Speaking Spanish no hay problema for Roosevelt Elementary School students.

The reason there is no problem speaking Spanish is some of the students are learning the language from students in the intermediate Spanish class at Bismarck State College.

"It's pretty fun," sixth-grader Jeffrey Pitcher said. "it's fun to learn another language."

His sentiment was echoed by third-grader Josh Rhoades.

"I wanted to learn a new language and trick my mom," he said.

Josh likes how his Spanish class goes to the college, or the BSC students come to his school. For the past four Thursdays, the students either went to BSC or the BSCstudents came to Roosevelt. They learned common phrases in Spanish, such as how to say their name, and describe people.

"They enjoy it and absorb it that much faster," BSC Spanish professor Ryan Pitcher said.

He was using repetition with the students instead of focusing on grammar, verb tenses and sentence structure to teach the language. His approach was similar to teaching a child his first language, instead of comparing the second language to his first language, he said.

The weekly classes are part of the enrichment clusters offered at Roosevelt. Students learn about a variety of subjects from people in the community through these small classes. The students staged their own version of the Grammys - the "Teddys" - or participated in one of a variety of other topics. Josh learned about cooking last year and also did a cluster on sports.

Josh would like to do Spanish as a cluster again next year, if it is offered.

Pitcher is on to middle school, and he will have to wait until ninth grade to pick up Spanish again, unless he learns it from his father, he said.

In Bismarck Public Schools, foreign language is offered as an elective, beginning in ninth grade. The exception is at Simle Middle School, where students can begin taking a foreign language as an elective beginning in seventh grade, according to the course offerings by grade.

The college students who worked with the Roosevelt students plan to use Spanish in their future careers, Pitcher said. They took turns with different lessons, such as teaching colors or articles of clothing.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)