Introducing Your Community Services
Moving to a new community can be a daunting experience at the best of times. Imagine what it is like for people who don't speak the language of their new home well and don't know where to begin exploring the community and learning how to get things done. As a welcome committee representative (
Find out what sort of community the newcomers are from: a small town, a large city, a rural area. Explain the way your community is organized. Provide maps, bilingual informational fliers, etc., to help the newcomers get oriented.
Getting Around Town
Newcomers will appreciate a tour of places and services in their new community. Start with the following, and add as many more destinations as you think are appropriate:
As an ambassador for your community, you are the bridge between two cultures. Ask questions about the newcomers' home community, and find out what places and services they frequented. Ask about their children and make suggestions for them that are age-appropriate. Keep in mind that the newcomers may be accustomed to places and services that aren't available in your community. Your community may offer services that the newcomers have never had access to. Be sure to include pertinent information about each place, as appropriate. Track 80 includes some examples.
Listen to each example on Track 78 as you follow along in the text. Repeat each one after you hear it.
(You can pay your water bill here at city hall.)
(The laundromats are self service and the machines use twenty-five
(The Cultural Center offers a lot of free programs, generally on
(The library is free and there are many special programs for children
Try to be as comprehensive as you can. Make no assumptions other than that the newcomers want to learn as much as possible about their new community. By asking questions and taking them to different places around town, you'll quickly get a sense of what they need to know.
What's Done Where and How?
If possible, conduct your tour over several days so you have time to visit a wide variety of community locations and can explain to the newcomers what's done where, when, and how. For example, show them how to pay the city water bill, how to set up phone service, or how to fill out a request for a library card and check out books. Take the newcomers grocery shopping to help them find different items on their lists, and teach them how to ask for things they can't find. Go with them to the hardware store to pick up odds and ends that they need to organize their new household.
You can make an enormous difference in how newcomers adapt to their new surroundings. In addition to helping them with basic needs, buy them house plants, take them out for coffee at your favorite cafe, or attend a performance at one of the local cultural venues together. Be a friend! It's much easier for a newcomer to overcome barriers of language and culture when they know someone in their new community cares about them as individuals.
At the Library
The public library may be an entirely unfamiliar entity to newcomers from areas where such things don't exist. Take your new friends on a tour of the library, showing them how the library is organized, how to use the card catalog, and whom to ask for help locating materials. Tell them about the inter-library loan system, and explain how to request materials that might not be available locally. Explain procedures for checking out books, and help them apply for a library card. Review library policies relevant to usage of the computers, printers, and photocopiers. Ask the librarian for a brochure containing rules and regulations and newsletters of monthly events. Point out materials and programs of particular interest, for example, adult film series, musical events, lectures and classes, story time for children, and book sales.
You can probably arrange for a librarian to conduct an informal tour of the facilities and materials while you act as interpreter for a Spanish-speaking new arrivals.
Review the following vocabulary to help you explain library services:
And here's a list of helpful verbs to talk about what you do in the library:
Look at the following examples of how you might use some of this new vocabulary and listen to each on Track 79. Repeat each one after you hear it.
(You look up materials by title or topic in the card catalog.)
(You can check out up to five books for two weeks.)
(You can renew materials for one week.)
(There is a lending system between libraries. You can request a book and they send it from another library. You only pay postage.)
(If you return materials after the due date, you pay a fine of ten cents per day.)
Your library may not have cataloguing information available in Spanish. If not, offer to translate this information for librarians to use when helping a Spanish speaker find materials. The librarian can simply show the patron the list and the patron can indicate what type of information he or she is seeking.
Explain how your library organizes materials and how the card catalog lists them. Show the newcomer how to find different sorts of items, ranging from periodicals to fiction to reference to children's books.
The way books are shelved in a library can be very confusing. Be sure to explain the differences thoroughly. For example:
(Novels are organized in alphabetical order by the author's last name.)
(Nonfiction materials are organized by number and the three first letters
(The new books are in this section.)
Someone who has never used a library may be shy about becoming a regular patron because it's rather overwhelming. Your Spanish-language tour can make it more manageable.
