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It is Halloween at Palo Alto Adult School and Marta is dressed for the occasion in long black robes and a three-foot witch’s hat.
“Oh Marta, I love those shoes,” teacher Elizabeth Bales-Stutes exclaims.
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Before replying, Marta appears confused. She moves her lips first to form the words, then measures them out.
“Yes, my step-daughter bought them,” Marta replies.
Marta, an elderly Eastern European woman, smiles.
She has performed her first task correctly. “ESL Advanced Low,” Bales-Stutes writes slowly on the board, signaling the class had begun.
English as a Second Language (ESL), the Palo Alto Adult School’s most popular class, attracts a variety of foreign students and immigrants like Marta. The class convenes each Monday and Wednesday night on the Palo Alto High School campus and aims to provide students with a better grasp of English, teaching the adults a variety of speaking, reading comprehension and cultural lessons.
As the class transitions to an opening identification exercise, Alfredo, a Mexican student, tentatively asks another Hispanic named Marta, her name and country of origin.
“I know Marta is from Guatemala.”
Marta laughs, as her native country of El Salvador was clearly written on her name card.
“No,” Marta says.
“Mexico?”
“No.”
“El Salvador?”
Japan, Mexico, El Salvador, Russia and China each had representatives in class that Halloween night.
In general, the students of ESL come from across the globe, as they are attracted to Palo Alto’s unique educational and vocational opportunities.
“Nearly all cultures can come together here,” ESL Coordinator Ann Cartier said. “You see grandfathers coming so they can connect to their English-speaking grandchildren and those who need English for work.”
Many students in the class come from Stanford University or have college degrees, Bales-Stutes said. Masato, from Japan, is a traveling scholar. Izabella, from Russia, is an epidemiologist. Students vary in culture and class, whereas outside Palo Alto’s unique program, the students are commonly Latino and working-class.
Palo Alto attracts a unique mix, according to Cartier. Despite the differing origins, all students come equipped with a unifying desire to learn English.
For Robert Mandujano, who does maintenance for apartments on Sand Hill Road and is the father of two Paly students, ESL has taught him how to communicate more effectively. He says he has always felt a distance to overcome because of his language barrier.
“I deal with new people and I’d like my talking to be better, with etiquette, with nice English,” Mandujano said. “Not ‘yes,’ ‘no.’ To improve myself. I think people without English, they understand I am from another country and they know I’m making the effort.”
His children support him in his classes, Mandujano said. He has a sense of pride in his taking classes on his own volition and believes his children see that he is going to adult school and are proud.
“Sometimes we’re driving by school and they stop and say, ‘That’s my school,’ and I say, ‘Hey that’s my school too,’” Mandujano said. “We can challenge each other, like ‘I work harder in my school.’”
The adults’ effort is substantial. Across the classroom, cultural barriers break down to answer simple English questions.
Students can stay the whole seven-level ESL course, beginning in literacy, for those unfamiliar with the alphabet, and progress to rigid, advanced classes.
“There’s a student here in ESL who has moved up all the way from literacy,” Bales-Stutes said. “She’s from Mexico and probably has had six years of schooling in her life.”
Cartier finds a common purpose and drive in teaching adult students.
“They seem more disciplined and motivated,” Cartier said. “They come to class because it’s their choice. They know they want to be here.”
ESL is run by the state and is, along with Parent Education, one of the only free class offered at the Adult School.
Along with its free tuition for ESL, Adult School does not require students to live in the Palo Alto Unified School District and its teachers are given more independence than most teachers, Palo Alto Adult School Principal Kara Rosenberg said.
The Palo Alto Adult School does not only offer English language classes but other classes as well.
The other free class is Parent Education, which allows for parents to sit in on low-level classes with their sons and daughters to gain insight on the educational system and how to teach their children.
After opening the class, Bales-Stutes started to teach idioms, keeping with the Halloween theme.
“What does it mean to give someone the creeps?” Bales-Stutes asked.
The students sat silently and uncomfortably, looking back wide-eyed, while they waited for inspiration. Finally, Izabella impatiently points to her arm.
“Creeps, like needles,” she said.
“Yes,” Bales-Stutes said. She wrote, “Getting the creeps is feeling uncomfortable” on the board.
“For instance, scary men give me the creeps,” Bales-Stutes said.
The joke was lost on the students. Idioms are difficult for foreign speakers because of their cultural roots.
“It’s impossible to extract language from culture,” Cartier said.
Still, the students knew why they were there, be it for tuition reasons, work advantages or community amongst each other. Rosenberg said she appreciates their continuing effort.
“Some have told me we give them something to live for because we give them something to come to at night,” Rosenberg said.
By Henry Becker of The Campanile
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