Students offer free language classes on campus

Jorge Flores stands in front of his class late Monday night, holding his notes he had worked on the week before. After drawing out the letter R and explaining how it is pronounced in Spanish, he points to a girl in the back row. “ERE?” the girl struggles not to roll her tongue. “Ere.”

“Perfect!” Flores tells her.

Three walls of whiteboards surround the small class that gather together Mondays and Wednesdays in the basement of the school library. Flores points to each of them one at a time so they can practice pronunciation. Everyone partakes with little hesitation. When Flores points to the board everyone speaks at once.

“My favorite part of the class is all the participation,” Flores said. “Lots of students aren’t scared to speak when I point at them.”

Flores was raised in Honduras (he earlier taught his class that the H is silent) but always wanted to learn about the United States. When an opportunity presented itself to learn at Chadron State he took it.

The thought of teaching other students his native language occurred to him last semester but he didn’t have the means to act on it.

“There wasn’t any structure last year,” Flores said. “I wanted to make it more formal.”

This semester he teamed up with the International Club. They helped him acquire a space to teach and attract students. French and Chinese classes are also taught through the International Club. Chinese is being taught by Sophia Zhang, 18, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. Meanwhile, French is being taught Arby Ghemari, 25, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sunday nights.

“The first class had about fifteen but I think over time we will have around ten,” Flores said. “I prefer small classes because I like the one-on-one time.”

Student Caleb Wiggins reports that he loves the one-on-one time as well.

“I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish,” Wiggins said. “I hope to be able to  communicate at a basic level by the end of the course.”

Flores’s goal is to teach all the students how to create, say, and understand simple sentences in Spanish. Each week he has to prepare his own outlines for the course, as well as his teaching plans. This comes on top of being a student at the college as well.

“Teaching the alphabet is easy. Later in the course it’s just going to get harder,” Fores said. “It’s one thing to grow up with the language and knowing all the rules. It’s a completely different thing to teach it. It’s like I have to re-learn it myself.”

While the class is free and non-credit Flores loves teaching it.

“I’d be lying if I said I did this all for the students. I’m learning too.”  Fores said. “And if I ever want to apply in a masters program, this course will be good for my resume.”

By re-learning his own language, figuring out lesson plans, and building his resume, Flores considers himself still a student in the art of teaching.

“I think I’m a bit of a boring person as a teacher,” Flores said. “I need to learn to be more fun.”

Meanwhile Wiggins states he thinks the class has fun as it is.

“Everyone is always laughing and having a good time,” Wiggins said.

Back in the classroom Monday night, Flores tells the class to say “Butter” over and over as fast as they can to help them roll their tongues. The class is filled with students chanting “Butta butta butta” under their breath and laughing. Half of class time involves students giggling at their own untrained tongues while openly encouraging others to try.

“Another favorite part of the class,” Flores said, “is watching people who actively want to learn. Their want to learn is encouraging. It keeps me going.”