So Mueller, like other firefighters and police officers, wound up with Spanish -- even though school data suggest three-quarters of Rochester's immigrant population speak other languages.
That combination of goodwill and difficult fits and starts is typical of the adjustments that smaller cities across the Midwest are having to make with a tide of immigrants flooding into the nation's heartland, according to two new national studies.
A report by the Century Foundation examined Midwestern states such as Minnesota and Iowa under the label of "immigration's new frontiers."
Before 1995, about 75 percent of the nation's immigrants lived in only six states: California, New York, Florida, Illinois, Texas and New Jersey. Now that share has fallen to about 66 percent, as 22 other states, including Minnesota, have seen rapid growth, the report says.
Inexperienced state and local governments are improvising policies to adjust to the newcomers, the report said. "But ... they almost invariably are halting and far from adequate to achieve whatever goal officials are trying to determine," it said.
That study comes after another on the same topic by Leif Jensen, a rural sociologist at Penn State University, who said the upside of an effort such as Rochester's is the message it sends.
"The receptivity of local leaders to new immigrant groups is critical if they are going to assimilate successfully and adapt to the local culture and economy," Jensen said. "Around the country we are seeing antagonism in some places, and others where local officials are taking a very receptive stance to new immigrant groups -- in some cases, even folks they think might be undocumented, but whom they see as human beings first and foremost."
A need on several fronts
Immigrant and Spanish teacher Ivonne Parry started working in the Rochester schools just a couple of years ago -- and at once, she said, began hearing requests from staff members to teach them some Spanish.
This year she launched a program to equip them with useful phrases: janitors who can say "no running in the hallways" in Spanish, and teachers who can tell parents their children are having problems without depending on the students to translate.
"It's backed by the school district 100 percent," said Erin Spencer, the district's head of staff development. "The size constraints of a small computer lab made us limit it to 17 people, but there's a waiting list if we offer it again. And after hearing feedback about wanting to move further along, we're looking at Spanish 2 and 3."
Police and fire officials in Rochester, which has about 97,000 residents, are piloting a far more ambitious program: one that seeks to turn emergency responders into Spanish speakers via an online program. About 80 people volunteered.
"Eighty percent of our runs are medical, including crash victims," said Deputy Fire Chief Lyle Felsch. "It's important to understand, 'Are you all right? Where do you hurt?' Our purpose is get a rudimentary understanding of language, even if we're not really fluent."
Parry was delighted to learn that scores of city police officers and firefighters had volunteered to learn foreign languages, but she doesn't believe that 20 minutes a day online is going to equip them to accomplish much.
City officials are recommending that amount of online study during the pilot period. Linda Trude, senior director of institutional marketing for Rosetta Stone, the company offering the program, said the company recommends more time than that: "Three to four hours a week, in 45- to 60-minute increments."
Firefighters in particular, with downtime during their long shifts, could well spend more time than that. "We do live in the fire hall in 24-hour shifts," Mueller said. "It gives us time to study. I've started in on Lesson 1-C, and I'm doing pretty good: 'females, males, boys, girls, airplanes, horses, dogs.' "
Variety poses problems
Ideally, Felsch said, first responders would know a range of languages, but the variety of origins for Minnesota's immigrants and refugees makes that a challenge.
"With 57 languages spoken in our schools, it's impossible for officers always to have a second language at hand," he said.
The willingness of Minnesota police officers to learn immigrants' languages is noteworthy at a time of much anti- immigrant sentiment, said Katherine Fennelly, professor of public affairs at the University of Minnesota and the author of the Minnesota portion of the Century Foundation report. Officers in Apple Valley, for instance, have learned Spanish.
As halting as some efforts might sound, said Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight, who records his voice-mail message in Spanish as well as English, it's important to make the effort.
"The fact that I'm trying," he said, "is a sign of respect."
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Source: Star Tribune, Dec 10, 2006