A group will begin meeting Thursday mornings at the North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Library to develop their Spanish skills through the language-learning software Mango.
The study group, which will be learning Spanish that is typically spoken in Latin American countries, will meet at 10 a.m. each Thursday, from July 18 until Aug. 29.
Library card holders have free access to the language program, and free Wi-Fi connection is available. Participants are being asked to bring a laptop computer to run the Mango program, or they can use the laptop computers available at the library.
Librarian Ethel Dimapasok, who is facilitating the meetings, will also be taking part in the course. She is not a Spanish-speaker, and is eager to acquire some basic Spanish skills.
“As a librarian, it’s going to be beneficial to my patrons to be able to service them better,” she said. “We have Spanish-speakers who come to the library, and I will be able to help them.”
Several libraries in the Los Angeles system are hosting “learning circles” for patrons who want to meet in groups to pick up and develop certain skills, with groups formed at other libraries to help participants develop fiction writing and job hunting skills.
Dimapasok said the learning circles idea came from the Chicago library system, as well as a model known as “open-source” learning in which groups get together with other people in their community to study various subjects.
She said that the library’s literacy department, which runs the English-learning courses that are traditionally used by immigrants, is organizing these learning circles. Those who signed up for their Spanish-learning circle said they were doing it out of personal interest or because they were traveling, according to Dimapasok.
A full schedule of ongoing learning circle meet-ups are available at: https://www.lapl.org/learning-circles.
Those interested in participating in the Latin American Spanish learning circle should register at http://www.p2pu.org/lapl or call (818) 766-7185 to speak to a librarian. The North Hollywood library is at 5211 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91601.
