Adult students learning English as a second language treated children to sights and sounds of two different cultures Wednesday at Statesboro Regional Library.
    Today is International Literacy Day, and students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses taught by Amy Perry celebrated one day early. "One World, Many Stories" was bannered across the wall as they turned the library's regular story time into International Story Time.
    Koreans are the most numerous nationality in local ESOL classes. So it was mostly a Korean show, but with an Indian
interlude.
    One group performed a children's song about an alligator and another about a rabbit, with a dance between songs. Yoobin Choi, a young Korean woman who has been in the United States just three months and uses the nickname "Alex," sang a song about a tadpole. A third group of Korean adults performed the puppet show "The Wise Hare."
    Rupama Pattrea then told the story of "A Baby Palm Tree" from her native India. She also shared the nonsense poem "Hatti mattim tim" about creatures that might remind Americans of the Purple People Eater, except they have "two straight horns" instead of one.
    Then some Korean students explained the Korean thanksgiving holiday Choosuk and modeled traditional Korean clothes, called hanbok. These are sometimes worn for Choosuk and other special occasions.
    For the finale, the ESOL students had the children join them in a circular parade. A man named Heese Kang led them, banging a small gong that Koreans use to add cheer to celebrations.
    Afterwards, the Korean students invited the children to try on child-size hanbok. A few did, with smiles and giggles. The children, ages 4 and under, also received free books in the library's fall RIF distribution.
    Perry is employed by Ogeechee Technical College and teaches ESOL classes Monday and Wednesday mornings at the library and Tuesday and Thursday evenings at Ogeechee Tech. In a federally funded program through the school system, she also teaches English to parents with children at the Langston Chapel and Sallie Zetterower elementary schools.
    In all, she instructs more than 70 immigrant adults in English. She has students from Argentina, China, Honduras, Mexico and Russia, as well as India and South Korea. A citizenship preparation course also is available through her program at the college.