Workers to learn Spanish

In an attempt to address the needs of a rapidly growing Latino population, area health officials will sponsor a Spanish-language immersion program in Carrboro this weekend.

The Chapel Hill Institute for Cultural and Language Education and the Orange-Person-Chatham Foundation for Mental Health together will provide a crash course in Spanish, said CHICLE Program Director Miriam Palacio.

“The dramatic increase in Spanish-speaking people in the community has created a need for more organizations to hire bilingual staffs,” Palacio said.

According to the N.C. Latino Health Care Task Force, the Hispanic population in North Carolina is growing more rapidly than in any other state.

About 4.5 percent of Orange County’s total population is Hispanic or Latino, U.S. Census reports state.

Palacio said that even though the foundation is sponsoring the event to train its mental health workers, the program is open to anyone in the community who wants to learn Spanish.

“We’ve even got a fireman from Carrboro coming out.”

The program will include grammar classes and several occupation-specific role-playing exercises, Palacio said.

In addition, she said, CHICLE plans to provide participants with authentic Spanish food and salsa dance instruction.

“They’ll be able to have some fun, learn from the exercise and just get a little flavor of the Spanish culture,” Palacio said.

Third-year University Ph.D. student Elizabeth Bruno said she can relate to the program because she teaches a Spanish class called “¡A su salud!” to health care workers at UNC Hospitals.

She said that in many ways, her class is similar to this weekend’s CHICLE classes.

“We teach them the language,” Bruno said.

“We also teach them about several Spanish cultures and how to recognize their differences.”

She said she thinks it would be beneficial to teach Spanish to as many community employees as possible.

“I think it’s important to be as welcoming to everyone in the community as possible,” she said.

Bruno added that she is thankful there are so many groups and agencies in the area that can provide that type of service.

“Of course, there are also a number of equally important agencies that teach English classes, as well,” she adeed.

Palacio admits that this weekend’s program is not long enough to teach people the entire Spanish language.

“I know they’re not going to be fluent, and I wouldn’t expect that,” she said.

“We’re just hoping to teach enough Spanish to give them a boost at work and provide better service to Hispanic customers.”

The program will take place from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Sunday.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.