Workers learn valuable new skill: English

BLUFFDALE — David Cantor, 67, is proving that he's still young enough to learn a new language — and he's looking forward to being able to get by without an English translator.

The words come slowly — "I go to the museo," he says, saying the last word in Spanish.

Betty Christensen repeats back: "Pronounce it mew-see-uhm."

"I go to the museum."

The pronunciation's not perfect yet, but Cantor and the other students in the trailer at Bluffdale Flower Growers are learning. This is their first day of class.

Another student, Ines Fuertas, says, in English: "I want to learn English."

Then, in Spanish: "It's important in this country," plus she wants to keep up with her 13-year-old son, who's bilingual.

The five students, all from Mexico, range in age from 23 to 67. Christensen, of Canyon Rim, says she'll teach as long as the students are willing to learn. They seem to hold their own in the class, taught entirely in English.

"If we can help these people, I'm glad to be a part of it," said Christensen, one of 36 volunteers who have so far signed up for Operation Aprenda (Learn) English. The program, launched late last month, should soon be in full swing, with a goal of 100 volunteers, said Rulon T. Burton, the program's executive director.

Burton said it is designed to expose students to the English language one phrase at a time.

Students who want to learn English recruit up to 10 friends who meet once a week with a volunteer instructor, he said. They study on their own time.

The only cost is the textbook, "Instant Spanish and Ingles," which Burton wrote along with Chris Nelson.

At first, Burton said the words seem to blend together when you hear someone speaking a foreign language.

"You can't tell where one word begins," he said. "Within an hour's time, you begin to feel, to sense, here are words."

Such conversational English programs provide "immediate survival skills," said Mary Quiroz-Whisler, head of Weber State University's English as a Second Language Program.

Programs like this help people navigate the community — talk to a doctor, ask directions, make purchases at stores, she said.