At a small building in Springfield, Ohio, that houses a Haitian community center, the FBI has arrived to investigate threatening phone calls telling the small American city’s immigrant community to get out.
But in some rooms the focus has shifted to more immediate concerns: how to pronounce “refrigerator.”
The words blend together, and the five Haitian students sit in front of the white board, trying to stretch the muscles in their mouths they’ve never thought of before.
Local volunteers teaching English classes are part of a different side of Springfield, which has been thrust into the national spotlight after racist rumors about immigrants spread by Republican politicians turned into bomb threats and harassment.
As the class moves through various parts of the house, they become more at ease with “cabinet,” as the lyrical, Creole-accented sounds of “cab-i-net” light up the room.
“I just want to help,” said retired student Hope Kaufman, who is leading the class. “It’s hard to adapt to a new culture and a new language. If I can do something, even if it’s small, that’s what I want to do.”
This predominantly white city in the American Midwest has seen a population boom in recent years, driven largely by Haitians attracted by its economic revival and new businesses happy to attract workers.
But frustration over the growing pains in the city, where about 10-15,000 Haitians have arrived, a city that had a population of less than 60,000 in 2020, eventually turned into racist rumors that immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets, putting the city in the national spotlight.
There was no chaos during the hour-long class, though, as Kaufman and his colleagues added vocabulary words to the whiteboard, and asked the Haitians questions about “sinks,” “soufas” and “closets.”
“There’s more than one chair in my living room,” Kaufman said with a smile, explaining the difference between plural and singular.
“Okay,” student Edogie Joseph said emotionlessly, his eyes fixed on the board, his full attention on the lesson.
With nervous laughter, the students draw out cards for a memory game, but the game suddenly goes off the rails when they insist on sharing their answers and helping each other.
“I live in this country and if you don’t speak English, you can’t work, you can’t express yourself to people,” Joseph, a factory worker, told AFP.
But it is not easy.
“The hardest thing is the refrigerator … refrigerating,” says Yaranor Estim, before giving up on the word “refrigerator.”
But, he adds, “The cabinet is poetic.”
Finally, that time was up. Much of the house was destroyed, from the “stove” to the “couch.”
Next week: the bathroom.
NRO/MD
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