Article printed in Sustainable Travel Report, Vol. 3 No. 7, July 2005. The Sustainable Travel Report newsletter is available at http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org.
When you travel, knowing the local language can mean the difference between a good trip and a great one, staying healthy, getting lost or sitting on the most beautiful, silky sand beach you’ve ever seen.
Speak Shop is doing its part to promote healthier, happier trips to Spanish-speaking countries while helping to alleviate poverty in those countries. Through private tutoring and simple video conferencing technology, Speak Shop makes it easy for people throughout the world to take face-to-face Spanish lessons with experienced instructors in Guatemala. Before a traveler sets sail for Latin America, they can take one-on-one Spanish lessons from home through their computer using video, audio and text chat. Every lesson is personalized and can be scheduled at the traveler’s convenience.
For example, a Spanish teacher earns about $1.50 per hour working in Guatemala and faces layoffs during slow seasons, but at Speak Shop they can teach year-round and set their own rates. At the same time, students receive affordable private tutoring, paying just $5 or $6 per hour, and avoid the hassles of driving to lessons or committing to fixed class schedules.
Speak Shop was awarded “Best Social Return on Investment” in the 2005 SET Inventors Challenge: Social and Environmental Technology for the Developing World, a business plan competition for companies that generate social or environmental benefits in developing countries.
Speak Shop plans to expand beyond Guatemala and Spanish in the future. “We hope to create an international online community and make it easier for people all over the world to communicate,” said Co-founder Cindy Cooper. “Globalization has connected our economies, but people are still divided by cultural, political and religious beliefs. Understanding and acceptance start with language.”
About Speak Shop
Speak Shop was founded by Clay and Cindy Cooper, and its mission is to increase access to foreign language education while providing new economic opportunities for tutors in developing countries.
