Forming friendships along with sentences:
ESOL class has many cultures, common goal

Naim Memetaj is a veterinarian from Albania who speaks three languages. Maria Ntongono-Azumu, fluent in Spanish and French, is working toward a career in international business. Civil engineer Alfonso Palacios, originally from Peru, managed a company in Paraguay and co-owns a commercial farm. Fellow Spanish-speaker Eva Bonilla worked as a nurse in her native Puerto Rico. Before he came to the U.S., Nosratulla Novrozi resettled from Afghanistan to Moscow and worked as a technician manufacturing dental devices.

Yet despite all of their linguistic savvy and professional accomplishments, weekday mornings find these individuals in a downtown Albany classroom focusing intently on one very key subject: English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). Barbara Philipson, of the Capital Region BOCES Adult Education program, teaches more than a dozen adults from just about as many countries how to speak, listen, comprehend, read and write English and about our nation's history and culture. And that's not all.

"The most important thing I teach my students is to respect and honor differences in behaviors, beliefs and customs, Philipson related. "Our country was founded on the principle of inclusion for all peoples. And it's a personal class," she added. "It can be difficult coming to a strange place needing friends and understanding. There's a feeling of connectedness, of caring, kindness and friendship here. We try our very, very best to get to know each other. When you share friendship, your heart feels calmer and safer."

Student Alfonso Palacios, who relocated to Albany to be with his fiancée, agrees. "I've been in the U.S. for three weeks," he said. "Before, I didn't speak any English. Now, my family is my class and my teacher is my kid!"

Philipson is as excited about learning as she is about teaching. "The primary thing my students have taught me is patience," she notes. Her enthusiasm is infectious.

"To make us understand, Barbara explains things again, and again, and again!" Maria Ntongono-Azumu, of Equitorial Guinea, Africa, said with a laugh.

"Our teacher doesn't tire! For three hours she stands and talks, writes and reads," said Fanije Memetaj, who's studying ESOL with her husband, Naim. They came to the U.S., Naim explained, "to offer opportunity for a better life for our children," and so he can once again work as a veterinarian. He is currently employed as a pizza cook.

"I'm proud that I came here to learn and that Barbara is my teacher," said Laila Qodir, a native of Kabul. "In Afghanistan, education is not [permitted] for women." While illiterate in her native language of Farsi, Qodir began teaching herself English before she even arrived in the U.S. "Reading, writing and speaking are important for everyone to find a good job and solve a lot of problems," she stressed. "English is the international language: you can go to other countries and use it."

While Philipson's students came to the U.S. for a variety of reasons - family, school, political asylum, romance - all have found the class vital to functioning day-to-day in American society. "When I came here, I couldn't go to the supermarket, bank and post office, and now I do," related So Ra Yang, who emigrated this spring from Seoul, Korea, with her husband, a University at Albany student.

China native Zhu Ying Lin has just begun learning English after having to sell the restaurant she and her husband owned and operated in Albany for more than a dozen years. She is no longer self-employed, and learning English is a necessity.

ESOL classes can be challenging, but Fanije Memetaj summarized it well. "For integration into American life, it is important that you speak well."

The BOCES Adult Education program offers both day and evening ESOL classes, at no cost to students, year-round in several locations throughout the Capital Region. For more information, contact Pam Constantino at (518) 862-4707.

ESOL and BOCES Adult Education Teacher Barbara Philipson works on an English grammar lesson with Nosratulla Novrozi, who is originally from Afghanistan and also lived in Moscow.

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