S. Philly neighbors break bread while learning English and Spanish
In the South Philly Language Exchange program, neighbors teach each other Spanish and English and build community too
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KIRAN MAHAl, an immigration lawyer in Center City, showed up at the South Philly Language Exchange dinner last month because about 50 percent of his clientele speaks Spanish, and he wanted to improve his Spanish.
The young lawyer had already traveled to Spain for a month in April for an intensive language-study program where he spent 20 hours a week in classes.
"I'd only been back about three to four weeks, and I was feeling my skills were starting to decline," he said.
"You need to have conversation with native speakers - people who can correct you - and hear how they pronounce words to keep your skills sharp."
So, Mahal went to Los Taquitos de Puebla on 9th Street, near Ellsworth where he met about 13 others for a casual meal during one of the monthly dinners hosted by the Passyunk Square Civic Association.
At the dinners, English speakers and Spanish speakers break bread at a different restaurant each month.
"The real purpose of this event is community building for people who otherwise wouldn't get to know each other," said Chris DiCapua, whose term on the Passyunk Square group's board, ended last month.
DiCapua said the association was concerned that Passyunk Square's Spanish-speaking population was not mixing very well with English-speaking residents.
"We saw two communities moving side by side," he said."It broke my heart to see they were so separated."
Passyunk Square spans from Washington Avenue to Tasker and from Broad to 6th streets.
DiCapua and Mark Phillips, a former AmeriCorps VISTA worker who was involved in revitalizing the 9th Street business corridor, co-founded the language exchange nearly two years ago.
The first dinner took place in December 2014, Phillips said.
DiCapua is a Spanish professor at Community College of Philadelphia, and Phillips spent five months in Spain when he was a student at Temple University.
"We have speakers of all different backgrounds and experience levels," Phillips said. Many people have become regulars.
One of those regulars is Enrique Sanchez, 36, who has been coming to the dinners for about a year. He said he didn't know any English when he came to Philadelphia from Mexico four years ago.
"It's very hard to learn to speak a new language," said Sanchez, a factory worker.
Recently, the South Philly Language Exchange teamed up with the Garces Foundation, which provides English classes to Spanish-speaking immigrants, said Jillian Gierke, manager of the English program at Garces.
Some Garces language students take part in the dinners.
"One of the most important takeaways . . . is that we share important things in common," Gierke said. "We all chose to sit at this table to share a meal.
"We all want to learn each other's language. We all make mistakes when we speak. For our students, this helps lessen that fear of interacting with unfamiliar cultures."
Ricardo Silva, a board member of Passyunk Square Civic, has taken over DiCapua's role as immigrant-outreach coordinator.
"Just the fact that they are coming is a big step," Silva says. "That means they are enjoying the group."
The next language exchange dinner is 7 p.m. Thursday, June 30, at Plaza Garibaldi, 935 Washington Ave.
For more information, visit www.passyunksquare.org.
215-854-5987 @ValerieRussDN