Language

The Friends of the Library organization will offer three free foreign language classes at Williamsport Memorial Library for students entering grades three through six. A French class will be held June 27 to July 1. German class will be from July 11 to 15. Japanese Culture, the final class, will be July 18 to 22. All classes are from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. daily. For more information, call the library at 301-223-7027. Fun day planned for antique car enthusiasts The Mason-Dixon Region Automobile Club of America will hold its annual car show Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Washington County Agricultural Education Center, 7313 Sharpsburg Pike.

Public schools in Washington County currently have about 45 vacancies to fill for the 2011-12 year — jobs that drew about 350 applicants Friday to a Teacher Recruitment Fair at Rockland Woods Elementary School. Many of the prospective teachers are just finishing their senior years at colleges and universities, but others had years — in some cases decades — of classroom experience. "I'm a retired educator," applicant Mironda Peace said. For Peace, the fair was an opportunity to return to teaching, something she did from 1973 until her 2006 retirement from Fountaindale Elementary School.

We have several exchange students at our school this year. It has been wonderful getting to know them over the past two weeks. I have to admit, though, that the whole concept of a teenager leaving home for nine months, living in a foreign country, within a different culture, all without the aid of their native tongue, baffles me. How can a 15-year-old do that? Or I should ask, how could their parents let them go? That would be extremely difficult for me as a mom. It's one thing if my kids want to study abroad during a semester in college.

SMITHSBURG -- Smithsburg Middle School student Joanne Lee couldn't speak English when she started kindergarten. But things have changed since then. On June 2, Joanne will take the stage with 274 other students from across the United States to represent Washington County Public Schools at the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. The event will last until June 4. "The nerves are the worst," Joanne said. "I have to remember not to spell too fast so I don't miss a letter.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A bench trial for a well-known former Martinsburg defense attorney accused of practicing law without a license came to a screeching halt Wednesday after one of the state's witnesses apparently did not understand enough English to be sworn in to testify. The trial for Steven M. Askin is expected to resume at 9 a.m. today, but it is unclear whether an interpreter for Toan Huynh of Hagerstown will be available. Huynh is Vietnamese. Askin, 61, was indicted by a Berkeley County grand jury in February 2009 on 11 misdemeanor counts of practice without a law license.

Hagerstown Community College's Center for Continuing Education will offer sign language courses geared toward helping students master the necessary skills needed for communicating with hearing-impaired individuals. The first course in the series, "Sign Language: Basic I," will be offered Mondays from Sept. 14 to Nov. 30, from 7 to 9 p.m. The course is a beginning level course designed to help students build vocabulary as they learn the manual alphabet and standard signing techniques.

Editor's note: This is the first story in a two-part series about the growing Hispanic population in Franklin County, Pa. In part two, read about how agencies in Franklin County are toppling language barriers. WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- William Gonzalez doesn't sound like other officers in the Waynesboro Police Department when he speaks. His family moved from the Dominican Republic when he was 3 years old and raised him in New York City. He lives in Chambersburg, Pa., and works part time for the Waynesboro and Gettysburg, Pa., police departments.

Last weekend while reaching into the refrigerator for some of our leftover shrimp and asparagus pasta, I noticed something had changed. The label on the plastic container proclaimed "6/11: Langostino y Esparrago. " It was as if the digital TV conversion folks were still in our house and thought we needed a Spanish translation. For a while last Friday, Spanish programming was all we could get. The kids had the TV on while I was making dinner. It was frustrating because I couldn't understand much.

HAGERSTOWN -- After a disappointing false start to getting a bilingual Vacation Bible school off the ground last year, the congregants at Iglesia Bautista Hispana de Hagerstown and Virginia Avenue Baptist Church succeeded this year. Aidsa Zambrano was one of the organizers of last week's ambitious program. She said she is pleased with the response to the English-Spanish format. On Wednesday evening, a younger group of about 10 elementary school-age children was busy working on crafts that reflected the theme -- "Boomerang Express: It All Comes Back to Jesus.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Cambodian, Hindi, Russian and Mandarin are just a few of a growing number of foreign languages now being heard in the hallways of Berkeley County's public schools. Berkeley County Schools Superintendent Manny P. Arvon said last week that a total of 26 languages are spoken at Martinsburg High School. "It is a challenge," Arvon said of teaching students English as a second language with limited federal money and no state funding. "Everybody's doing the best they can with what they have available.