Sunday, April 05, 2009

Friendship buds through citizenship mentoring

Immigrants and tutors work hard together to learn English and pass the citizenship test and become friends in the process. - - Donna Poisl

Boulder County group first to offer one-on-one tutors

By Amy Bounds

Alejandro Saldana was so nervous about communicating with his limited and shaky English that he often didn't want to leave his Lafayette house after moving here from Mexico two years ago.

"I was afraid to go to the grocery store," he said. "It was hard to be at barbecues and parties and not be able to communicate. It's really frustrating when you want to talk and you cannot."

So he signed up for one-on-one English classes through the Boulder County nonprofit Intercambio de Comunidades, initially meeting tutor Jack Ringel in a bookstore. As a friendship developed, they began meeting at Saldana's home and recently became one of the first Intercambio pairs to add studying for an American citizenship test to their language lessons.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

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