In Mountain View Wednesday morning about two dozen people sat with their eyes glued to a wipe board. Their ears attentively listened.
"What does it mean to 'put out'a fire," asked the volunteer teacher Bruce Christenson.
"Extinguish," Mauricio Gutierrez responded.
"It's harder to say extinguish, but yes, that's exactly what it," Christenson said. Sounds more like the Spanish."
The engaged men and women attend the Day Worker Center primarily to look for employment in Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, but in between jobs they also work—to develop their English language skills.
"Offering these classes facilitates the communication between the employer and worker, which helps the work get done," María Marroquin, executive director, said. "The employers are very understanding. When they can communicate with someone they oftentimes ask for the same worker again."
Workers can take English classes everyday from different volunteers like John Burke, a retiree from Mountain View, who wanted something useful to do, he told Patch. Now he teaches the basic class.
As for the workers, they try to fit it into their schedules between jobs.
That's what Ogdulia López does. She's been a client of the Day Worker Center for four years, but just recently had more time to attend classes.
"I learn a lot but it's hard to learn," she said. "Sometimes we focus so much on working."
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