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CAPE MAY — Who says talk is cheap? How about free? That’s the “price” people pay to learn to speak English from volunteers who give of their time to help non-English speaking county residents learn the nuances of the English language.

Jackie Richards, of Del Haven, wife of the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cape May, brought a program with her from Indiana when she and her husband, moved to this seaside city three ago that allows non-English speaking people to learn the language via conversation.

According to Richards, the program is completely independent and not an English as a Second Language (ESL) program.
“It’s sponsored entirely by the church,” said Richards. “We work on a shoestring budget.”

There is no criterion for students to participate in the program, except a desire to learn, or improve their English skills. Nor is there a criterion for teaching except a desire to help someone learn English.

“We take basic information from them when they’re new and see what they want to do,” said Richards, sharing how a new student is assessed.

From that information, students can learn anything from basic to conversational English to preparation for the United States citizenship test. Students usually meet one-on-one with their volunteer teacher. And it’s done the old-fashioned way. No computers. No Rosetta Stone. It’s one teacher, one student, speaking and listening to each other.

While students learn to hone their language skills, teachers also learn a lot.

“We learned about Russia and the former Soviet bloc countries,” said Richards of Russian students who had passed through the doors of the program. Richards smiled as she recalled being taught how different Americans were from Russians. Her Russian counterparts were taught how different Russians were from Americans. Once East met West, the two realized, “the everyday person has a lot more in common. We all loved James Bond and Dr. Zhivago.”

For non-English speaking parents of school-aged children, navigating the world of a school system can be daunting. Children bring home letters from school that a parent cannot read because of a language barrier, and that can be problematic. The answer? The parent will bring the letter, and sometimes the child, to their English class.

Liz Favre, of Cape May, is a volunteer teacher who works with children coming with their parents.

“We let them bring their children to help with homework,” said Richards. “It’s always better to have an English speaker with homework.”

Linda Linhares, a teacher and Lower Township resident, shared how one woman came to the program because “her little boy wanted her to improve her English.”

According to Richards over the course of the five years, people from 17 nations have passed through the door. While participants have represented many of the United Nations, there is one “spoken” rule – English only. “We try to keep it as oral as possible,” said Richards, not-ing that the focus is on spoken English, not grammar.

Ed Plunkett, a volunteer teacher, brings a long history of teaching languages to the table. Plunkett, a Cape May Point resident, is a retired Brooklyn, N.Y. junior high school teacher. During his tenure as a teacher there, Plunkett taught Religion, Social Studies, Spanish and Language Arts. His reason for teaching for free? “I love languages,” he said. “And I love meeting people!”

For all the volunteer teachers, pay comes in the form of friendships developed with their students.

“We definitely form friendships,” said Plunkett.

In addition to learning pronunciation and idioms, through their conversations with their teachers, students learn about American customs, manners, holidays and relationships. Students also learn about American newspapers, grocery stores and maps.

“It would be the same for us,” said Linhares, “if we were dropped into another country.”

English classes are free and available to anyone wanting to learn to improve their language skills. Additional information is available by contacting the First Presbyterian Church of Cape May at 609-884-3949.