The language barrier is one of the most challenging obstacles immigrants must navigate when uprooting their lives to move to New Zealand.
The staff at Wānaka Library, with the help of the council’s Welcoming Communities, are on a mission to ease the burden of this challenge by offering social English as a second language (ESL) class.
The library explored the possibility of starting classes last year when they ran two blocks of four-week classes which were successful in bringing up to 15 people from the immigrant community together.
Wānaka librarians Rebekah Kennedy and Paula Mitchell were thrilled when they received funding from Welcoming Communities to restart the programme on July 14, and this time the classes will run permanently.
"The plan is that it’s a regular programme that we offer here in libraries to support the migrant community. It gets embedded into our day to day," Ms Mitchell said.
Experienced ESL teacher Neil Scott is set to return as the main tutor for the programme, offering a range of help to learners with varying levels of English skills.
The purpose of the classes goes beyond just strengthening English language skills for immigrants. They also offer a social space for Wānaka’s newest residents.
From their experience running the classes last year, both Ms Mitchell and Ms Kennedy saw how much attendees benefited from having a regular space to meet new people with a shared experience.
"It’s like this other third space that you can go to ... It’s a safe, welcoming space," Ms Mitchell said.
Last year the programme had from 10 to 15 attendees from all over the world including parts of South America, Europe and the Philippines, many of whom were parents.
The classes for this year already have 14 people registered with more likely to come as the library has had inquiries from local families and even businesses seeking support for their new employees.
Ms Mitchell said the process of setting up these classes had highlighted the importance of the growing migrant community.
"I think some people don’t realise how important our migrant communities are ... the town couldn’t function without them," she said.
The classes are set to run from 10am to 11am every Monday from July 14. There is also the possibility of offering more classes throughout the week as the programme grows.
The Wānaka Library also has ESL courses online as well as international books in other languages available to the public.
