2015.
More than 34,000 students have received the seal, which is affixed to their diplomas. Of those, 616 have received the seal for two languages, 29 for three and two for four.
Students earn the seal by demonstrating language proficiency through high grades and national exams such as AP tests, and by delivering a presentation during which they take questions from an examiner. Helena’s Italian presentation was on the history and importance of Parmesan cheese. Her Japanese presentation was on Japanese lunch culture, including Bento boxes and school lunches.
“I love the bridges that languages allow you to build between cultures and people,” Helena said. “It’s a sign of respect to learn someone else’s language.”
She and her older sister, Sophia, learned Japanese from their mother, Sakura Ozaki, who also speaks Italian and German and is working on her Spanish while teaching at the Manitou School in Philipstown. Their father, Paul Kottman, a professor of comparative literature at the New School for Social Research, speaks six languages.
Sophia, the Haldane salutatorian in 2021 and a Classics major at the University of Chicago, speaks the same languages as her sister, plus Latin and Ancient Greek. Recently, she was nominated for a Goethe-Institut Award for her translation from German of Hegel: The Philosopher of Freedom, by Klaus Vieweg, published in December by Stanford University Press.
The Kottmans have provided many learning opportunities for their daughters. Each summer, the family traveled to Italy, where Paul Kottman would teach. When Helena was 9, her father took a sabbatical in Germany. “I didn’t know a word of German when I arrived,” Helena said, but she was fluent when they left.
Helena learned Spanish in middle school at Manitou. She says it’s her favorite language. “My mathematical brain loves the patterns,” she said. “The language sticks to rules more than most other languages.”
She learned French at Haldane. Her teacher Amy Hopkin, who has been teaching French for 20 years, called Helena a “rare talent.” But she noted that Helena differs from many polyglots, who often focus on speaking. Helena is dedicated to learning to read and write, she said. “She works hard at correcting her mistakes and applying herself.”
During her time at Haldane, Helena was captain of the debate team, co-founded the Math/Logic Club, sang alto for the Blue Notes and is a National Merit Finalist. She will follow her sister to the University of Chicago.
