Second language a part of building community

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the Philadelphia Enquirer,  Posted on Tue, Oct. 18, 2005

Second language a part of building community
Conversational Spanish is a growing segment of the services offered by
Latino groups and the YMCA.

By Todd Mason
Inquirer Staff Writer

The mostly middle-aged students in an evening class looked like they
wanted to crawl debajo de (under) the table as their teacher began
quizzing them on prepositions. After a struggle, John Little, a freshly
promoted international sales manager, declared that he was seated al lado
(beside) Jack Trevisan, a Kennett Square police detective. Conversational
Spanish is suddenly a hot ticket across the region and the nation. Rapid
immigration and a global economy are prompting monolingual Americans to
try another tongue.

La Comunidad Hispana started an evening class in September, after Kennett
Square residents began asking the community group for help. Latinos now
constitute 27 percent of the borough's 5,300 residents. In Warminster, the
Latino Leadership Alliance of Bucks County began Spanish classes last
month. "Some of the social services agencies don't have bilingual
personnel,"  Jose Rivera, the alliance's director, said.

Similar classes have popped up in Lancaster, Reading, Gettysburg and
elsewhere, said Norman Bristol-Colon, executive director of the Governor's
Advisory Committee on Latino Affairs. Pennsylvanians are recognizing "the
need, in the workplace particularly, to understand a few words of
Spanish," Bristol-Colon said. The problem is more acute in suburban and
rural areas, where immigration is new. Latinos come for construction and
service jobs in the suburbs and agriculture jobs in the countryside. This
immigrant group "tends to be working-age adults, and men rather than
women," said Sonya Tafoya, a researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center.

They can't draw on bilingual Latinos, as they might if they moved to
established communities in urban areas, Tafoya said. What's more, they
have more interaction with Americans who can't speak Spanish. The Alliance
in Bucks and La Comunidad in Kennett Square teach English to Latinos, and
help them with health care and other services. Latinos in exurban areas
work harder to fit in, said Isidoro Gonzalez Jr., La Comunidad's executive
director. "There is a lot more to pick up faster," he said. "It forces
people to assimilate."

Kennett Square has been willing to help. The YCMA of Brandywine Valley
also offers Spanish classes to adults and preschool children. "We have
really worked on building community," YMCA director Denise Day said. "It
was important to learn Spanish so we could be more welcoming." Employees
reached the same conclusion at Genesis HealthCare Corp., said Lisa
Salamon, a spokeswoman for the nursing home chain based in Kennett Square.
Employees who run a mentoring program for Latino children want Genesis to
help them learn Spanish so they can be more effective, she said.

Immigration critics find fault with this "creeping institutional
bilingualism," as Peter Brimelow described it. A second language adds
costs for businesses and governments and raises economic barriers for the
majority who can't speak it, said Brimelow, editor of Vdare.com, an
anti-immigration Web site. Mihaela Fulga, a legal secretary, spoke to the
advantage of being bilingual before class began at La Comunidad Hispana.
"If you are bilingual, you get more money," she said.

Clara Saxton, a Kennett Square business owner, described her interest in
Spanish as a sense of civic duty. "It will help if people can learn to
talk together," she said. Frank Rivas, a Downingtown lawyer, said he was
surprised at a conference in the Netherlands to see how easily Europeans
switch languages. "It's really embarrassing," he said. The Bucks Alliance
recently found a way to use fumbling to its advantage.  The community
group brought a class of Latinos struggling with English to Bristol High
School to meet students wrestling with Spanish.

Latino students asked for the meeting, said Rivera, the Alliance's
director. "They said they wanted more conversational opportunities" in
English.

Spanish Classes

La Comunidad Hispana Inc., Kennett Square. A 10-week class costs $120.
Call Paul Schroeder at 610-444-8308.

Latino Leadership Alliance of Bucks County, classes in Warminster. A
six-week class costs $60. Call Carmen Adler, 215-444-0175.

Kennett Area YMCA. An eight-week class costs $32 or $64, depending on Y
membership level. Call Lenda Carillo, 610-444-9622.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/12929807.htm