120 people waiting for conversation partners to improve their English
'We haven't been able to keep up' as word has spread of the program, says Lucia Harrison
If you have a spare hour or two a week, the K-W Multicultural Centre could use some help; their conversational English program is in desperate need of more volunteers.
More than 120 people are on a wait list, CEO Lucia Harrison told The Morning Edition's host Craig Norris Thursday.
"For some people they've been waiting for a few months. We've sort of had a surge of people come forward, looking to work with a volunteer, and we're just trying to chip away at the waiting list," Harrison said.
That surge is, in part, due to the influx of Syrian refugees to Waterloo region in the last two years.
"Over any other year, we've had more than double the number of people [requesting to take part]," Harrison said.
"Some of this has been with the arrival of the many Syrians, but also other newcomers to the community. As word has spread that the conversational English program is available, we haven't been able to keep up with the tutors."
From Farsi to Tigrinya
Approximately a third of the people looking for language partners speak Arabic, but the other two-thirds are quite diverse.
"We have a lot of people from Eritrea and Ethiopia, so they would be speaking Tigrinya and Amharic. We have a lot of Chinese-speaking folks, Spanish-speaking folks, Dari, Farsi — those would sort of be the top ones," she said.
The one-on-one conversations are most often held in a public place like a library or coffee shop and no ESL experience is required of the volunteers, though they are given some support and resources from the K-W Multicultural Centre.
The centre matches learners with volunteers who have similar hobbies and interests. Most learners prefer to be matched with someone of the same sex, said Harrison, so the program could really use male volunteers.
"We have more women coming forward as tutors than men," Harrison said. "I think we have some males on the waiting list that have been there since May whereas with females it's been since September."
Volunteers must complete a criminal records check and are asked to meet with their language learner for two hours a week and commit to doing so for four to six months. Applications can be made through the K-W Multicultural Centre's website.