I’ve just found out that some 100,000 Starbucks workers throughout the United States will begin learning Spanish. Starbucks just signed an agreement with Spain’s Cervantes Institute to offer workers Spanish lessons via the Institute’s online Virtual Spanish Classroom (Aula Virtual de Español), according to a newspaper article.
This is no small endeavour, and obviously Starbucks would have given this a lot of thought. It’s not just professional development for staff, but increasingly an economic necessity, given the sheer number of Spanish-speaking customers throughout the US.
Here in New Zealand, the situation is not exactly the same, but increasingly headed in that direction. We have more and more people in New Zealand, especially in Auckland, speaking languages other than English.
Spanish lessons anyone? We have Spanish classes starting this week and in July. Check out our course timetable for more information on Spanish and other language programmes.
Charlize Theron says she wants to start taking up Spanish classes. The 33-year-old worked with Mexican director Guillermo Arriaga on “The Burning Plain”, and the moviemaker helped improve her Spanish skills by teaching her a string of swear words.
Theron says, “Of course he taught me the dirty stuff! I had this fantasy, ‘cos I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish, that I would learn Spanish before I shot the movie with him, that he would be really impressed with me, that he could direct me in Spanish but of course it never happened”
And the experience has made Theron realise that she needs to start taking Spanish language classes. She adds, “I’m really embarrassed to say that I don’t speak Spanish, I’ve lived in California for eight years and I just think it should be a prerequisite, you should be able to speak Spanish if you live in California.”
Very international this girl. South African American. Named Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive in 2007. In late 2008 she was asked to be a UN messenger of peace by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. And now she’s learning Spanish…
A while back I saw Charlize being interviewed on Letterman.
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