Voices en Español

This is interesting…The Instituto Cervantes announced this week that it has been hired by Starbucks Corp. to teach Spanish to its 100,000 U.S.-based employees. Lucky baristas.

El Instituto Cervantes is a non-profit organization created by the Spanish government to teach the Spanish language and raise awareness about Spanish culture around the world. And Starbucks, of course, needs no introduction as it is the world’s dominant coffee house chain.

The fact that the Instituto Cervantes got this contract is quite a coup, considering the size of the Starbucks operation in the U.S. The classes will take place online through the Instituto Cervantes’ Aula Virtual de Español (el AVE, for short, just like the acronym for Spain’s high-speed train), and the instructors will be from the University of Washington’s Spanish language department in Seattle. At this point it’s unclear exactly how many Starbucks employees will enroll and whether this education benefit is specifically for them to use Spanish on the job.

When I used to live in New York City I took three different courses at the Instituto Cervantes in Manhattan and the instructors were really top-notch. I think that Starbucks employees who take advantage of this company perk are going to be very satisfied, if they stick with the course. Their progress will be monitored quaterly, and at the end of 12 months they can take the DELE exam (Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera), which is a nice piece of paper to have for anyone wishing to have proof of their level of Spanish.

And who knows? Maybe in a few months the Starbucks baristas will be taking your order in Spanish, instead of English.