Ken Bernard, 43, came to New York City from Guyana when he was five. A father of three girls, he runs Sybil’s Bakery and Restaurant in Jamaica, established by his late mother in 1978. Sybil’s is the most well-known Guyanese restaurant in New York with additional locations in Forest Hills and Prospect Park South.

How do you hold up working seven days a week?

It’s dedication. You’re not going to make it if you’re not dedicated in this kind of business. I watch a lot of the chef shows now. It’s a learning experience just watching them because they’re looking for perfection in food. Food is an 18-hour job.

How did Sybil’s come to be?

My mom, she was nine of us with her alone. She got laid off — she was a mold cutter of jewelry. My older brother, he knew some Guyanese people and they had a big family and we started delivering to them from our house, in Far Rockaway. And then maybe a year after she rented a place, and took off from there. I guess it’s a blessing.

How many other Guyanese restaurants are there in New York City?

Now? Oh, dime a dozen. We remain No. 1. Everyone knows Sybil’s. You go to England and ask Guyanese, “You know Sybil’s?” they’ll say, “Yeah!”

How important is food to the Guyanese culture?

My mother, she’s East Indian. Her father was from India. Even in India, the poorest homes you go to, the first thing you go in, they offer you something to eat. And that has traveled here. When I go to people’s homes they’re like, “Come on, eat, eat!”

Are most of your customers Guyanese?

Most. But we have all nations coming here at this point. We cater to everyone. It’s rapidly changing though, this community is. First it was Greek, and Puerto Ricans. Then the Guyanese took over. Now it’s more changing to the Muslims from the Middle East and the Hispanics, Mexicans, Guatemala. I see the Guyanese community going more toward Richmond Hill.

What do you think the Guyanese population is shifting to Richmond Hill?

To me it’s like nightclubbing — if that the hot spot at the time, everyone’s going to go with it.

What else has been going on with the Guyanese community?

A lot of Guyanese from here have been getting deported, for a lot of different reasons. When you get arrested here now a few times and you serve some time if you’re not a citizen, you get deported. That’s the law now. Could be anything. Your time is up.

Why do you think Guyanese have done as well as they have in New York?

Always comes back from the roots – from not having. I just want to make sure that my girls get their education. Because I didn’t get a chance to do mine. From not having, you’re climbing a mountain – slow. Might not be this generation, but the next one will be a little stronger.

Dr. Julia B. Carroll, deputy chairwoman of the Basic Educational Skills program at Queensborough Community College in Queens, talks with us about language issues and the challenges Korean and Chinese immigrants face at Bayside, where there is a large Asian population.

What are the challenges of learning English as a second language?

I think that some of the challenges are that students are living in communities where they are only speaking their own language most of the time. They are hanging with their friends and speaking their native language, or even working at a job where they are speaking their native language, and they have this feeling that somehow when they come to class, their language issues are going to go away miraculously. We find that happens a lot.

They are also living in a generation where everything is instantaneous and they want to learn the language faster and faster. But at the same time, their actual exposure to English is limited.

As an educator, how do you address that?

Well I give them a lot of reading and writing and work outside the class because I think they are just not getting enough exposure to the language. I tell them to get a job where you can speak English at least 65 percent of time, and watch television in English and listen to music in English and try to speak English to your friends.

What immigrant populations do you teach?

We have a little of everything here. There is a large population of Asian students, Koreans and Chinese, and we have quite a few South Americans too. Probably because we are in Bayside, which is pretty much a Chinese and Korean area so there are a lot of Asians here.

What do you think it is about Bayside that attracts Chinese and Korean immigrants to the area?

There is already a well-established community here. They got the stores, the restaurants, the businesses and lots of people have been living here for a long time. So when you have relatives that are already here, and people speak your native language around you, that’s very appealing.

Do you find that Chinese and Korean immigrants come to this country knowing more or less English than other immigrant groups? Or is it about the same?

It depends on the other immigrant groups. For example, you’ve got Haitian immigrants from Haiti where there’s a broken system with a huge literacy problem, and then you have Russian students who are very well read and their language is much closer to English than Chinese or Korean is, so they have fewer problems.

I think Chinese and Korean immigrants are very serious students and they study very hard. The language issues they have have to do with the grammar and the structure of the language. It’s very, very different than English and it takes them longer to master.

Do you notice a pattern among Chinese and Korean immigrant students in terms of the time it takes to learn English?

I think it depends. You take students from Hong Kong where they have had a lot more exposure to English than students from Central China. I hate to stereotype. I think they have very good study habits and they are coming from backgrounds and families that support them and encourage them to study.

But I think if they memorize information their whole lives, when they come here it’s a big shock because a lot of the assignments don’t involve just memorization. It’s actively using the language to interact and participate in class discussions. I think that’s a challenge for a lot of students.

Henry Steinway is the great-grandson of the Steinway & Sons founder and the last family member to lead the firm. Although he’s 92 and retired, Steinway still spends most mornings at the Steinway piano showroom on W. 57th Street in Manhattan.

What was it like growing up in the Steinway family?

I was one of six children. My mother was a Yankee. We were raised in the American Yankee manner. When I got out of college, 1937, it was the Depression. Then I said, “Should I try the piano business?” My old man said, “Sure.” So, I tried it.

I’m the inheritor, I can continue the tradition I guess. I have five children – some tried the business and didn’t like it. Now they are all over the country. So we sold it to CBS.

Can you talk about your family’s immigrant experience?

I don’t see myself as an immigrant. I was raised by a Yankee mother in an upper class New York way. I went to private schools, went to Harvard. I never thought of myself as “German-American,” which I suppose I am.

In 1937, when I started, there were still many workers of German origin. Then the Italians came in. Roman Catholic Germans and Italians married so we had many issues at that time, then of course the Greeks moved into Astoria and now it’s the League of Nations out there.

Has Steinway employed a lot of immigrants over the years?

Lots of South Americans recently, but I can’t tell you from where. They work their way up gradually. Some are foreman and supervisors. Now it’s a pretty general group representing New York and Queens. I think I heard Queens is one of the most diverse areas — various types, Thai and Korean. So it’s a very international community.

Do you think Steinway provides immigrants with opportunity to live the American Dream?

They do and they always have. I remember years ago when someone would die and there was a local funeral home that was used by a lot of the workers. I would attend some of these wakes. You’d see this guy who was a worker in the plant and his two sons who were lawyers. I mean the upward mobility.

We do have a few father-to-son relationships still. The family name Drasche has three generations there. The most recent one started his own business fixing up pianos somewhere out in Queens. So it has always been a very interesting community.

How has it changed?

The employees naturally move off the island. That’s why we have that big parking lot. I remember we built that years ago. We’d study the license plates to see who lives where and by then about half of them had moved off the island. About 20 years ago.

In the old days, the Steinway Street trolley — which [was] one of the last in New York —
went across the Queensboro Bridge. I used to take it…. There was a track and I could get on there and go across the bridge to Steinway Street where the factory is. So that was the great means of transit for all the local people.

We were raised in Manhattan. My trips were to the Steinway mansion mostly. It was a lovely estate. About the early 20s, I couldn’t have been more than six, seven years old, they decided to sell it and my father was designated to clean out the stuff that was there so we’d sometimes go out and I remember playing around on the then-expansive grounds. Now it’s all wire fence and all that stuff. We didn’t have any close connection to Astoria other than that. I’m the last guy that’s intimately connected with the business.

Does that make you sad?

No. It’s the normal American story. And a very good story. The guy comes over here with an idea. The family runs it. Then I sold it to CBS in ’72 and I haven’t regretted it for a minute even though CBS was going through all kinds of changes. So it’s a rather unique thing and I think it’s an American thing to be proud of because it’s gone through this typical American history of a family that was able to carry it on for a period of time, and then they put it in the hands, ultimately, of professional investors. And that’s the way to go. I’m happy with it.