Path to college degree includes language training
Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News
For Jaime Franco, the path to a college degree contains a few extra steps.
Franco, along with his wife and young daughter, immigrated to Canada from Colombia in 2008 to escape the ongoing conflict between the country’s army and guerrilla military groups.
A former physical education teacher, Franco plans to use his knowledge of anatomy and physiology to study massage therapy at Medicine Hat College, and hopes to eventually find work in the health-care system.
But, as a non-native English speaker who’s learning the language later in life, he first had to complete the college’s English as a Second Language for Canadians program (ESLC).
"For me it's very difficult, because I am not young,” he says of learning English. “But I think the college - the people, the students, the teachers - it's nice. They are helping all the time. I have questions, I go to them."
Unlike the college’s program for international students, ESLC focuses only on immigrants and refugees. Students take courses in reading, writing, speaking and listening to English, and receive computer training.
While many students - like Franco - take ESLC so they can be eligible for the college’s degree and diploma programs,
ESLC administrator Shalla Shaharyar says some students are simply looking to expand on the language training they’ve received from organizations like Saamis Immigration.
Just under 40 students are enrolled in the program, about evenly split between part-time and full-time study. Once students complete their ESLC training they move on to academic upgrading, ensuring they have the high-school prerequisites for their college courses.
Though the program isn’t advertised much outside the college, Shaharyar says the number of new students is growing steadily each year.
“The immigrant society is very close-knit,” she explains. “It's really word of mouth. That's how people find us."
It was a friend’s recommendation that brought Sid-Ali Ibrahim to Medicine Hat College. Ibrahim, who came to Canada from Somalia 10 years ago, says he had originally tried to take ESL courses in Brooks, but kept finding classes had already filled up when he applied.
A electrician in his home country, he’s hoping to eventually move from ESLC to the college’s electrician apprenticeship program.
This will be Ibrahim’s fourth language, and while he says speaking English isn’t too difficult, the difference between the way words are spelt and pronounced can be confusing.
"I've never seen a language like English,” he says. “There are so many silent letters."
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NEWS PHOTO IAN SORENSEN Jaime Franco, a native of Colombia, completed his English as a Second Language for Canadians program at Medicine Hat College in 2009. The ESLC focuses only on immigrants and refugees and students take courses in reading, writing, speaking and listening to English, and receive computer training.
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REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA 2010 ■ Celebrating our Community — 65
53682400•03/30/10
53774900•03/30/10
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