want to learn english, try your local library
``One of the things that we recognize is that libraries are really places of opportunity, and we've also recognized that people learn in many different ways," said Burger. People still go to libraries to check out books or ask a question of a reference librarian, she said, but now they've also become places to learn job skills, meet with their neighbors, or attend a class."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/10/19/increasingly_libraries_are_the_place_to_learn_english/
one of the things that attracted me to my library is the demographics and diversity. stamford is a bit of a gateway community, with large immigrant populations. this is reflected back in the services we provide. we offer an ESL conversation group, ELLIS software (ESL software, patrons can study at their own pace, must attend an orientation to get a password, lab is always open when library is open). Our website is available in many languages, we offer movies in Spanish, and have strong Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi (etc) collection, print and visual.
i attended a workshop at NELA about the changing demographics of libraries, and how we are to serve these groups. just about once a day, i am signing someone up for ELLIS, or directing them to our cd-roms for esl, or talking about our conversation group. my library also offers spanish classes for staff, which i am enrolled in. to remain relevant in the changing world, we must evaluate our users and thier needs. correction: we need to anticipate their needs and develop services before the user realizes they have a need. this is a goal of mine. getting to that place, and keeping my fingers on the pulse of commerce and culture, and then intergrating those into the library. working with users to develop topnotch services.
okay. i got off on a tangent. but, another reason my library rocks.