Helping with the first steps toward learning English

Juan Garcia makes the same resolution every New Year’s: Learn English.

Despite being in the U.S. for 15 years, the Mexican immigrant knows only a few words and phrases. Too busy with work and family, he has put off enrolling in a class.

“The days pass and the years pass, and I don’t do it,” said Garcia, 63, who lives in Los Angeles.

Garcia will get a little help keeping his resolution in January when the Spanish-language television network Azteca America launches a series aimed at teaching English to its nationwide viewers. Called “Survival English,” the show will focus on basic language skills for real-life situations such as renting an apartment, shopping at a market and visiting a doctor’s office.

The television program represents a major departure for Spanish-language media and one that Azteca officials hope will foster assimilation of Latino immigrants and boost their political and economic clout. It also addresses concerns of some elected officials and other critics who assert that speaking English should be a priority for all immigrants.

“Our community will be more powerful politically if they can be more culturally assimilated,” said Hector Romero, director of operations for Fundacion Azteca America, the nonprofit arm of the company.

The benefits won’t be only for the immigrant community. The program may attract more viewers and more advertising dollars for Azteca in a market in which networks compete for a share of the Spanish-speaking audience. Last week, an average of 140,000 viewers tuned into Azteca America during prime time, compared with 4.1 million for Univision and 1 million for Telemundo, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Proponents say that the English program, which is being produced in collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, could empower Latinos to start businesses and pursue further education.

Speaking more English also will help Latinos defend themselves against fraud, said Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk). Napolitano said she hoped other Spanish-language networks would follow suit. After years of making money from their Latino viewers, it’s time they gave back to the community, she said.

“They garner money from their advertisers to reach all these individuals,” she said. “Try reaching them with a helping hand.”

Telemundo said it was not considering similar programming. Univision declined to comment.

For many Latinos, especially newcomers, Spanish-speaking media is their main source of information, said Felix Gutierrez, a journalism professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. Networks cater to their audience by offering legal advice, health tips or help preparing for citizenship tests.

The TV classes are ideal for immigrants who don’t have the time or money to enroll in courses, he said.

“They work long hours for low pay,” Gutierrez said. “If you can take the learning into the home, all the better.”

Garcia said he and his wife watch Spanish-language television every day and would definitely tune in to language lessons. He has seen ads for English classes and knows it would help him get more construction work, but has been discouraged by the cost. Also, Garcia said he doesn’t need to speak much English because everyone at the nearby bank and market speaks Spanish.

“There hasn’t been the necessity because we live in a Latino neighborhood,” he said.

That ubiquitous presence of Spanish has drawn the ire of English-only activists like Rob Toonkel.

“Once people get into the mainstream and realize they can survive without English, it’s like having a permanent crutch,” said Toonkel, spokesman for U.S. English. “Why would you give it up?”

Toonkel said he believes there are millions of immigrants who are desperate to learn English and that Azteca America’s plan is the “start of something bigger and better.”

But immigrant-rights advocate Raul Anorve said the Azteca program was just another gimmick to attract viewers. He agreed that more Latinos need to learn English but said that if Spanish-language media wanted to help, they should instead donate money to nonprofit and community groups already doing the work.

“I think they want to promote their TV programming,” said Anorve of the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California. “There is always a bottom line to corporate media.”

The show will be modeled after classes being taught at U.S. satellite campuses of the Autonomous University of Mexico, said Mario Melgar, coordinator of the university’s Survival English program. But the TV program will be more lively and fast-paced, he said.

“We are not so arrogant that we are going to teach them English completely,” he said. “What we are trying to do is convince them that it is worth it to devote some hours in their off-working time to learn English.”

The television program will air on weekends and last 15 minutes to an hour.

Teachers of English as a second language said the television classes wouldn’t be nearly as effective as being in a live classroom with students of varying backgrounds.

“You maybe will learn a little bit, but it’s not the same,” said Planaria Price, who teaches at Evans Community Adult School in Los Angeles. “There is nothing better than real school, real teacher, a real class.”

Norma Vasquez, 30, said she wished she knew more English so she could communicate with doctors at the clinic and teachers at her children’s school without relying on her 11-year-old daughter to translate.

But as a stay-at-home mother in Los Angeles, Vasquez said, she just doesn’t have the time or money to take a formal class. If it was on TV, she said, “I could care for my kids and learn at the same time.”

anna.gorman@latimes.com