The bilingual story time at the Arlington Community Center in Nashua is a new program that gives toddlers and their parents the chance to hear stories in English and Spanish every Thursday.
Children’s Program Coordinator Manisha Chourasia said the story time is one of several efforts aimed at teaching kids about different cultures in the city, like bilingual story time and the passport to the world series at the Nashua Public Library.
"I think that the more inclusive we are as a community to welcome different languages, the better and happier everyone will be,” Chourasia said.
Marinely Abud, one of the volunteers who runs the story time, said that reading stories in Spanish is helping her two younger kids learn the language. She's from the Dominican Republic and said that one of the reasons she’s raising her kids to be bilingual like her is so they can speak with their relatives in other countries.
“Most of my family doesn’t speak English,” she said in Spanish. “For example, my mom only speaks Spanish and it would be a really sweet connection that my kids could talk with their grandparents and family that lives in other countries.”
And the children aren’t the only ones who are learning. Madina Galiyuea is from Kazakhstan, and brings her son to expose him to other languages and socialize with other kids. Learning Spanish is also helping her teach English at the Northern Essex Community College.
“My students are mostly from different Latin speaking countries, so I think it's good for me also to learn Spanish as well,” she said.
The group meets at the Arlington Street Community Center on Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30. It is one of several free programs available for children at the center, like robotics and art classes.
More information is available at https://www.asccnashua.com/calendar.
