Boomers and seniors learning to speak Spanish are seeing real advantages in working one-to-one with personal Spanish tutors via the Internet. These adult students love the convenience, personalized curriculum, and fun of conversing with a native Spanish speaker in Central America using online videoconferencing.

Students have used Speak Shop, a seven-year-old company, to take more than 20,000 lessons online from Spanish tutors in Guatemala. Using their personal computers, students reserve a 50-minute lesson that fits their schedule and then videoconference with their tutor using the free software application, Skype.

Carol Griffin, a 70-year-old student, said, “Before Speak Shop I tried group classes at our local community center and CDs to learn Spanish. I love Speak Shop because the one-to-one classes really focus on my level, interests, and needs. My tutor, Rebeca, is patient, encouraging, and always fun to work with.” Carol and her daughter, Margo, who also learns Spanish at Speak Shop, recently traveled to Guatemala to meet their tutors and be immersed in the Spanish-speaking culture. “It was incredible to meet Rebeca and Mayra,” said Margo who had never thought of going to Guatemala before taking Spanish lessons through Speak Shop, “They are wonderful people, and my mom and I are already talking about returning someday.”

Guatemala is a world-renowned destination for learning Spanish. Hundreds of Spanish immersion schools comprise one of the country’s primary tourism industries. Speak Shop tutors have been teaching Spanish for 10 to 25 years at these schools. In addition to teaching Spanish language skills, they are able to explain culture and customs from an insider’s perspective and can customize the lesson on any number of topics to match each student’s interests.

Speak Shop has seen a spike in boomer and senior students. This trend may be due in part to an interest in preventative health care. A 2010 study from the Rotman Research Institute and York University found that being bilingual may delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease compared to those who spoke only one language.

Americans are finding it increasingly useful to be able to speak Spanish both at home and abroad. Spanish is the second most common language spoken in the United States and the second most common language spoken by native speakers in the world. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Latinos are the largest minority group in the U.S. and 1 of every 6 Americans, about 50 million people, are Hispanic.

In Guatemala, Spanish tutoring is a seasonal business, and Speak Shop enables its tutors to work throughout the year. “Speak Shop is a blessing because I am able to work from home and better able to provide for my family,” said Claritza Morales, 2010 Speak Shop Tutor of the year.

From now until Mother’s Day (Sunday May 8th, 2011) Speak Shop is offering adults age 50 and older the Unlimited Monthly Membership for $19.99—a 50% discount off the regular monthly price of $39.99 (lessons purchased separately). Details are available at http://www.speakshop.com/seniors.

Speak Shop is using 21st century technology to re-establish the benefits of learning Spanish from a human instructor. Speak Shop is a Certified B Corporation founded in 2004 to increase access to cross-cultural foreign language education and to generate economic opportunity for people in developing countries. For more details watch a demonstration video: http://www.speakshop.com/01_demo

Clay Cooper had always struggled to learn Spanish. It wasn’t until he studied in Guatemala at age 31 that he finally succeeded.

Untours Catalog Fall 2009

During that trip he also learned that hard work and education did not always pay off. With limited opportunities in Guatemala, even his university-educated tutor lived in poverty. That experience inspired (www.SpeakShop.com), an online fair trade language tutoring business Clay founded with his wife, Cindy Cooper.

Speak Shop gives language tutors the training and technology to become micro-entrepreneurs, reaching customers worldwide and teaching via webcam. While tutors improve their livelihoods, by setting their own rates and hours, people who hunger to learn a language log onto their website to take one-on-one lessons.  These are only two of the many reasons Speak Shop was a finalist for the 2007 Project Enterprise Contest on PBS, which highlighted social entrepreneurs.

Untours Catalog Learn a Language for Good

Currently, Speak Shop’s tutors come from Guatemala, Nicaragua and Brazil. Cindy & Clay hope their business will grow to include many countries and generate a variety of cross-cultural connections. In addition, the software they have created will be usable by other businesses that address poverty.

“For me, the true benefit of an immersion program was developing a friendship with my tutor,” said Clay. “I now care deeply about what happens in Guatemala.  I hope that through Speak Shop we can share this experience at a global level and increase cultural awareness and concern.”

Check out the website at www.speakshop.com, and try a free lesson!

Speak Shop Leads the Industry in Social Performance Standards by Becoming the First Language Instruction Provider to Achieve B Corp Certification

PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Speak Shop, http://www.speakshop.com, a pioneer in online language tutoring via webcam, reported today they have been certified a B (Benefit) Corporation. B Corporations are a new kind of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. The certification performance standards are comprehensive and transparent. They measure a company’s impact on its employees, suppliers, community, and the environment. Certified B Corporations meet higher standards of social and environmental performance and accountability.

Created to fight poverty and to connect people around the world for face-to-face language lessons, Speak Shop offers customized, one-on-one Spanish lessons which customers can reserve and take at their convenience using their computer and a webcam. Speak Shop is the only company that strategically invites low-income tutors in developing countries to teach online as micro businesses owners. Speak Shop’s global customer base has provided tutors with sustainable income, and Speak Shop teaches tutors new computing and business skills.

“B Corporation certification represents what we believe in. We want to be part of a community of businesses that are committed to solving social and environmental problems. We also like embedding these values into our governing documents to ensure clarity and common purpose within the company and with investors and other stakeholders,” says Co-founder, Cindy Cooper.

About Speak Shop

Speak Shop was founded in 2004 to increase access to cross-cultural foreign language education and to generate economic opportunity for people in developing countries. Speak Shop makes it possible to schedule, purchase and take one-on-one Spanish lessons by webcam with tutors in Latin America. Connected to a world market and empowered as micro-entrepreneurs, tutors move from poverty to prosperity. Customers are able to take personalized, cross-cultural lessons at their convenience using a computer and high speed Internet connection. For more details visit http://www.speakshop.com.

About B Corp

B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Corporations are unlike traditional responsible businesses because they: meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards, institutionalize stakeholder interests, and build collective voice through the power of a unifying brand. For more details visit http://www.bcorporation.net/.

The 19-year-old needed the class to graduate this spring, but the school couldn’t afford to hire a Spanish teacher.

Jackie Spinos, a student at the Burlington Evening Academy, learns from a Guatemalan tutor via Skype. (JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

The That meant Spinos would have to take an expensive online class, a community college course, or go to summer school – an option that would have delayed graduation.

Then school administrators discovered Speak Shop, a program that connects students to tutors in Guatemala and Venezuela. Students and teachers use Skype, a free software program that allows them to talk to and see one another one on one.

“It was a perfect fit for our evening academy,” said Burlington High principal Patrick Larkin. “We have a lot of kids trying to finish off high school diplomas. To sit with a native speaker one on one, I can’t imagine a better format. It’s also helping people in Third World countries gain a fair wage.”

The Burlington Evening Academy is the first school in the nation to use Speak Shop and is among the first in the state to take advantage of videoconferencing in the classroom, officials said.

Speak Shop was founded by Portland, Ore., resident Clay Cooper in 2005 as a way for people to learn Spanish from a native speaker without the cost of paying for an immersion program. Until this year, all his students were adults learning the language for work or travel, he said.

Superintendent Eric Conti of Burlington learned about Speak Shop through a relative and thought it might work in the evening program, which offers classes at night for students trying to earn enough credits for graduation.

There are about 20 students in the evening program, and each year there are new challenges, said Georgia Devine, director of the evening academy. Each student needs different credits for graduation, so the program has to be tailored to meet students’ needs. This year, five students needed art, for example, so the program hired an art teacher.
The students participating in the evening program have passed the 10th-grade MCAS exams required for graduation and typically have a year’s or two years’ worth of credits remaining, Larkin said.

Most are students who have to work during the day for financial reasons or who have struggled to keep up in a traditional seven-period day schedule, he said. The program has eight teachers but not all are used each night depending on the schedule.

But just two of the students had not met their foreign language requirement of two years. Thanks to the Speak Shop program, the two girls are taking Spanish this year and plan to graduate in the spring, Devine said.

“It’s difficult to meet that requirement because we are not going to hire a teacher for two students,” Devine said. “It’s been an incredible godsend.”
Each Tuesday evening, the two students each meet for 45 minutes with Milvia Vásquez, the Guatemalan tutor arranged through Speak Shop. The class is conducted in Spanish.

Spinos, one of the students taking the class, said she likes it much more than a regular class.

“It’s really different,” she said. “It’s more one on one and you can understand more.”

Without it, Spinos said, she probably would have taken a summer class and would not have received her diploma this spring.

Larkin said it’s a pilot program that could be expanded to other areas of the school if successful. So far, all signs are pointing in that direction, he said.

The students are engaged and appear to be doing well, school officials said. The students were assessed at the beginning of the class and will take a test at the end to see how well they’ve progressed, Larkin said.

“I definitely think not too far down the road if we can show the quality of the instruction, we’d be crazy not to look at it from a variety of different angles,” Larkin said.

He said it wouldn’t take the place of the existing foreign languages program but could be used to supplement it and help as many students as possible meet requirements.

“We’re ahead of the curve on this, and we’re happy to be looking at it,” Larkin said. “It looks pretty promising.”

Cooper came up with the idea for Speak Shop after traveling to Guatemala to learn Spanish at an immersion school in 1998.

He was 31 at the time and wasn’t confident he’d come home speaking Spanish.

“I got the best instruction I ever could’ve wanted,” he said. “I thought, wow, if I can do this, anyone can learn a language this way.”

He talked to friends and family about it, many of whom said they would love to speak the language but couldn’t take the time to go or couldn’t afford it.

So Cooper founded Speak Shop as a way for students to use videoconferencing with tutors in Central America. Cooper said he has a partnership with an immersion school in Guatemala that provides the names of its best tutors.

Vásquez, for example, has more than 13 years of Spanish tutoring experience and has taken standard proficiency exams.

Students pay a user fee through Speak Shop and a tutor fee that goes to the tutors.

The monthly user fee is $9.99 for up to five lessons; $19.99 for up to 20 lessons; and $39.99 for unlimited lessons. In addition, students pay the tutors $8 to $10 an hour.

In Burlington’s case, the district is paying the cost for the students, Conti said. Hiring a Spanish teacher would have cost the district $35 an hour, Larkin said.

Heidi Guarino, a spokeswoman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the program appears to be a good way to tie new technology to global learning. She said the department doesn’t track what new programs are used in the classrooms, but that more districts are taking advantage of technology to enhance learning.

For example, several schools in Massachusetts take part in a program called Virtual High School, which allows students to take classes online. However, Speak Shop is different in that all learning is done live and one on one.

“Overall I would say this is a good use of 21st-century skills and if used appropriately allows students to benefit from the expertise of educators in another country at very little cost,” Guarino said.

Judging from comments on last Sunday’s “Five Places” list of oceanfront hotels, readers want cheap options. “Outside of a campground for not-so-rich weirdos, where can you stay by the ocean for under $79 a night?” one asked. Another reader commented: “I know a really good seaside place that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, but I’m not telling you where it is. So there.”

Now children. Please share – that’s what readers of Spud Hilton’s extensive package of information on learning language are doing; some of their many SFGate.com comments and e-mails appear below.

For another look at the stories and more comments, visit sfgate.com/travel.

– “Find a local restaurant where the target language is spoken by native-speakers.”
– “The public library has lots of language learning resources, books, audios, etc.”
– “Local evening schools. Italingua has a great series of Italian classes (including one for pre-vacation, ‘postcards from Italy’). Alliance Francaise likewise does wonderful French. I’ve heard that the Goethe-Institut is great for German.”
– “Absolutely nothing beats two weeks at www.reginacoe li.nl/eng/index.html”
– “The best way to learn is to take language classes in the country you are visiting.”
– “Centro Latino in the East Bay (Berkeley) is a great place to learn Spanish. Small to very small classes and excellent native speaker instructors (also Portuguese).”
– “The best method for adult learners working on their own is the Pimsleur series of audio CDs, based on drills and prompted recall, with repeated review of previously learned material.”
– “Live, online native speaker tutors with video conferencing, which is almost like being in the same room as the tutor, but at a much lower price… All you need is a Webcam and a headset (or microphone and speakers).” (Recommended: Interlangua.com and Speakshop.com)

Here are four steps to adding that je ne sais quoi to your language lessons via free Internet resources.

One of the biggest challenges for foreign language teachers is to expose their students to authentic speech by native speakers. Another is to immerse them in the culture of the language they’re studying when that culture may be half a world away. But in our expanding digital age, it’s increasingly easy to connect live with overseas students, find related videos and audio clips, and discover examples of living language online — all free.

“The Internet has made accessing authentic materials and interacting with native speakers an everyday occurrence in many schools across the country,” reports Marty Abbott, director of education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). “It has really brought the world into our classrooms.”

Keeping It Fresh

To keep their classes fresh and current, teachers can incorporate material from foreign Web sites. From overseas weather reports to department store sites that reinforce lessons on clothing terms, Janet Glass, the ACTFL’s 2008 National Language Teacher of the Year, says she can always find something online to bring her Spanish lessons to life. The key, she points out, is to limit activities sufficiently so that students can accomplish tasks appropriate to their level of fluency.

Before the rapid expansion of the Internet, teachers hoarded ticket stubs, receipts, advertising flyers, and other tidbits from their own trips abroad with the goal of importing a language’s culture to the classroom. “It’s all on the Web now,” says Glass, who teaches at Dwight-Englewood School, in Englewood, New Jersey. “All you have to do is search for theater sites from a country on a search engine to see what’s playing that day. It’s so immediate and so current.”

No Passport Needed

Besides giving students a doorway to contemporary culture in the target language, many sites offer something that used to be even harder to come by in the classroom: videos and audio clips, including podcasts, that range from real news items to fictional entertainment and multimedia language lessons.

“It’s very important for the kids to hear authentic, natural speech,” says Glass, who uses a beginner-appropriate BBC site with man-on-the-street video interviews filmed in Spain. “You can turn on subtitles, so you can see what they’re saying.”

At the Cincinnati Public Schools’s Academy of World Languages, teachers of Mandarin Chinese are incorporating podcasts into their lessons. Students start listening in the classroom, then take the recordings home on CDs or MP3 players to practice.

“Reading a language is much different than hearing a language,” notes the school’s technologist in residence, Dawn Miklavcic. “Understanding a language spoken at its true speed is hard for some of these kids, so hearing it over and over is important.”

Global Group Learning

With today’s more interactive Web, it’s possible for students to collaborate online with peers around the world. “Web. 2.0 technologies are just starting to creep onto language teachers’ radar screens,” declares Lori Langer de Ramirez, creator of the language-teaching resource MisCositas.com. “Things such as blogs, wikis, VoiceThreads — essentially multimedia blogs that allow voice and even video comments — provide students with a level of control and interactivity that lends itself to a constructivist approach to language teaching.”

Curtis Bonk, a professor in Indiana University at Bloomington’s Instructional Systems Technology Department, also cites the many possibilities for students to engage in collaborative language projects online. “I could imagine students creating wiki books to practice their language skills, maybe with students from other places,” he says.

The French (and More) Connection

The foundation for this kind of interchange is already in place. “The most effective use of the Internet is computer-mediated communication — chat, email, video, audio — a way for students to get in contact with students in other countries,” explains Robert Fischer, executive director of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium and chair of the modern-languages department at Texas State University at San Marcos.

Having e-pen pals is the easiest way to develop relationships with foreign students, and a variety of sites, such as ePals, provide help in finding contacts. “When I started teaching, you’d wait and wait and wait to get something in writing, and it was always old news,” recalls Glass.

Even more immediate, if a bit trickier to arrange, is simultaneous communication with students overseas via text chat using an instant-messaging program or through free international Internet-based audio and video calling, offered by Skype. “We’re moving away from writing our pen pals and going towards Skyping them,” observes Bonk. “To me, that is the next stage of language learning.”

Challenges remain, of course. It can seem daunting to find appropriate contacts among the legion of anonymous strangers roaming the Web. Fischer recommends eTandem to find partners for safe conversational exchange in more than a dozen languages. For live chatting or talking, time differences can also pose a problem. Still, the opportunity for students to interact live with native speakers without the time and expense of travel abroad can be well worth the effort.

Former Dwight-Englewood School student Nick Schwartz used Skype to study Chinese as part of a senior project. He wrote in a journal about his experience, “I have communicated with a Chinese student my age on the other side of the world for a month. It has cost me absolutely nothing, and I have learned about his life, his friends, and family. People just don’t get how revolutionary it is that this exists now. People never understand how different it is when you can hear (and if you have a webcam, see) the person you are talking to.”

Laila Weir is a contributing editor and writer for Edutopia. Her work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and online publications around the world.

http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/IE_MayJun07_ActiveEngagement.pdf

Portland, OR (PRWEB) September 8, 2005 — Speak Shop, www.speakshop.com, is an award-winning pioneer in online foreign language tutoring. Medical and legal professionals use Speak Shop to take face-to-face Spanish lessons with experienced tutors in Guatemala — when they want, without leaving their desks. In one online system, working adults can choose a tutor, schedule lessons and take live lessons via webcam.
Hispanic immigration is motivating U.S. employees and professionals to add Spanish language training to their schedules. With more than 40 million Hispanics in the U.S., the impact is widespread. Life-saving services such as healthcare and emergency aid can hinge on whether the provider knows Spanish or has access to an interpreter, which they often do not.

Many of Speak Shop\’s customers are taking lessons to build specialized vocabulary in their professional fields. Immersion lessons are often the most effective way to learn a language, but traveling abroad is not feasible for most people. Students come to Speak Shop for intense yet affordable tutoring that they would otherwise not be able to access.

Because each lesson is one-on-one, they learn faster and can home in on the most important areas for their needs. The scheduling is up to the student. Some students take lessons every day while others check in once every couple of weeks. “Speak Shop is one of the best uses I\’ve seen of the internet. The classes are helping me learn the specialized vocabulary I need for my work as a lawyer while improving my grammar, listening and conversational skills. My teacher, Milvia, is great. I take classes when it is convenient for me,” Frances, attorney and Speak Shop student.

Speak Shop also creates opportunities for tutors. Tutors set their own rates at Speak Shop\’s open marketplace. Speak Shop provides tutors with results of customer research to help them with pricing and supports tutors through marketing and business training. Students choose tutors based on experience, feedback ratings and prices, creating a true fair trade market. By using the Internet, tutors in Latin America are reaching a huge new market of students. The system reduces poverty and creates jobs while giving customers who could not travel to Guatemala for immersion lessons a new option.

About Speak Shop
Speak Shop was founded by Clay and Cindy Cooper to increase access to foreign language education and to generate economic opportunity for people in Latin America. People around the nation use Speak Shop to take live Spanish lessons online while supporting international economic development. For more details on Speak Shop visit www.speakshop.com

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.