Most immigrants know they need English to succeed here, many simply can not find the time to study the way they have to. This story is about some people who have managed to keep studying. DP
By Judy Chia Hui Hsu, Seattle Times staff reporter
seattletimes.com: Israel Alvarez's days once dawned long before the sun inched over the horizon. By 4 a.m. the bachelor was hauling away heaps of cardboard boxes from a downtown Chicago chicken-packing plant where everyone spoke only Spanish. And after a 12-hour shift, he would drag his weary body to evening ESL classes.
Alvarez came from Mexico with one goal in mind: to earn enough money to propose to his girlfriend. Like many students of English juggling school and work, he soon abandoned the class to tend to other responsibilities.
A few years later, Alvarez — now a married SeaTac resident — re-enrolled in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at his sister-in-law's insistence. This time, he stuck with it.
By showing up night after night, Alvarez made a gradual improvement in English that has enabled him to reshape the course of his life. Today, his full-time construction foreman's job with benefits supports his wife, two kids and their two-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac.
Alvarez knows how he got here: Two nights a week, for three years, he attended the advanced ESL class at Bow Lake Elementary School.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
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