LAUREL CONRAN: "The program is a six-week session. It's once a week, on every Wednesday, from twelve to one o'clock. So every Wednesday I go to Coastal Sunbelt."

As the Burmese workers eat lunch, they also practice their new language skills. They sit in small groups with an English-speaking volunteer.

Lisa Chertok has a child at Bollman Bridge. She is also a manager at Coastal Sunbelt. She helped Ms. Conran develop the lessons, which she says have really helped.

LISA CHERTOK: "Well, when the Burmese employees got here, they were very, very shy. Now I find that they are more responsive as employees. They're more communicative. They're also, as parents, they are more involved in their children's school."

Jonathan Davis is the principal of Bollman Bridge Elementary School.

JONATHAN DAVIS: "I really see it as the beginning of a great partnership between a business and a school, and we've just begun to scratch the surface with how that could benefit, really, the greater community."

Mr. Davis hopes the lessons will help Burmese parents feel better about communicating with the school.

JONATHAN DAVIS: "Even as simply as making a phone call to say that their son or daughter is sick, even if that's the amount of English that they have gotten from the program, that truly will help us."

SPEAKER: "Please welcome Laurel Conran and Lisa Chertok."

For their work, the two women received a Community Builders Award from Howard County.