SARATOGA SPRINGS — Stepping out into the streets of Saratoga Springs isn’t the only time Fitriyah Clark has to get used to her new culture.

Just waking up in her own home with her American husband is a new experience for the Indonesian native.

Clark married Maestro’s restaurant chef Edward Clark two weeks after getting off the plane in December. The two had met while she was on vacation in New York City two years ago and kept up a long-distance relationship.

Although the enthusiastic 31-year-old seems to have a good grasp on the English language, she said she’d like to speak it even better.

That’s why she started attending English classes for speakers of other languages at the Saratoga Springs Public Library.

“I have to decide, either he’s moving to Jakarta or I’m moving to America,” Clark said about her decision to come here. “He said it’s better for me to move to America.”

Clark is one of about eight area residents who attend a conversation class at the library that is taught by a Literacy Northeastern New York volunteer. It started in May and runs three Friday mornings a month.

The students themselves asked for the conversation class as a supplement to the one-on-one tutoring offered through Literacy NENY.

“Even if they have tutors, often when they leave their tutoring session, they go back to their workplace and their home, and they don’t have an opportunity to use [the language skills]. And they lose it,” said Maria Lange, Saratoga County program coordinator.

A similar class was launched in Clifton Park about a year ago and has seven students, Lange said.

She hopes to add an evening class in Saratoga Springs to accommodate the schedules of immigrants who can’t meet during the day.

They’re a global bunch around the table, with immigrants from Nepal, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, Thailand and Indonesia.

“It’s been a nice melting pot of backgrounds,” Lange said.

During a Friday morning class, they took turns reading aloud paragraphs of a story about building the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico, and then switched to an installment of an ongoing unit on health under instructor Margaret Macey’s direction.

“The purpose of this is to get everyone comfortable talking to doctors,” Macey told the class.

The topics are real-world and relevant to immigrants trying to make it here.

“Next week we’re going to talk about how to call 911,” she said.

Macey encourages the students and doesn’t talk down to them.

“She talks to them about what’s going on in their lives,” Lange said. “She tries to address what they need.”

On Friday before class, Macey looked over some immigration paperwork one couple received in the mail and explained what it meant.

Johane Gareau said learning English is the toughest thing about her move here from Montreal, Canada two months ago.

Gareau, who worked as a high school science teacher in her native country, plans to make studying the language her biggest priority. “I want to learn English for this moment,” she said.

She moved to Saratoga Springs after her husband and two other professionals started a high-tech business, Free Form Fibers, on Congress Street.

Although Literacy NENY also focuses on giving English-speaking adults better reading and writing skills, student demand for English as a second language classes has seen the most growth in recent years.

A new class for Saratoga Race Course backstretch workers is set to start on Tuesday and continue until the end of the training season in early November under the tutelage of Peg Lindsay of Clifton Park, a literacy volunteer since 2002.

Lindsay, 71, is a retired elementary school teacher from Shenendehowa Central School District and enjoys working with adults as a one-on-one tutor.

“A lot of the students who I’ve had are very well-educated,” she said.

The experience has forced her to think differently about language.

“I’m very interested in seeing how different languages relate. It’s like a puzzle, and it’s just interesting intellectually.”

Literacy NENY has about 90 trained tutors, 75 of whom are currently active. Still, some students are awaiting tutors, so the organization is seeking new volunteers to train during sessions in Saratoga Springs, Clifton Park and Glens Falls this fall.

Visit www.literacyneny.org for more information, or call 226-0040.

Volunteers are required to attend an orientation and about 15 hours of training, then are expected to make a two-hour commitment per week for a year.

September is Literacy Awareness Month, and several regional stores are donating a percentage of sales on given days to Literacy NENY.

Framework on Phila Street and Chico’s on Broadway are participating, as well as Red Fox Books in Glens Falls. Chico’s will donate up to 10 percent of each sale on Sept. 28 at the customer’s request.

Saratoga Springs Yoga will donate class fees from one class this month to Literacy NENY.

The photo exhibit “Faces and stories of literacy” by local photographer Ed Burke has been on display at Rockhill Cafe in Glens Falls since Sept. 10. It will travel around the region this year.