Greetings from Oaxaca (wah-HAH-kah), Mexico – home of delicious moles (MOH-lays), mezcal and a lot more sunshine than Chicago this time of year. I’m here with my husband and 3 1/2 year old son, escaping the cold, short days of December, brushing up on my Spanish, exposing my son to as many linguistic and cultural experiences as possible and enjoying the change of pace.
We’ve seen many fascinating things since arriving two weeks ago, but the most unique thing we’ve experienced was Noche de Rábanos, a radish festival where artisans carve religious and secular figures into enormous radishes and display them in the center of town.
Not something you see everyday – but it was an incredible site indeed. And it happens here every year on December 23rd.
As the year comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on a number of things, and when those thoughts turn to business, I think about the unexpected birth of Multilingual Chicago in late October of this year. I started Workforce Language Services almost five years ago – just me, in the spare room off the kitchen, with a website and a cell phone. The plan was to provide onsite Spanish and English training, similar to what I had done for 130 Chipotle restaurants through the Midwest. Then the translations started, and we finished our basement so that there would be room for two people to work (plus, often times, a baby in a bouncy seat). And then we added another desk. And another. And then it dawned on me: it was time to leave the basement.
I was mixed about. Not work from home anymore? Not be able to fold laundry in sweat pants while on a conference call? Trade slippers for shoes? But the opportunity to grow and change in ways we didn’t expect! To be able to have a client come to my office! To be able to separate work and home a little more! I started looking at vacant spaces – all within walking distance of my home and son’s daycare – and fell in love with the exposed brick wall and tall windows of what is now our current space. But could I really justify jumping from a small basement office to over 1500 square feet of space? How else might we use the space to make it make sense for us, I wondered? One night, not long after seeing the space, I couldn’t sleep…and I then found myself outlining what would soon become Multilingual Chicago.
We now have two personalities. Workforce Language Services continues to provide corporate language and diversity training and translation/transcription/interpretation services in over 50 languages. Multilingual Chicago is our storefront, our new labor of love dedicated to honoring and promoting the multilingual and multicultural nature of our city. We started in October with Spanish classes for adults and kids, and we’re excited to expand our offerings to include French and Mandarin starting in January. But it’s not just about language. As a linguistic anthropologist, I can’t separate culture from language, and you’ll see that in our classes and our cultural events.
I invite you to join us, to celebrate with us and to help shape us as we move into 2010. But more than anything, I wish you, your families and communities a happy, healthy and peaceful year ahead.
Jill Kushner Bishop
Founder & President
Workforce Language Services | Multilingual Chicago
