Trying to master English
Gueillermina Lopez, left, and Ubaldo Sanchez, scond from left, work through a book with volunteer tutor Pat Kesnek and ESL coordinator Kris Drach. Free English as a Second Language classes are taught at Fairhill Manor Christian Church in Washington every Wednesday.
Asami Mariana, left, and Mahvash Schdrif Razi go through a workbook at Fairhill Manor Christian Church in Washington.
Tutor Sandy Todaro helps Mahvash Schdrif Razi read through an educational newspaper to learn correct pronunciation of words during an ESL class at Fairhill Manor Christian Church on Wednesday, October 2.
Trying to master “there,” “they’re” and “their” can be tough even for native English speakers. For a non-English speaker, it can be as hopelessly confusing as being let loose in the Beijing subway when you don’t know a whit of Mandarin Chinese.
On Wednesdays at Washington’s Fairhill Manor Christian Church, a group of adults from around the area, all fairly recent immigrants, are trying to wrap their minds around “they’re,” “there” and “their,” as well as all the other puzzles of our mother tongue. They’re participating in English as a Second Language classes at the church that are sponsored by the Literacy Council of Southwestern Pennsylvania and, so far, about 50 students have enrolled between the Washington location and the John K. Tener Library in Charleroi.
According to coordinator Kris Drach, those are the only free ESL courses being offered in Washington County.
“We have a need all over the county,” said Drach, a retired U.S. Army colonel who settled on a Greene County farm after wandering the world in the armed forces. “We are grossly underserving the need in Washington County … English is a living, vibrant language, but it’s very difficult to learn.”
When Drach started the classes two years ago, she initially enrolled just four students. Within a year, the number had increased to 14, and it ballooned in the 12 months after that to its current total. The program subsists on grants, and its annual cost comes to about $3,000 to $4,000 for the materials students, teachers and tutors use and a babysitter to watch children while their parents are in class.
Though the Pittsburgh area has been slow to catch up with the influx of immigrants that other American cities have seen in recent years, the pace is starting to increase, with Latino immigrants leading the way. Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania is one of many organizations offering English as a Second Language classes, and “our numbers are definitely up,” said Michael Johnson, the manager of Goodwill’s ESL programs.
Frank Palo, who oversees ESL classes for Intermediate Unit 1, the educational agency that serves Washington, Greene and Fayette counties, said his enrollment numbers have also seen an uptick and “I think the gas industry is bringing people in.”
The classes Drach oversees are English-immersion, the linguistic equivalent of being tossed into the deep end of the swimming pool. On a recent Wednesday morning, students from Iran, Japan, Mexico and other points on the globe were being put through their paces in one of Fairhill Manor’s classrooms. Because of their divergent backgrounds and different native languages, English was their lingua franca. “They must speak English in order to understand one another,” Drach explained.
All those enrolled were women, and many were motivated to strengthen their grasp of English thanks to young children who are quickly picking up English from friends or their classrooms and, according to Drach, they want to keep up.
Perhaps no better example is Asami Mariana, who recently came to Canonsburg from Hawaii with her husband. A native of Tokyo, Mariana was able to easily interact with members of the large Japanese community in Hawaii and readily partake of television programs and movies from back home. However, there was no comfortable cocoon of Japanese language and culture she could escape into when she came to the continental United States, particularly in Southwestern Pennsylvania, where the population of Japanese natives is negligible.
“I stayed home,” said Mariana. “I was scared. I didn’t open the door. But I have two kids and now I need to speak English. I need to speak to school moms and school teachers. That’s why I came here.”
Classes go through an assortment of exercises, centering around word use and grammar, some points of which native speakers no longer even think about because they use them so frequently. Tutors are available for students just finding their way through English or who need additional assistance.
“It makes my day,” said Kathy Moninger-Ford, a Lone Pine resident and tutor. Drach explained that more tutors are needed as the classes continue to grow.
The exercises students participate in deal with word use and reading comprehension. One handout given to students recently told the story of “Donna and George” who live in Washington and have two children. The students are then asked a series of questions about details that are outlined in the story, such as what they do for a living, their ages and the names of their children.
The point when individuals students “graduate” from the program is entirely determined by their needs. Some hope to be able to carry conversations with more fluency, while others must master English to get a job, a driver’s license or further their education. And while anyone who ever tried to learn French, Spanish or German as adults in a college classroom can tell you how knotty it can be, Drach feels a great sense of personal satisfaction when she sees students coming to comprehend our complex language.
“It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she said. “To watch these students go from confusion to understanding English, it’s really rewarding.”