Success Story: Never Too Late to Learn English

13 junio 2008

By Angelica Herrera

Two years ago, Concepción Hernandez wandered into a Michaels store in search of scrapbooking supplies. When Concepción asked an employee for help, she was dumbfounded when the employee rudely refused to help her saying, "I can't help you. I don't understand you."

"I was really embarrassed because she didn't want to help me—and I couldn't get her to understand me," Hernandez said, nervously lacing and unlacing her hands. "I didn't know how to defend myself."

Shortly after the incident at Michaels, Hernandez's husband got a third-shift job that forced her to quit her own third-shift job at a catalog printing company where she developed picture negatives. Faced with unemployment, Hernandez considered returning to her former back-breaking assembly-line jobs in chocolate factories.

"When I first got here [to Chicago ], I was young and my body could take it. But, I quickly realized, not anymore."

Realizing she had dedicated almost 20 years tending to her family and work since she arrived from San Luis Potosi , Mexico , Hernandez decided it was time to focus on herself.

"Between the kids and work, you forget about yourself and your needs," she said. "I kept telling myself, ‘Later, I'll get ahead,' but as time goes by, you realize you end up getting behind."

Determined to extinguish her fear of speaking English, Hernandez came to Erie House looking for ESL classes and ended up becoming one of Silvia Tellez's star ESL students.

Hernandez says that Tellez's creative teaching techniques have played a key role in how quickly she's picked up the English language—and the reason why she has never been bored in class these past two years. Following Tellez's encouragement, Hernandez is also taking a Computerized Numerical Control bridge class at Erie , and also joined Erie 's women's group on Wednesday nights, which discusses issues related to healthy living.

"Ultimately, I want my evening classes to serve as a means to gain more skills to find a job that doesn't involve me working in a factory—or at the very least that has a better pay and isn't as back-breaking," Hernandez said.

Shy about disclosing her age, offering only that she's over fifty, Hernandez has a message to those whom are unsure about getting out of the house because they think they're too old to start learning: "I've realized it's never too late to get started and there are no limits in what one wants to do."

Now, Hernandez proudly boasts with a confident smile that she's conquered her fear of speaking English.

"If someone says, ‘I don't understand you,' I'm going to make sure that they do, because as the saying goes, the customer is always right."