By Katie Vasquez
The lesson for the March 3, 2025, English as a Second Language class Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Corona, Queens is “days of the week,” where students are learning basic phrases and a new language from scratch.
“I need talking, the English, very important,” Eva Mireles, a student in the class, tells Currents News.
The courses at the churchare offered by Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens free of charge thanks to federal and state funding, as well as private donations. Laura Dotterer, who is the project director for Queens, says they do so to give the new arrivals a chance at a better life.
“They’re here to first survive. They don’t have money to spend on going to private English, a second language school program,” she explains.
This class’s instructor, Charito Tubera, understands personally how the adults in these seats feel. In 1975 she came to the U.S. from the Philippines.
“I had no clue because I wasn’t given any orientation on what the weather is like, what the people looked like, the culture,” she recalls.
Charito says one of her biggest struggles back then was learning English.
“I was eager to learn because I’m in a foreign country where I have to relearn everything,” she says of how she became a fluent English speaker.
Now, she’s paying it forward, Charito has been teaching English as a second language for nearly 16 years and recently she joined with Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens in their efforts to help new arrivals,. She says combining her professional experience with her faith has brought new power to her calling.
“What’s most important is that I know that these people can actually receive something that they’ve never received before,” she says.
Our Lady of Sorrows offers the courses twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, for adults 18 and older. Catholic Charities say the door is open for anyone to learn. All they have to do is apply online.
For more information on the English classes and the other services Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens has to offer, just go to ccbq.org