Sprechen sie Deutsch? You can learn with Spicewood Community Library’s language program
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
SPICEWOOD — Are you planning a trip to China in the next year or two? Or maybe you’re eyeing one of those river cruises in Germany, but you want to be able to speak Deutsch.
Well, after updating your passport head to the Spicewood Community Library for some language lessons.
Free language lessons.
The Spicewood Community Library is offering the computer-based Mango Languages program.
“We offer an English-as-a-Second-Language class during the school year for adults in the community,” said Jim Lamar, the library board president. “(The Mango Languages) program has an ESL program, and we saw this as a parallel for our ESL program.”
But board members also learned the Mango Languages program offered a long list of foreign language studies.
“It has probably a list of 30 or so languages,” Lamar said. “We subsequently decided to offer about 10 of the languages through the library.”
This is in addition to the two ESL programs.
One Spicewood family is taking advantage of the ESL and Chinese language components. Lamar said a couple adopted some Chinese children, so the parents are studying Chinese while the children are learning English.
Other languages include Arabic, Czech, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Russian and Spanish (Latin America). The program isn’t just rote exercises. It also includes real-life situations. The audios feature native speakers giving simple instructions.
“One of the great things about it is once you sign up, you can learn the language anywhere,” Lamar said. As a Web-based program, a learner only needs a computer or a tablet and Internet access.
For Spicewood Community Library patrons, the service is free.
“It is an expensive program for the library to offer, but it’s something we thought the community needed,” Lamar said.
All people need is a Spicewood Community Library card to get started.
The library relies on donations, membership fees and fundraisers for support. It’s not a part of the Burnet County Library System and receives no county, state or federal funding. Despite no government funding, the community library was the first location people could access public Wi-Fi in Spicewood. The library has also added a SMART board, which is a computer-based “chalk” board that makes it interactive for both a presenter and an audience.
“There are so many uses for it,” Lamar said. “We used it during our summer reading program. And it will be outstanding for our ESL program and computer training this fall.”
The Spicewood Community Library is located at 1011 Spur 191. Call (830) 693-7892 or go to spicewoodlibrary.org for more information on the Mango Languages or other programs.
daniel@thepicayune.com