Woman Sits in Son's Class All Year To Learn English

8:37 p.m. EDT, June 9, 2011
MADISON, N.C. (WGHP)—

Veneranda Lopez didn't speak English at all when she volunteered in her son's class for the first time. Now, she's getting recognition for how far she's come.

Lopez spent more than 550 hours in a second-grade class at Dillard Elementary School this year to learn English alongside her son, David.

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Luis Hernandez

"Mrs. Brewer thought she had 18 students. She actually had 19," said Sheri Prillaman, the school's ESL teacher who gave Lopez a surprise award for her dedication on Thursday.

"She not only learned to speak the language and read the language. She has taken what she's learned and helped the other children," Prillaman said.

Prillaman said it is rare for parents of ESL students to get involved.

"They feel they're not as confident in the English language, so they kind of stay away," Prillaman said.

Lopez said she was embarrassed not to know English but decided to do something about it.

"One day I said, 'I need to talk in English,' because living in the United States people need to talk in English," Lopez said.

Her teenage son, Luis Hernandez, said he used to have to translate everything for her. In fact, he was so used to translating that he was shocked during a recent experience at a restaurant.

"I saw that the waitress was coming, and then she just ordered really quick, and I was like, OK," Hernandez said.

Lopez also received an accelerated reader award for the number of books she read during the school year.

http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-woman-s ... 4411.story

There is a video at the link. You can leave comments. They deleted mine.