Mexico helps teach Spanish

The Mexican government is helping fund this program to teach N.C. immigrants their native language. Then these people will be able to learn English easier. Hopefully that government can put more money into their own schools, so there are not so many illiterates there. DP

By GIL KLEIN and SERGIO QUINTANA, Media General News Service

PotomacNews.com: DURHAM, N.C. - The immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador crowded around their teacher at St. Paul Methodist Church as she taught some basics of how to read and write.

But the eight adults weren't learning English, the language of their adopted country. They were learning Spanish, the language of the countries they left behind.

And they were learning it with the help of the Mexican government, which supplied the textbooks, helped train the teacher and provided a $15,000 grant to support the program.

"We start with the alphabet where we get students who don't know anything at all about how to read or write," said Francisca Fragoso, the teacher. "In many cases, they only know how to write their names because they know how to copy it from a piece of paper they carry around."
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