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Archive for the ‘Multilingual Chicago’ Category
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Can’t tell the difference between a pupusa and an arepa? What about pronouncing dishes in Spanish from the menu?
Fret not! Multilingual Chicago is excited to bring you the first ever Logan Square Latino Culinary Tour!
Chicago is home to some of the greatest Latin American eateries in the US, thanks to the large immigrant communities and a booming interest in local cuisines and ingredients. From the newest restaurants downtown to the neighborhood cafes, we are blessed with a wide array of cuisines from which to sample.
This Fall, Multilingual Chicago has teamed up with 6 local restaurants in the Logan Square area to bring you a food tour of the countries of Ecuador, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Panama and Cuba. Best of all, begin your tour with a 1 hour Spanish lesson at our language center, and learn the basics of pronunciation, greetings, and cultural key facts.
The event will take place on Saturday, September 25th, from 11 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
The cost is $45 and includes a 1 hour language lesson, all food/drinks/tips and transportation from our our center. Spots are limited so please reserve today! For more information, please see our main cultural events page!
Please click here to register!
Posted in Cuisine, Culture, Multilingual Chicago | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
When I was teaching high school Spanish in the early 90s, I invariably heard the question “When am I ever going to need this?” It was a familiar question that I often heard my own classmates utter when I was in high school in the mid-80s. At the time, living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, I wasn’t all that sure myself when Spanish would be useful to me, but I had a sense that it was important anyway.
It’s hard to imagine that our kids, when they get to 9th grade, will be asking that same question. They may not like Spanish – or whatever second language they’re studying – but I highly doubt that, as they walk down the streets of our ever-more multicultural city, they’ll wonder why a second language would come in handy. But even more than that, I hope that they’ll have been exposed to a second (if not third!) language long before they reach 9th grade.
Posted in Language Acquisition, Multilingual Chicago, Spanish | No Comments »
Monday, March 29th, 2010
The deal era. It’s amazing.
We’re the feature today on YouSwoop, one of the many deal sites that have popped up lately. We’ve sold 140 so far with 10 hours left to go. We were on Groupon in December and sold over 600. Compared to today’s Groupon deal for Wendella Boats (19,000 sold and counting) that’s nothing, but for us, we’re happy with our numbers! As a new business, there are many ways to get the word out, but most of them are extremely expensive and questionably effective. It’s been interesting experimenting with deals to see what sells and how many people buy. In the end, the goal is to get people through our door, have them fall in love with us and come back…and tell their friends.
Our Spring session starts next week, and we’ve got Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin and Arabic for adults. Our kids’ classes start the following week with Spanish, French and Mandarin. Whether you’re taking advantage of an incredible discount or paying full price, we can guarantee you that we’ll be thrilled to have you and will do whatever we can to ensure that your experience is great on all fronts. We still have some spots open, so come on and check us out!
Posted in Culture, Multilingual Chicago, Our Upcoming Events | No Comments »
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
I sent the following email out on March 18th:
Hi everyone:
Today is the last day of our Winter session, and I wanted to thank you for spending time with us at Multilingual Chicago. Today is also the 5th anniversary of Workforce Language Services – our parent company that provides corporate language training and translation services. I never expected to be a business owner, but little decisions and events over time take you in directions you don’t always expect (which is why I’m no longer teaching linguistic anthropology to undergraduates and discussing issues of language ideology and language obsolescence!). Even years into my business, I never expected that I’d one day open a language school – I was just looking for an office so we could move out of my cramped basement. I fell in love with the exposed brick wall, the big windows and the mix of cultures right outside our door, sketched out a floor plan and figured we could offer a few group classes to help pay the rent. And here we are, less than five months later, and Multilingual Chicago has taken on a life of its own. We’re growing and changing all the time, and we are thankful to everyone that has been involved in that growth.
For those of you that plan to continue your journey with us in the Spring – whether for Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin or Arabic – please use the code MCSTDNT10 at checkout from now until March 24th to enjoy $35 off your registration. For those that don’t, we still hope to see you at some point, whether for another language class down the road, a wine tasting event or just a quick stop by to say hello. If your experience with us has been positive, please tell your friends ($15 tuition credit for referrals!) or share your comments on yelp, google or yahoo. If your experience has not been all that you hoped it would be, please tell me so I know what modifications need to be made.
Thank you for your support, your patience and for trusting us to guide you in your language learning. I hope we’ll be seeing you again in April!
Warm regards,
Jill
Five years? Wow. Love it. And the more people that walk through our door, the more fun it is for me every day.
Posted in Multilingual Chicago | No Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Week #1 of our Winter 2010 session, and oh my! Those who were around for our first session that started the last week in October of last year would hardly recognize the place. The difference? People! Thanks largely to a wildly successful Groupon experience (631 people bought our deal), we’ve got multiple sessions of Spanish, Italian and French, as well as a beginner-level Mandarin class. Our cafe is filled before class with folks relaxing and enjoying some tea, coffee or wine (and they’re actually starting to talk to each other, too).
Interestingly, today’s New York Times reported that schools through the US are rushing to offer Mandarin Chinese classes – and in many cases, the Chinese government is helping pay for them. Among middle and high schools, 4% – up from 1% in 1997 – are teaching Mandarin, and it’s predicted to be the third most popular AP language test, following Spanish and French.
Unfortunately, many schools are cutting their foreign language programs altogether, often citing No Child Left Behind as a factor in that decision. In this ever-more-global world we live in, that’s a decision we can’t afford to make.
Posted in Language Acquisition, Multilingual Chicago | No Comments »
Monday, December 28th, 2009
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
Posted in Multilingual Chicago | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
This weekend was our first Bilingual Boot Camp: an intense Saturday/Sunday introduction to Spanish for those who want a quick-hit learning experience. We had four people in class, all of whom came to the session with different needs and goals. In addition to covering the basics of Spanish grammar and throwing more vocabulary at the participants than most brains can absorb, they addressed culture as well. Given our Logan Square/Avondale location, exposure to Latino culture is not something that has to be limited to inside the classroom. The students walked around our strip of Milwaukee Avenue (2900 North), bought fresh, delicious pastries at the Mexican bakery, ate lunch at the Ecuadorian restaurant – and, of course, practiced their Spanish at the same time. A great learning experience overall.
So in advance of the weekend, I posted the information on some Linkedin groups that I belong to, and I was surprised this morning to read the following comment on one of them, a healthcare group:
Jill–What do Spanish lessons have to do with health care? This posting is not related to health care nor networking nor business events.
You can imagine my surprise at the ignorance of this question. I was motivated to respond as follows:
Spanish has everything to do with healthcare. According to the 2005 National Health Disparities Report, Latinos have poorer quality care and worse access to care compared with non-Latino whites for 88 percent of measured outcomes, and Latinos are 18% less likely to report difficulties or delays getting care. The language barrier plays an enormous role in this.
In a city like Chicago, with 26% of the population being of Latino background and precious few doctors/providers equipped with the linguistic and cultural knowledge necessary for quality care, Spanish training is one of many crucial steps. Bilingual Boot Camp provides general introductory Spanish, and while we offer healthcare-specific Spanish training too, even the basics can make the difference when it comes to creating trust with patients, their families and the community.
The Latino population is expected to triple by 2050, so healthcare organizations – like others – that recognize this and start preparing will be best poised to succeed.
What does Spanish have to do with healthcare? It has everything to do with healthcare these days, and in many ways beyond the points I addressed. And I’d argue that today, like it or not, Spanish has just about everything to do with everything.
Posted in Cultural Competence, Language Acquisition, Latino Culture, Multilingual Chicago, Spanish | No Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
So Multilingual Chicago just finished its first official week! From Spanish for Parents/Tots on up through Advanced Conversation, we’re off to a great start! We’re settled into our space and enjoying the colors, our cozy kitchen and watching people peer in our windows, curious as to what we’re all about.
We still have room in some of our classes, so let us know if you’d like to try anything out. We’ll soon begin working on our schedule for January, so please also let us know if there’s a particular class you’d like to see.
Also, we just got a great write-up in Crazy Kids Chicago, so please check it out!
As always, let us know what we can do to meet your language and culture needs.
Thanks!
Jill & the MC Team
Posted in Multilingual Chicago | No Comments »
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