Computers help migrants learn English

Kris Hill

Saturday, Sept. 30, 2000 | 9:07 a.m.

Computers

Catholic Charities refugees 14 and older may use the 10 computers in the lab Monday through Thursday. No appointments are needed. Call 693-6761.

Don't let the run-down exterior of Hampton Court apartments on Swenson Street deceive you.

The complex is home to more than the families who live there. Behind the door of Apartment 125 is a new computer lab.

Open since last week, it is the newest addition to Catholic Charities' Migration and Refugee Services program.

Refugees from Bosnia, China and Pakistan are among those who use the computer lab. Many of the participants speak little English and know even less about computers.

Those in the immigrant program receive help in three areas: job development, general needs and learning English.

Catholic Charities helps new arrivals find homes, often an apartment at Hampton Court.

Because many of the refugees live in or near the complex, the charity puts classrooms to teach English as a second language (ESL) in converted apartments. The agency requires those it helps to take the language courses. The computer lab was the logical next step, so the charity sought a grant to get it off the ground.

One of the lab's first customers, Alma Hadzic, is so interested in learning English and computers that she spent three hours playing with the language software during her initial visit, according to Lyn Pizor, the lab's computer specialist.

Hadzic moved to Las Vegas two months ago with her husband and two sons, ages 7 and 3, from Germany. The family had lived there for eight years after fleeing a civil war in Bosnia.

The 30-year-old is already fluent in German and Serbian and has more than a passing interest in learning English: She wants to learn the language well enough to become a teacher.

Hadzic, Pizor said, is "very motivated."

The computers are equipped with software that help non-native students learn languages through listening, reading, speaking and writing. Students can learn how to type on the computers, and soon will have access to the Internet and their own e-mail accounts.

"English is completely foreign," Hadzic said, stumbling slightly over the newly acquired words.

Her children make it difficult, she said, to improve her language skills. "I have very little time" because of her sons, who she says want play with her when she wants to study.

She and her husband split child-care duties so that if one is in class or working in the computer lab, the other is at home watching the children.

Neither currently has a job, but they are hoping that as their English improves, so will their prospects.

"I like the computers," Hadzic said. "It's very good for me."

In the future, Pizor hopes to offer computer-based ESL classes and one-on-one tutoring.