Voices of America

Longtime Cape Girardeau elementary school teacher Judy Peetz stands in front of a chalkboard and quizzes her small class of anxious students on words like mosquito, nickel and bench.

"What is a mosquito?" Peetz asks.

"It will bite you," answers one, looking down at her workbook.

Peetz looks at another and asks for the plural form of nickel, but this student struggles. So Peetz pulls out five shiny, large exaggerated coins.

"You have one nickel, but five ...?"

"Nickels," he says finally, drawing the relieved laughter of his fellow students.

Sounds like an easy class, but these students aren't like those Peetz taught during her 33 years as a school teacher at Jefferson Elementary before she retired.

These are adults from other countries who have moved to the United States recently, either to work, visit or to be with spouses who have jobs here. While their understanding of the language may be limited, they are fully aware that English is the language of employment, the language of school, the language of social mobility.

"This is not easy for them. It's very hard work and they want to get ahead," says Peetz, who now is the coordinator for the English as a Second Language Program, or ESL, at the Adult Learning Center at 301 N. Clark.

The center offers free classes three times a week that last three hours: an hour for conversation, an hour for textbook learning and an hour for creative writing. The students must be at least 16, Peetz said, and they get people from all over the world, such as Bulgaria, Japan, Russia, Philippines, Slovakia, Brazil and Mexico.

"These people want to learn English to get a job," Peetz says. "We have attorneys, teachers -- one was a nuclear physicist. They know that to get ahead in this country, they have to speak English."

Deciding to stay

Esper and Artima Aliman, an elderly couple, came to the United States three months ago from the Philippines. There they were farmers. They came here to visit their daughter and now might stay, although they speak little English.

"I want to study," Esper Aliman says. "I don't know language very much. But I want to talk to people."

Her husband wants to find work. "I want a job," Artima Aliman says. "I use what I have."

Nancy Branson, who coordinates the adult education program, says that they teach about 50 students each year since the formal classes started two years ago. Those who need extra help are provided tutors, who are volunteers.

"It's necessary for them to learn English to function in the community," Branson says. "They need to go to the grocery store and gas station and the doctor."

The ESL program, like all adult education programs, are paid for out of state and federal funds.

There are more and more immigrants coming to the United States. According to the 2000 census, the foreign-born population increased from 19.8 million in 1990 to 31.1 million in 2000. The census also reports 65 percent of foreign-born people living in the United States over the age of 5 who speak a language other than English at home speak English "very well," or "well."

Additionally, 35 percent claimed limited English proficiency, including 23 percent who spoke English "not well" and 12 percent who spoke English "not at all."

Jasmine Abdullah, who has been an English and math teacher in Malaysia for 17 years, came to America a year and a half ago because her husband wanted to attend Southeast Missouri State University. She attends the advanced course once a week.

"I wanted to know how English teachers teach here," says Abdullah, who speaks English very well, but said she struggles sometimes.

"People don't understand my accent," she says. "I know English words, but I don't know how to connect them in a sentence."

She said Americans speak fast, and she also has difficulty interpreting idioms, like "hit the road" and "easy as pie."

Inconsistent language

Peetz says learning English is difficult, especially for older students. The language, she says, is very inconsistent. For example, there is no set rule for plurals. Sometimes you add an "s" and sometimes you add "es." Other times, she says, you have to change the word entirely, like child to children.

"People may think they sound funny, but they are learning another language, and that's more than we do here in America," Peetz says. "If I asked you to say a Chinese word, your tongue's not used to saying things that way."

Tomoko Okado is a doll maker from Japan who came to America more than a year ago.

"For me, it is very difficult to listen and understand," she says. "I don't like to answer phone. I always say, 'Please speak slowly.'"

But Peetz says the class is also good for people to meet others with common interests. That's why Tomiko Fujiwara of Japan likes attending.

"I like seeing people," she says. "I have a lot of chance to speak and listen to many stories."

Some of them bring questions that are harder to answer than others.

Jasmine Abdullah, the Malaysian English teacher, poses one of the better ones: "Why do you say 'Get on the bus?' It's not IN the bus? I don't want to get on a bus."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137