County provides free classes for employees to learn Spanish

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 9:42 a.m.

Community College of Southern Nevada adjunct faculty member Jose Perez had just finished telling his students that Spanish was a lot easier to learn than English.

"The first thing you need to know," he said," is 'mas despacio.' That's Spanish for 'slower, please.' "

The 16 students looked up from their textbooks, titled, "Spanish for Gringos."

The class was conversational Spanish, and the students, ranging in age from 28 to 68, were all Clark County employees.

The class began in May. It meets twice a week and will finish next month after 16 sessions. It's the county's attempt to deal with the valley's growing Hispanic population, which increased from 82,904 to 302,000 in the last decade, causing many unexpected daily challenges for county employees, as well as lowered efficiency.

Lynnea Barajas, 28, is a receptionist at the public defender's office and one of the 30 students in the class. She said that about six out of every 10 persons that come through the doors of her office are Hispanic.

This places her in a curious dilemma because most of these Hispanics mistake her for a Hispanic, while the only other receptionist, who is Cuban, has features that cause the same clients to assume that she is from the United States.

"So clients are constantly speaking to me in Spanish, and I'm at a loss to help them," she said.

She recently lost almost a half-hour of her time when her Cuban colleague was on vacation. A man came to her office by mistake; he really needed to reach the constable's office.

"I kept listening for words like 'abogado,' which is the Spanish word for 'lawyer,' " she said. The receptionist finally had to seek help from a Spanish-speaking person from another department.

Steve Roll, who oversees the class from the county's Human Resources Department, said that this is a typical example of the loss of time in an English-speaking worker's day that occurs in many county agencies.

Alfonza Fleming does plumbing and electricity work for the Clark County Detention Center. At 68, he is the oldest student in the class.

He said many of the jail inmates are Hispanic and that he finds it hard to understand when something is not working in their cells, since they can't explain to him in English.

Rachelle Resnick, 36, manages the Family Law Self-Help Center. She said about 20 percent of the 5,000 clients who visit her office every month are Hispanic. And though she has three bilingual receptionists, they are sometimes too busy to help translate for her. Then she loses time.

"This is frustrating," she said.

Roll said this first class will not be the last, and that another group of beginning-level students will be enrolled in October. Classes may expand at some point to include higher levels.

The classes are free and taken on a volunteer basis.

As for those who say that the influx of Hispanics should be learning English, instead of spending Clark County funds on Spanish classes, Roll said, "I think if someone immigrates to our country, it's a fine goal to assimilate and learn English.

"But the reality is that our county has a lot of Spanish-speaking customers right now, and we need to serve them."