Spanish class helps bridge language barrier

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

DAMRON

If you’re interested in learning Spanish, but more than just the few phrases needed to get by in Cancun or to order at a Mexican restaurant, Warren County Community Education has the course for you.

Offered for the sixth time, the program’s highly successful conversational Spanish course will again be taught by fluent Spanish speaker Laura Damron.

A 1999 graduate of New York University with a degree in education, Damron has accrued much experience speaking and teaching foreign languages. In addition to teaching a bilingual kindergarten class in the New York City Schools, she taught English as a Second Language in a Kenyan primary school.

Most recently she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay where she developed and used her Spanish skills to help native teachers and school administrators improve classroom learning.

Like her previous Spanish classes, the upcoming class will be for adults only and will be taught in small sections of no more than six people per section. Damron said the course is ideal for anyone needing to communicate in work situations or with the Spanish-speaking population in general.

“It’s for people who want to know how to speak and understand how the language functions. Unlike other courses it does more than teach a few words or phrases. Instead, it focuses on sentence structure so students can say what they want to say,” she said.

Like her past classes, the course will be taught in the same manner she learned the language – immersion. And while this method may sound extreme, Damron promises it’s not as bad as it might seem.

The beginning conversational Spanish course is scheduled to begin Feb. 16 and will last seven weeks. The course will contain three sections, each consisting of six people. The first section will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. The second section will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 7 p.m., while the third section will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m.

Anyone interested in learning more or registering for the course, which will be held at the Adult Learning Center adjacent to the middle school, is urged to call Damron at 473-7829. With 14 spots still available, the sessions will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis, with all others being put on a waiting list for a course set to begin in April. There is a fee for the course.