{"id":21456,"date":"2024-09-18T01:11:29","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T07:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=21456"},"modified":"2024-09-16T15:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T21:16:02","slug":"library-works-to-bridge-language-barriers-in-blaine-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/18\/library-works-to-bridge-language-barriers-in-blaine-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Library Works To Bridge Language Barriers In Blaine County"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Monica Carrillo<\/em><\/p>\n

Just last week, a native Spanish speaker and newcomer to the Wood River Valley stopped by the Hailey Public Library for the weekly Conversational English class.<\/p>\n

And by the end of the class he was able to answer almost all of the questions for that night\u2019s lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a great accent. I was like, \u2018You studied English,\u2019 but no, he said no. I really doubted him, because he\u2019s a linguist,\u201d said Elizabeth Jeffery, tutor and leader of the Climate Action Coalition.<\/p>\n

For the past three years, the Hailey Public Library has been offering weekly free English tutoring classes, or Tutoria in Spanish, alongside Conversational English classes back-to-back for the Hispanic\/Latino community who want to improve their English skills.<\/p>\n

Kristin Fletcher, the library\u2019s programs and engagement manager, said the first year, on average, they saw 10 to 12 people attending the classes and had help from tutors, like Jeffery, to steer the class.<\/p>\n

However, the amount of people soon grew after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second and third years were the years that there were so many people coming into our community. I mean, you know, almost by the hundreds,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cI heard one time, and like, in a period of a week or two, there were 200 or 300 people who had arrived in our community, and that\u2019s when our numbers really swelled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fletcher said that most people that attend are newcomers, although there are some who sporadically attend who have lived in the Valley 10 to 30 years who still struggle to speak English.<\/p>\n

She also said they don\u2019t test the students weekly to track progress due to the varying levels of English comprehension in the class. However, she has observed that, regardless of their initial understanding\u2014whether strong or limited\u2014each student leaves with an improved grasp of the language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of the niche that we serve, that people can come and go as it fits,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cOur classes start at six and sometimes people work until seven in the summer because they\u2019re in construction or landscaping, they just can\u2019t come, and so it just opens a little wider door for people to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the latest Census Bureau by Sun Valley Economic Development, Hispanic residents now make up 23.4% of Blaine County\u2019s population\u2014up from 10.7% in 2000.<\/p>\n

And in the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs\u2019 latest data profile book, it reports at least 34% of that population speaks little to no English, making this program a crucial step in bridging the language barrier gap.<\/p>\n

In addition, Fletcher said that someone who avidly would check out books in the library, went up to her about a year and a half ago about doing an English\/Spanish language exchange\u2014also known as an intercambio, in Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had taken some Spanish, she was doing online Spanish, and one of the things they offered was this intercambio,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cAnd so she was doing intercambio with somebody in Colombia or someplace, and she said it\u2019s wonderful, but she\u2019d like to do it in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo she asked if the library would be interested and I\u2019m like, \u2018Sure.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Fletcher said although it was a rough start they usually have about six native Spanish and English speakers who attend the weekly sessions to practice language skills with each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives both the native Spanish speakers a chance to practice English in a real conversational setting, and it gives English language speakers a chance to practice their Spanish in a conversational setting,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

The Hailey Public Library has officially started up the classes again after pausing briefly for the summer and will have multiple events for the Hispanic community as Hispanic Heritage Month begins.<\/p>\n

Intercambio is from 6 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, while the conversational English class is taught by tutor Leonardo Padilla Sacha from 6 to 7 p.m. on Fridays. The English tutoring classes are from 5 to 6 p.m. on Fridays, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany are just coming directly from working to two and a half hours of English,\u201d Jeffery said. \u201cIt\u2019s commitment; it\u2019s really impressive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Monica Carrillo Just last week, a native Spanish speaker and newcomer to the Wood River Valley stopped by the Hailey Public Library for the weekly Conversational English class. And by the end of the class he was able to answer almost all of the questions for that night\u2019s lesson. \u201cHe had a great accent. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,74,78,168,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-community","7":"category-education","8":"category-hailey","9":"category-latinx","10":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21457,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21456\/revisions\/21457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}