Thread: Adult Literacy League helps mother learn English

Bridging the language gap

Adult Literacy League helps mother learn English

Beth Kassab | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 8, 2006



In her native Bosnia, Natasa Brnjos was a college-educated religion teacher who supported her husband's work as an Orthodox Serbian priest and cared for her three young children.

When Brnjos moved to the United States two years ago so her husband could take the reins at St. Petka Serbian Orthodox Church in Longwood, the busy teacher and mother was suddenly paralyzed in a world dominated by English.

She could not read or write well enough to teach here or even help her own children with their homework.

"In the beginning, my children were crying" as they adjusted to their new school, said Brnjos, 31. "I couldn't help them."

Today her English skills have improved so dramatically that she will enroll in classes at Seminole Community College in January with a goal of becoming a math teacher in the local school district.

She recently finished the popular American novel Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. And she is finally able to keep tabs on the schoolwork of her 10- and 8-year-olds.

"Every day I'm helping them and reading their homework and trying to be in touch," she said of her children, who are both on the honor roll.

It was all made possible, she said, by the Adult Literacy League Inc., one of the agencies that benefits from the Orlando Sentinel Family Fund Holiday Campaign, which through donations supports the league's mission of helping adults learn to read and write.

"She has improved in every single area of the language," said her tutor Biljana Scepanovic, 54, who also speaks Serbian.

The two met in public libraries for two years to go over grammar, spelling and pronunciation.

"She was really persistent, willing to attend every class," Scepanovic said.

Brnjos is one of about 700 students this year at the Adult Literacy League, where a little more than half the students share in her struggle to become literate in English as their second language. The students speak more than 20 languages and represent 37 countries.

About 40 percent of the students are native English speakers who never learned to read and write, said Joyce Whidden the league's executive director.

Often, English speakers who cannot read and write as adults suffered from long childhood illnesses or have learning disabilities that were never diagnosed.

Others, Whidden said, moved frequently as children, causing them to miss school for extended periods of time.

"The really basic fact is only literate parents can raise literate children," Whidden said.

She said the agency is in need of supplies as well as volunteers.

"It's really hard to tell someone you're going to have to wait three or more months for a tutor," she said.

Brnjos said she is relieved to finally be comfortable enough with English to eventually shed her role as a student and become a teacher again.

She hopes the college classes she is scheduled to start next month continue to increase her comfort with the language, Brnjos said.

In the meantime, she is volunteering as a Sunday-school teacher at her family's church and goes over lessons with her youngest son to prepare him to start kindergarten next year.

"I have a goal in front of me to be a teacher here, as I was in my country," she said.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/edu ... n-highered

Just love a good story where immigrants really try so hard to be a part of this country.

I assume this lady is a legal immigrant because she definitely has an interest in assimiliating and giving back to the country - unlike most of the illegals pouring in who are only interested in what America can do for them!

Yep.....a legal one. Isn't that grand?! I just like the story because it was so nice to read a positive one. I was amazed at how many different languages were spoken and here we have this "bi-lingual" doo da going on with Spanish......irks me to no end. Like no other immigrant group doesn't have to face those challenges.