HORNWATCH : Ruben Rosario: St. Paul nun says backlash against Coca-Cola ad is rooted in ignorance

Spry Sister Rosemary Schuneman, 75, has been teaching English for 54 years, first to grammar-school kids, now mostly to new immigrants and refugees. She currently heads an ESL class for adults at the Ronald M. Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning in St Paul. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

The nerve of Coca-Cola. They aired a commercial during last week's Super Bowl depicting Americans of different cultures singing "America the Beautiful" in seven languages. Xenophobic social-media trolls criticized it, as was expected.

"Who in their right mind celebrates people singing one of our patriotic songs in a foreign language? It is a disgrace and an affront to our heritage and culture," wrote one yahoo in the comments section of the YouTube version that so far has had more than 8.3 million hits.

If completely clueless about the message behind the ad, many also confused the song with the national anthem. Ignorance is a you-know-what.

Given I'm trilingual -- I speak English, Spanish and New York City Spanglish -- I liked the ad. So did Sister Rosemary Schuneman.

"It's beautiful," the 75-year-old educator and two-time cancer survivor said after I showed it to her.

Schuneman has been teaching English for 54 years, first to grammar-school kids, now mostly to new immigrants and refugees. She's the embodiment of that statue that sits in New York Harbor, the one whose plaque still implores the world: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..."

She doesn't understand the hate or the backlash.

"People need more education about the reason different people come here and the hurdles that they have to go through just to learn English, and it's not easy," said Schuneman, the longest-serving educator at the Ronald M. Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning in St. Paul. Part of the public school system, the center offers adult courses in English, GED instruction and commercial license, carpentry and a host of other occupational prep courses.

"I tell my students that your language is precious," she added. "You don't stop speaking your own language and teaching it to your children. But I also tell them that in order to get ahead and do your job and help people, they have to learn English."

A CALLING TO TEACH

The current students in Schuneman's English Level 3 classes are a mix of adult refugees and immigrants from Somalia, Ethiopia, the Karen community, Congo, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Two are Da Bu and Mui Kpu Lu, husband and wife and Karen refugees who lived in separate Thailand refugee camps and met while serving as nursing assistants at a clinic. They arrived here three months ago.

She asked the class recently how many languages they spoke. "I had people who said they could speak four languages -- that's incredible."

A member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Schuneman grew up in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood and attended St. Agnes grammar and high school and was taught by nuns of the same religious order.

Sister Rosemary Schuneman taught English as a Secondary Language class to adults at the Hubbs Center in St. Paul Thursday afternoon February 6, 2014. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

She wanted to become a singer and dancer, but chose education after she felt a calling and became a nun in 1958. She taught first- and second-graders throughout Minnesota and Iowa and changed course in the 1970s, when she accepted an offer to teach English to African sisters in Kenya.

She came back with a passion to open a school for adults after she watched news reports of Vietnamese "boat" people and other Southeast Asian refugees undergoing resettlement here and elsewhere. St. Paul Cos. offered her a conference room at their headquarters, where she began teaching new Hmong refugees and others for 11 years.

THE REWARD

Schuneman was diagnosed with breast cancer a week after she was hired at the center 19 years ago.

The young and spry (for her seventy five years), Sister Rosemary teaching English as a second language to eager learners from various different nations of the world. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

She underwent a mastectomy and a debilitating chemotherapy session that landed her in the hospital.

She began teaching the day after she was discharged and has not stopped. Not even a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 14 years ago has kept her from the hundreds of students who have benefited from her lessons throughout the years.

"She's a terrific person and a well-respected teacher here," said Scott Hall, the center's director.

It's not all work for Sister Schuneman. She's an avid square dancer and was once named Queen of the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington. She also performs prison and jail ministry.

But teaching gets her up in the mornings. One of her students of Korean heritage achieved a doctorate and is working in New York City. Other students are scattered throughout the Twin Cities; she occasionally bumps into them at stores and other locales.

"I love working with these adults," she said before class began last week. "When you teach someone, particularly a woman, you are empowering the whole family. She is transferring those skills to them."

Schuneman dismisses the perception that today's immigrants don't want to learn English. Her life experiences, crowded classrooms and long waiting lists to attend adult-literacy classes across the country pretty much deflate that view.

"These people understand the need (to learn English)," she said. "They want to get a job, they want to help their children do their homework and they want to be able to talk to their boss or co-worker."

Hall added that research shows that it takes seven years or longer for adult students to master a second language.

"I have found that many people who make this criticism have never attempted to learn another language themselves," he said.

So, those doubting this perhaps should visit one of Schuneman's classes. Perhaps a little enlightenment is not so bad.

"It's just a wonderful feeling that you know you have helped future citizens of America," she said. "I have received more than I have given -- the respect, the love, the trust -- it's incredible."

I'll drink to that. Make it a Coke this time, por favor.