Twice a week, in a meeting room at the Cape Coral-Lee County Public Library, a group of adults from opposite sides of the globe sit down together for one purpose: to talk. The free program, known as the English Café, has met at the library since 2016.
"You will see Germans, Russians, Chinese, Polish. Spanish is a big one, and we also have had Czech available in the room too," said Bibi Cruz, adult programming coordinator for the Lee County Library System.
Cruz said the program grew out of repeated requests from the area.
"We had a lot of questions coming into the community where people wanted to learn or know if we had any kind of classes where they could learn English," Cruz said. "We requested volunteers in the community who would be willing to basically want to teach or participate in this program, and we created the program to be offered at multiple locations throughout the county."
For Alejandro Clavero, who moved to Lee County from Buenos Aires, Argentina, the sessions filled a gap.
"It's not the same when you are speaking in your home [than] when you are speaking in an office or when you have to integrate the rest of the society," Clavero said. "You need exposure. You need practice. And this English Café program in the library was very useful because it allowed us to practice English in a very easy way."
Clavero said he'd like to see libraries lean further into that role.
"I have the feeling that the public libraries should change their mission," he said. "We have a society full of immigrants, okay, legal immigrants, that if they had the opportunity to practice, they will improve personally, and they will improve in their jobs."
Barbara Eberz has led the Friday morning session since 2016. She tailors lessons to what the students are curious about.
"They want to know American history, and they've learned George Washington, they've learned Abraham Lincoln, but they want to know about little-known events in American history, and so that's what I research and prepare for them," Eberz said.
Sessions move between crazy stories in the news, unknown vocabulary words, reading practices, plus the occasional idioms lost in translation. Eberz said what changes most in students over time, isn't necessarily their English.
"I think their confidence in participating is what changes," she said. "That they're more open as they get used to the group, and they know we're not judging them."
That sense of belonging is what keeps Lieselotte Buehler coming back nearly every week since arriving from Germany, even as she wrestles with the new language.
"It's absolutely pronunciation, because for me there is no rule," Buehler said. "It sounds different, like for instance, toad and road, but then you have the word — Broadway. You write it similar, but you don't pronounce it."
Still, she said, the language is almost secondary to the community she's found.
"I also love the company, because if you are in a foreign land, in a foreign country, you need a group and have and meet people," Buehler said. "And for us from Germany, we need English because there is nobody who speaks German."
Eberz said providing a place where people belong is the goal.
"Don't worry. The more you stay here, the more comfortable you'll get," she tells new arrivals. "You'll get to know the group. They'll become friends with you. You'll all become one big happy family here."
The English Café is free and open to adult learners throughout Lee County. For a full schedule of times and locations, visit the Lee County Library System's website.
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