Simsbury Library Offering Drop-In Language Classes

Are you interested in bantering in a foreign language about your day with a few others? Perhaps you'd like to improve upon your English in a relaxed environment among friendly people? 

If either of these sounds like something you have been wanting to do, Simsbury Public Library is opening their doors to you. Conversational language classes will be offered in French, Mandarin Chinese and English at the library beginning this month.

"People would come by and say 'West Hartford has a French circle, can we have something like this?'" said Library Director Susan Bullock, who added that she's happy to fill the demand for such groups.

"It’s for people who just enjoy speaking the language, people from bilingual homes and they want to brush up on it and people who have had a little bit of the language and want to practice or are ready to take a trip," said Bullock.

"It's by the fireplace and is very informal," she said.

While volunteers have been offering French for about five years at the library, English and Mandarin are new. Bullock is excited about them both.

"The English group is sort of an interesting thing," she said.  "We have a lot of people who come and use the library who are not fluent in English. A lot of those folks are very shy."

Bullock said that when they reached out to these people the response was very positive. The first class has already been held and attendees hailed from Japan, Peru, and Cuba.

  "It’s amazing. People will make a great effort come and just converse. Some people want to lose their accent and some people really only know how to say 'hi'," Bullock said.

 Yunan Jiang will be offering the Mandarin class and has 30 years of experience teaching Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese. She has been an interpreter, translator and speech instructor for major international organizations such as Tokyo Disneyland, Fujitsu and Japan Energy.

Open to all ages and ability levels, this class will be held Thursday evenings from 7-8 p.m. in the Friends Cafe, upper level of the Library.

The French group will be led by native French speaker, Monsieur Christian Gaborit.

Gaborit's class will be Monday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 PM in the Friends Cafe area of the Library. Classes are free and operate on a drop-in basis — no sign-up necessary. For more information, please contact Susan Bullock 860-658-7663 x 2103.

The English conversation group is open to any adult wishing to improve their spoken English and will be led by Marty Allison, English teacher and public relations professional. It will be held Tuesday mornings from 10:30 to 11:15 in the Friends Café on the upper level of the Library. The class welcomes people who are just beginning to learn English or who have limited skills in speaking English. 

"You know what libraries do?" said Bullock, "They act on opportunities. When you see an opportunity to teach and fill in the gap somewhere, that’s where we come in."