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Darien employer encourages English education

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Diane Beilke teaches an English as a second language class at Birds Eye Foods in Darien recently. Beilke is teaching two groups of Birds Eye employees this year. Classes started in April and continue through November.

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Roesmi Batista, left, and Sandra Duran listen to teacher Diane Beilke pronounce a word during a recent English as a second language class at Birds Eye Foods of Darien.

DARIEN TOWNSHIP — Don’t dread reading.

That sentence wasn’t in the workbook. But it would have fit in a recent English lesson in the cafeteria at Birds Eye Foods, W8880 County X, Darien.

A small group of adult English language learners worked last week on the difference between the “long e” and “short e” sound.

In case the words “dread” and “read” aren’t confusing enough, the teacher’s name is Diane Beilke.

What kind of language has a silent “e” at the end of one word and a long “e” at the end of another?

English.

Beilke has had lots of experience helping adults navigate the English language. She is a former volunteer and employee of the Stateline Literacy Council. This is the third year in a row she’s taught English as a second language at Birds Eye. Prior to a gap in classes, she taught at the plant in the early 1990s, as well, she said.

Beilke is teaching two groups of Birds Eye employees this year. Classes started in April and will go through November.

Bundled in turtleneck sweaters and snow pants, students practiced reading and writing English before and after their shifts on the production floor at the frozen food packaging plant.

“Be patient with yourself. This is hard stuff,” Beilke said as students picked their way through sentences such as, “There’s no fee. It’s free.”

That sentence was apt.

While Birds Eye pays Beilke for her time and provides the workbooks, employees don’t have to pay for the class.

The cost of a class is a good investment for Birds Eye, Plant Manager Tom Timm said.

The plant, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, employs 500 people. Only 50 to 100 of them are part time or seasonal, depending on the time of year, he said.

Birds Eye prides itself on its safety record, and good communication is a key to safety, Timm said. Offering ESL classes was a key preventive safety measure, he said.

In addition, the classes can improve quality of life for Birds Eye employees.

“They are here legally. They work hard. Many have lived here for years,” Timm said. “But they are about as confident in their English as I am in my Spanish.”

Timm has taken Spanish classes, by the way.

Most students can speak enough English to communicate. Reading and writing it is a different matter, said Liliana Parodi, Birds Eye human resources manager.

When employees get better at reading and writing English, they are more likely to get promoted. Promoting from within is good for the employees and the company, Parodi said.

She learned English as a second language when she moved to the United States from Peru in 1992. She likes to sit in sometimes on Beilke’s classes to brush up on her skills.

“You’ll get to a point where you don’t know which language you’re speaking in anymore,” Parodi told the ESL students during class.

Birds Eye and its employees aren’t the only people who benefit from the class. Beilke is having fun, too, she said.

Beilke, who lives in Turtle Township near Beloit, retired three years ago from the Stateline Literacy Council. She spent years as a literacy tutor and still makes literacy education a priority.

Aside from teaching classes two days a week, Beilke is a member of the Clinton Public Library Board, is treasurer for the Friends of the Clinton Library and is an active member of the Clinton Women’s Club.

She doesn’t speak Spanish or any of the other languages her students have used since she started as a basic tutor in 1986.

You don’t have to speak a second language to help people read, Beilke said. You just have to want to help.

“My students work so hard before and after their shifts,” Beilke said. “Their accomplishments make your heart swell.”