Charlie Greenwell teaches international students in an English for Speakers of Other Languages class at the ACE Center Feb 6. The lesson comes from an email Greenwell received about scams targeting immigrants to the U.S.


Stand up, sit down, frown, now smile.

Now go. Now open the cabinets, now close. Now go.

Now write your name. Now say your name.

They sound like strange orders. But this is Maggie Ramrattan's basic literacy class.

Some grin and laugh when they scurry to the cabinets and do as she says before sitting back down for the lesson. The 10 students watch as Ramrattan points to a projection of the Tallahassee Democrat website, explaining the word "newspaper."

This is where adults spend several days a week, typically from 8:30 a.m. to the afternoon, taking English for Speakers of Other Languages at Tallahassee's Adult Center for Education.

Many are refugees uprooted from their countries due to war. They've been resettled in Tallahassee after living in refugee camps overseas and in devastated countries, namely the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria.

ACE ESOL teacher Christa Bard once asked a young Congolese refugee what he liked about the classroom.

"It's safe," he said.

Last fall, the district started a basic literacy class to accommodate the influx of refugees, Bard said.

In Tallahassee, that’s nearly 170 from the Republic of Congo and 35 from Syria.

About 30 refugees are enrolled at the center. This academic year, a total of 67 were enrolled in the program.

Because of open enrollment, students differ in their English proficiency and education background. Some know no English. Some went to high school in their home country while others have never seen the inside of a classroom. ESOL teachers have to cater to each student's needs within the same classroom. That means multitasking: teaching new students the alphabet and others vocabulary and sentence formation.

In Bard's class, students always start with saying the alphabet in unison: A, B, C, D…

"It's important for them to start off with some success in the first few minutes of the English class," she said.

It's a confidence boost and reinforces the basics with newer students.

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During the daily phonics lesson, Bard picks a few sounds to focus on. Some students' native languages have sounds that don't translate to English. In Arabic, there is no 'p' sound, and in Swahili, there's no 'q.'

Vocabulary, sight words — like "island" that don't sound like they're spelled — and life skills communication also are covered. Simple everyday words needed to navigate the grocery store or the doctor's office: appointment, vaccine.

Antje Meissner sometimes brings clothes — T-shirts, pants, dresses — so students can practice buying and selling, navigating a sale. She also brings her kids' play food to the classroom to teach "apple" or "corn," along with medicine bottles like Tylenol and packaged food for reading nutrition labels.

"Most of what we teach here are life skills — going to the doctor, going to the store," Meissner said. "They don't have 12 years to learn everything. They aren't kids going through grade school taking their time to build their language skills. They need to learn it now, to make a living for their families."

Reach Nada Hassanein atnhassanein@tallahassee.comand on Twitter@nhassanein_.

About this project: President Donald Trump’s January executive order suspending the U.S. refugee program for four months and barring Syrian refugees entirely brought scrutiny to resettlement programs and prompted the Tallahassee Democrat to ask: How many refugees live in the capital city? Where are they from? Who are they?

“American Strangers” provides the answers. The report is anchored by an interactive database created by Democrat producer Yoon Pyun, and brought to life by staff writers Jeff Burlew and Nada Hassanein, who spent months getting to know local refugee families and those helping them build new lives.

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