I love my job. Today I had a class at a hat-making plant. The workers there all speak Spanish, most of them have very little formal education, and they are working very hard at learning English. It's very difficult to explain how to conjugate a verb when some of them can't do that in their own language, but a certain amount of grammar has to be taught.

I've been looking for a little cheapy Loteria game, kind of like Mexican Bingo, and they'd told me a number of places to look, but I had't found one anywhere! So today one of the women who couldn't make it to class sent one by another student. I told them it was for an art project, which caused a few puzzled looks, maybe a shrug or a raised eyebrow here and there, but mostly they just nodded and said,"Ohh..."

I don't know quite what I think about immigration reform, etc., but I do know that the people I work with have a very real desire to learn English. They understand the limitations of not knowing the language, of a poor education, and are absolutely doing whatever they can to provide those opportunities to their children, but are sometimes just not up to it themselves. If you only have a third grade education, you weren't very good at school, or it may have even been a very bad experience, and you work three jobs just to feed your family, who has the energy to go to school?

My students at this plant get to work at 6:00 a.m. every day and work for eight hours, then stay two more hours for English classes twice a week. Many of them, and they are mostly women, work another job, plus take care of their families, and they are extremely grateful for the opportunity to do so. All these students are legal. Some of them love it here and want to stay forever; others miss their homes and extended families and are just here to work.

The older we are, the more difficult is is to learn a second language. It's a fact. I can't imagine going to, say, China, trying to get a job, get my kids enrolled in school, get a driver's license, even go grocery shopping, and not just give up.

Okay, jumping off my soap box now. Perhaps I ought to tell some people I've started a blog...?