MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Library will offer a free beginning English for Speakers of Other Languages class starting this month.

“We're going to be starting with the alphabet and with simple conversations,” said Brandee Miller, who’s teaching the class. “I will be also providing materials for them to study to take home to work with if they like.”

The class begins Thursday and will meet from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. once each week. The 11-week course will cover the basics of speaking, reading and writing in English. It’s particularly geared toward Spanish speakers. 

Miller has a master’s degree in Spanish from Purdue University, bachelor’s degrees in English and Spanish from Muskingum University and has taught both English and Spanish at the high school and college levels, she said. 

She got the idea to volunteer with the library after last year’s Moravida Festival at the Grant County Fairgrounds, she said. She brought the idea to library staff, who said they had been wanting to offer a class for some time. 

“I taught (English as a Second Language) for a community college in Texas, and I really enjoyed that,” she said. “I've always loved working with languages. Negotiating language, you know, it's not an easy thing, especially if you're in a place where you don't feel like you can communicate and tell your story, because everyone has a story … Not everyone has resources to go to school (or) to pay for classes. So I wanted to make something that was available for people in all walks of life, no matter what their situation, so they can work toward their business goals and their personal goals.”

Roughly 25% of Grant County residents speak Spanish as their first language, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. 

“It's always been very interesting to me that we're taught how to learn things in life,” Miller said. “We're taught how to learn math, we're taught how to learn science, we're taught how to learn other things. But when it comes to learning a language, we're just taught in the language, we're not taught how to learn, and maybe apply that knowledge to another language.”

More information is available from the Moses Lake Library, 509-765-3489.

Note: Brandee Miller is married to Columbia Basin Herald Managing Editor R. Hans Miller, who was not involved in writing or editing this story.

    Brandee Miller on a trip during her time as an exchange student in Venezuela, pictured with a guide. Miller will be teaching a free class to help people learn English at the Moses Lake Public Library.