A working vocabulary

At the end of his shift in the frigid fish house, the 18-year-old worker from Guatemala slapped the last labels on crates of codfish and cherrystones and hurried out of his orange rubber pants.

In jeans and a T-shirt, Heriberto Mazariegos raced upstairs to a small conference room at John Nagle Co., on the edge of Boston Harbor, to spend two extra hours at work - learning English.

The seafood company, which has been hosting classes since March, is one of a growing number of Massachusetts companies tackling the language barrier among immigrant workers.

About 20 Boston area businesses offer free English classes at work, and demand is high: Nearly 15,000 workers across Massachusetts are on waiting lists for classes, including 3,500 in Boston alone, according to state and city officials.

"When I came here, I didn't understand anything, not even when they asked my name," Mazariegos, who has been in the United States nearly a year, said after his class, which has drawn a handful of workers from his and other companies. "I want to learn quickly."

State and local officials are urging businesses to teach English, instead of relying on schools and nonprofits, which have a hard time keeping up with demand.

Immigrants made up 17 percent of the state's workforce in 2004, nearly double the percentage in 1980, according to a study by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth and the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. And more than a fifth of all immigrants aren't fluent in English, according to the study.

Hotels, hospitals, and others in the service industry are especially eager to boost English skills to improve customer service and help low-wage workers earn promotions.

Hebrew Rehabilitation Center, a 725-bed facility in Roslindale, started English classes in January, hoping to turn nurse's aides into nurses. Tufts-New England Medical Center began classes early this month, so that housekeepers and other workers could better chat with patients. Several hotels also started classes in recent years, including the Boston Marriott Copley Place.

Jerry Rubin, president of Jewish Vocational Service, a Boston-based nonprofit agency that runs job-training programs, said the group's English classes at workplaces such as Nagle are on the rise. The organization teaches about 500 students, triple the number three years ago, at more than a dozen workplaces in Greater Boston.

"For Massachusetts companies to compete and to continue to grow, they have to invest in the skills of their immigrant workers," Rubin said.

The classes at Nagle are part of a pilot program funded through the city's Office of New Bostonians in partnership with private donors and businesses. The office launched the classes in March and hopes to expand them citywide, said the director, the Rev. Cheng Imm Tan. State agencies, including the departments of labor and education, also finance workplace classes.

Under the city's program, the city and private foundations pay $105,000 to cover class materials and instructors. The four participating companies give workers two hours off each week for class; any additional instruction is on the workers' time.

Classes generally last one semester and meet twice a week for two hours at a time. Instructors say they notice improvement and increased confidence among students after a few months, if not weeks. About 30 students attend classes through the program.

On a recent day, snowsuit-clad employees working in Nagle's refrigerated plant among buckets of ice, fish hooks, and stacks of tuna and swordfish said the classes are worthwhile. Most speak Spanish or Portuguese, but they said English is key to getting ahead.

They see how the company's vice president, Robert Nagle, relies on bilingual supervisors to greet customers and relay instructions to workers. And the employees have to know the difference between monkfish and swordfish, for example, to stock and label the product.

A few months ago, a client asked Mazariegos a question, twice, and he couldn't answer it. He had to find a translator, a more highly paid immigrant who spoke English.

"I felt bad," he said.

Now, workers from Nagle, Global Protection, Harpoon Brewery, and North Star Management troop twice a week to a tiny conference room, where they sit on plush red chairs to learn English. Under the guidance of a teacher, the immigrants from Latin America watch videos, read aloud, and write on worksheets.

Sometimes after a long shift, the instructors have them play games to stay engaged. In one recent class, Germania Vega, 26, from the Dominican Republic, had to guess an English word, based on clues from her classmates.

Mazariegos, who struggles to pronounce English words, had hardly spoken all class. But he burst out in English, "What do you need more in your lunch?"

Soon, Vega had the answer: "Time."

Hebrew Rehabilitation Center started teaching English after it secured funding to send nurse's aides to college to become licensed practical nurses, but many weren't fluent enough for college work. Learning English could help the company groom its own nurses, and the $14-an-hour nurse's aides could double their pay.

"Here, we had this money for this program and couldn't find anyone who could go into it," said Susan Natale, the organization's career development program manager.

"It became obvious that we had to offer language classes just to get people ready for college," Natale said.

Tufts-New England Medical Center and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, a state-owned entity, also started classes in Boston partly to improve customer service. Massachusetts General Hospital and Legal Sea Foods have offered classes for years.

"It's vital for the workers," said Rocio Saenz, president of Service Employees International Union Local 615, which represents many workers at the convention center. "Many times they are the first face that tourists and clients see."

At the Nagle class, several employees said they had trouble getting to English classes outside work. But they said they were eager to learn English, because they dream of better jobs.

Martha Cruz, 27, said she wants to work in a warm office. Mazariegos would like to be a supervisor at Nagle.

Elmer Najarro, 23, finished high school in El Salvador and would love to attend college someday.

"They say I'm learning fast," Najarro said. "I am trying to learn. I'm willing to do anything, if they give me the chance."