Translating the polyglot: Maynard helping immigrants adjust

On a sunny weekday morning upstairs in the Coolidge School building, an elderly Asian man haltingly read from a worksheet while his classmates looked on with interest.

"One thing I like about the United States is freedom and democracy," said the man, helped along by instructor Dee Bent.

Once the man finished, Bent congratulated him and showed the beginners' English class how the man had been translating from Chinese characters to English.

"Good job!" said a few of his classmates and the rest clapped for the older man, who beamed.

Being an immigrant isn't easy. Learning a new language can be difficult, whatever your age, and the culture shock can be isolating and hard to adjust to.

Although the vast majority of Maynard residents speak English, there is a significant percentage of those with less-than-perfect English skills. The U.S. Census report from 2000, the most recent data available, reports 1,102 out of Maynard's 9,715 residents age 5 or older speak a language other than English.

About 29 percent, or 322 people, say they speak English less than "very well."

Armed with a mixture of state, federal and private resources, Maynard is helping new immigrants' lives get a little easier as they acclimate to the United States.

Emergency services

The Maynard Police and Fire departments, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Statewide Emergency Telecommunications Board, have contracted with Qwest/NetworkOmni for interpretation services. The company provides what it calls over-the-phone interpretation - a translation service emergency dispatchers can use if a call comes in from someone who isn't speaking English.

The languages available for translation range from French and Spanish to less-common languages such as Welsh and Gujarati, a language spoken in India and Pakistan, among other places.

According to Police Chief James Corcoran, the software is free and relatively simple to use:

"We hit a transfer key and talk to a live operator. We go from there," he said.

Most of the non-English speakers who call in speak Spanish or Portuguese as their primary language, said Corcoran.

Corcoran said he was not sure if his department has ever used the translation service. The police department does have one officer who speaks fluent Portuguese and the department will call on members of the community to translate if needed, he said.

Police run up against language barriers a couple times a month, Corcoran said.

"We do the best with what we have," he said, noting most language problems tend to work themselves out.

The police department can also reach out to other area departments for translation assistance if needed, said Corcoran.

"[Our] procedure is to try to find someone who can help you out. Ninety-nine percent of the time, someone [at the scene] can understand some English," said Fire Chief Stephen Kulik in an interview.

Kulik said with medical issues, Maynard's firefighters are usually able to make do with gestures and hand-signals.

"We go with signs and symptoms and we can usually do a pretty accurate job there," he said.

The fire department currently doesn't have any firefighters who speak a language other than English.

"I certainly do look at that when I review candidates," said Kulik. "It's always an incredible plus."

Maynard schools

Amadee Meyer teaches English as a second language (ESL) at Green Meadow Elementary School and Fowler Middle School. For the 2007-2008 school year, Meyer said, she has 23 students from first- to eighth-grade in the ESL program.

Many of her students are from what she calls "the big three": Puerto Rico, Haiti and Brazil.

Children present a special challenge for an ESL instructor. Although it is relatively easy for children to pick up the chatter of the playground, reading and writing skills are a different matter, said Meyer.

Some teachers see children speaking English to their classmates but then see those same students struggle with their reading and writing skills. The teachers may assume the student has a learning disability and move the student into special education, when in reality the student is struggling because of a language barrier, not a learning disability, said Meyer.

This scenario is "one of my biggest struggles," said Meyer.