Fri. Sept. 17, 2010

Interview w/Aida@PE, 9/17/10, 9:30 am
I interviewed Aida at PE as scheduled and it was good. She opened up to me as we went along. By the end of the hour, she was wanting to chat on a mor personal basis with me. As she said, this is so key with Hispanic people, i.e., relationship. She truly showed interest in my research and indicated that she loves to learn, but that English has been a long time in coming. She completes her realtor paperwork in English up pretty well herself, but the oral communications with the banks seems to be her greatest challenge.

She spends time in the library working on a library computer, now that the housing market is down. She lives alone and doesn't like to be alone too much so this is another reason why she comes to class. Nancy said at the Reference Desk to me, however, before I met up with her yesterday, that she has not been in class regularly due to (she thinks) some personal matters. Interestingly, Aida did not indicate that she had any issues per se in our interview.

She gave me several "new" ideas regarding improvements for the program. These are: to add a larger sign to put on an easel in front of the classroom each time class is in session; to keep the door of the classroom open while it's in session; to make an announcement a few minutes before class; to advertise for 1:1 ESL literacy tutors from across the street at C.V.

Interview w/Lilia@ NOR, 2:30 pm, 9/17/10 liliach46@hotmail.com
Lilia turned out to be more comprehensible than I expected. She was quite interactive and responsive towards my questions in the Adult Sceening portion of the interview. We met in the lobby at one of the little tables b/c I knew that I did not want to do a full-fledged audio-taped interview with her due to her limited English. I gave her a stamped envelope and the three essays in Spanish to do at home over the course of one week. She will mail them back. The only drawback is that she has only been attending the English Cafe for two months. But that is better than one, and I think that she will offer me some thoughtful responses.

Lilia is a well-educated mother of two grown children. She lives with her daughter and her family. Her husband is in Venezuela but they are not divorced...It sounded complicated, that they own property and cannot quite let go of their life in Venezuela entirely just yet...But that she and her husband are doing it gradually to be here with their family in South Florida.

She is trying to establish independence here and is applying for work with H&R Block as a tax preparer. The training program starts this Monday and it will be taught in both Spanish and English. She then wants to move into her own apartment. So she is very motivated and she has also only lived here for just over a year.
Follow-up questions by email:
Is she attending the Basic English class also?
Does she attend any other English class right now?
If so, what does she like about the library's (nonformal) classes verses the (formal) community school classes?