SAY WHAT? You can find a course...

SAY WHAT? You can find a course on just about any subject in non-credit community education college classes. Here’s one coming back at Saddleback College after its popularity last year: “Reducing Your Foreign Accent.” . . . Spokeswoman Kathleen Schlick says the night class, which starts Sept. 11, is attended by Asian Americans, Latinos, and--maybe a stretch under the course’s title--many who want to tone down their New York accent. People take the course, she says, to improve their chances in business or help them with other college courses.

NEW FRIENDS’ HELP: Refugees continue to pour into Orange County from Vietnam, many former political prisoners held by its Communist government. Westminster Councilman Tony Lam is part of a Vietnamese group trying to aid these political prisoners in any way possible. . . . One example this week: The Vietnamese operator of a Days Inn under renovation is donating to the group all of the hotel’s old mattresses, box springs and TV sets. Items like this, Lam says, “help them to settle in.”

HANGING ON: Five months pregnant, an unwed runaway teen sleeping nights alone in Anaheim’s Pearson Park, Sylvia Grass’ future might have seemed bleak. She never saw it that way. “I never stopped doubting that I’d turn it around, and be able to take care of my baby,” she says. . . . That was less than two years ago. Wednesday, Grass, now 19, was honored at a dinner by the Santa Ana Private Industry Council for completing a six-month computer course through its training program--and finding a good bookkeeping job. “There’s help available,” she says, “if you are determined.”

TRADE WATCH: Dale Ervine, the Splash indoor soccer team’s first bona fide star, returns to The Pond of Anaheim tonight as a member of the Arizona Sandsharks. Ervine, an all-star with the Splash, was traded two weeks ago for injured Paul Agyeman after a falling out with Coach George Fernandez. . . . You want intrigue? Agyeman, a member of last year’s all-rookie team, makes his Splash debut tonight too.