English classes help immigrants assimilate

Proficiency in language
helps students get along

VERONICA YANKOWSKI Yolanda Villasenov studies an English as a Second Language lesson during class at the Clifton Avenue Grade School, Lakewood.

at jobs and in U.S. society

By Joyce Blay

Staff Writer

LAKEWOOD — Ask a cosmopolitan jet-setter where to find the crossroads of the world and he or she may respond that it is in New York City, London or Tokyo. But any immigrant to Lakewood will tell you that the true center of humanity can be found weeknights from 6-8 p.m. in Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg’s English as a Second Language classes held at the Clifton Avenue Grade School. And Weisberg would agree.

Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg (l) congratulates Maurice Marcelin upon his graduation from the English as a Second Language course offered in Lakewood.

"The most wonderful thing you can do is help someone develop themselves," he told a visitor to the class a week before the students graduated from the three-month course. "In the United States, English is the passport to success."

Although Weisberg oversees the program, it was the brainchild of Ada Gonzalez, 52, its coordinator. In September 2001, she first approached Weisberg, 48, her director at Job Link, for help in getting her inspiration off the ground.

"I am the bilingual recruiter for Job Link, a division of the Lakewood Devel-opment Corporation, which oversees the town’s Urban Enterprise Zone," said Gonzalez, explaining her connection to the program. "It was through my work getting jobs for Hispanic clients that I realized how limited their opportunities were for getting good jobs, not just assembly line jobs, without English language skills. We needed ESL classes, but more than the two-day-a-week classes being offered by St. Francis or the one-day-a-week class offered by the library. What can you learn one day a week?"

Gonzalez said she told the rabbi how badly Lakewood’s immigrants needed intensive classes in English in order to achieve their dreams of prosperity in their adopted country. She also suggested a three-tier program offering basic, intermediate and advanced English language classes.

VERONICA YANKOWSKI Jese Zuniga (r) and Saul Paz listen to a lesson during an English as a Second Language class at the Clifton Avenue Grade School, Lakewood.

"Not everyone is at the same level, and if you put them all in the same classroom, some may be bored," said Gonzalez. "So you have to place them where they belong."

Literacy in their newfound language is also a part of the program since some students are not even able to read or write in their native tongue. Mastery of English is not just a source of pride for those who conquer its linguistic challenge, but for those who teach them to do it, too.

The program’s current crop of instructors includes Angela Ramirez, 21, a second-year education major at Ocean County College, Toms River, who is originally from Bogota, Colombia. She hopes to transfer to Georgian Court College, Lakewood, next year to continue her own studies. Her students are enrolled in one of the two basic-level ESL classes.

"The hardest thing [about learning English] is to overcome your inhibition," she said.

VERONICA YANKOWSKI Rosalba Alarcon instructs an English as a Second Language course that draws a full classroom in Lakewood.

Rosalba Alarcon, 45, a bilingual special education teacher at Atlantic City High School, teaches the other basic ESL class. She is pursuing her master’s degree in ESL at Georgian Court College.

The two basic classes have the largest enrollment of any of the levels, with 60 students each.

Elizabeth Monge, whose family is from Spain, teaches grades two to five at the Land O’ Pines School in Howell. She instructs the intermediate ESL class. One of her students, Dina Roubinch, 65, is a Russian woman who hesitatingly attempts to speak English with a visitor. As she shyly begins to answer a question, then haltingly gropes for the words in English that elude her, Gonzalez suggests an answer and her face lights up with happiness."Yes," she responds delightedly. "Yes, that is it."

A resident of the Eleanor Levovitz Senior Citizen Apartments in Lakewood for the past three years, Roubinch has been enrolled in the ESL program for the past year. However, explained Gonzalez, unlike many others in the class, her goal at that age is not to gain employment, but something equally important.

"She wants to be able to understand her doctor ... [instead] of waiting for a translator," said Gonzalez.

Janet Sneed, 53, a teacher in Spanish I at Lacey High School, teaches the advanced ESL class Tuesday and Thursday. Jose Gonzales, who teaches Spanish at the Lakewood Middle School, is also an ESL instructor at the Lakewood Community School.

Gonzalez said the advanced level, which is where students who already have a college education from their own country are placed, is equal to a seventh-grade class in English. If the student needs higher education than that level, she refers them to Ocean County College.

She said that out of the 125 graduates in the most recent class, 47 got raises or jobs as a result of their participation in the program, and 12 were preparing for an entrance test in a specific field, usually as a home health aide.

When the last class is held on June 5, classes will next be held on Sept. 15 since classrooms are not air-conditioned for summer use. Lakewood Superintendent of Schools Ernest Cannava donates the use of classroom space to the program during the year.

Although classes are free, with the Lakewood Development Corporation providing some of the program’s funding and other organizations contributing as well, enrollment is growing, and so is the need for money to hire more teachers."We started this program on a shoestring," said Gonzalez. "This particular round, we have four classes, but we need two more teachers."

Weisberg shares her concern.

"We weren’t sure last year if we would be able to pay the teachers’ salaries, so they went out and asked for donations," said Weisberg. "So now you see why we need funding."

Despite crowded classrooms, Weisberg is just as committed as Gonzalez to providing eager students with the language skills they need to succeed in their ambitions.

"Once we get the word out, people come to register and you don’t want to turn them away," he said. "They just turn up on the first day of class. The motivation is there."

Motivation is also the reason many find the stamina to attend evening classes after a long day at work, said Gonzalez, but the rewards are worth it.

"You should see their faces beaming because they’re able to have a conversation," said Gonzalez. "They come in with their heads held down, and when they leave, they hold their heads up high. It makes a difference. They feel so much better about themselves."

That spirit was in evidence one week later, when all four classes gathered in the school’s cafeteria for a festive graduation ceremony on March 26. In attendance were Mayor Marta Harrison and state Sen. Robert Singer, both members of the Lakewood Township Committee, as well as Weisberg and Gonzalez.

Amid clusters of red, white and blue balloons that festooned long rows of tables, throngs of students of all nationalities conversed in a rising chorus of accents as they chatted in excited anticipation.

After Gon-zalez introduced the dignitaries in attendance, one by one they rose to address the group. First to speak was Singer.

"You are very, very special people," he said. "You made a commitment to learn a new language, to speak it, to write it. You’re marked for success."

No less praiseworthy of their combined efforts was Harrison. She singled out not only the students, but also Gonzalez.

"Ada put together this program, and it’s exactly what she envisioned," said Harrison. "Today is your graduation, and you should be proud because I am proud of you."

As Weisberg began to hand out the certificates to each graduate, husband and wife Maurice and Marie Marcelin, both 36, watched from their vantage point at one of the tables, where they spoke to a visitor.

Maurice, who speaks French and Creole, said he had attended the advanced ESL class in order to improve his proficiency in English. Those skills would enable him to do well in the required classes he needs to become an electrical engineer in the United States as he had been in his native Haiti.

"The high school referred us here," said Marie, as she explained how her husband came to be enrolled in the program from which he was now graduating.

At that moment, Maurice heard his name announced and he rose from his seat to receive his certificate amid the din of whistles, hoots and bravos called out by those in the room applauding his accomplishment. Striding quickly over to Weisberg, the two men smiled as the rabbi clasped his hand and shook it.