Workplace Spanish from CBIS ahead of curve

Community could become leader of education program pack

MOSES LAKE — Shelley Glendenning found herself inundated with requests for bilingual training.

"I called all over the state, and couldn't find any bilingual trainers," she recalled.

As part of her job as director of Big Bend Community College's Center for Business and Industry Services, Glendenning does research and looks for unmet needs.

"It was like, 'Wait a minute. If there aren't any, there's an unmet need,' " she said. "Here is a growing trend, nationally and locally — we're way ahead of the curve. I'm getting calls from as far away as California, Georgia, that are human resource headquarters for different companies. They can't find any bilingual trainers. They're trying to fly them in from other countries, even."

For Glendenning, that need represents a huge opportunity for the area.

"If we begin to specialize in bilingual training, we've probably got a three-to-five year window where we're way out ahead of the curve because we're actually growing at a faster rate than the rest of the country in our Spanish population," she said.

Then Glendenning discovered that BBCC Spanish instructor Angie Leavitt specializes in Total Physical Response Storytelling, or TPRS, a practice which teaches languages through stories, songs and poetry.

"And she's right here on campus, so it was like, 'How hard is this?'" Glendenning said with a smile.

The Workplace Spanish program is designed for those learning beginning Spanish and focused on effective communication. The classes usually have 500 to 600 industry-specific vocabulary or words.

"It doesn't do verb conjunctions or things like that, but rather just takes very specific words that are used in specific industries," Glendenning said. Although it's not a CBIS focus at present, she used an example of a Workplace Spanish course taught for emergency medical technicians, police officers and firefighters. "If someone's in an emergency and they just know the few keys words, like 'doctor,' 'hospital' or 'Where does it hurt?' those kinds of things, it expedites situations and so on."

Leavitt and Workplace Spanish trainer Jasmine Turner are spending the summer working on four programs, targeting teachers and administrators, health care, customer service and manufacturing. Glendenning said the next program would be bankers. They are presently recruiting people who want to be bilingual trainers.

Turner said she had been asked to teach a conversational Spanish course for CBIS, having previously taught one in Quincy, and Glendenning approached her. But Turner said she and Leavitt had also talked about the need in the Moses Lake community, and had examined several similar programs.

Turner went to training in Wenatchee Valley College, which also offers the program, and taught the first session in Warden School District. She had taught part-time for Big Bend, including many night classes attended by people who were working full time and wanted to take Spanish for work-related reasons.

"However, I had to teach just generic conversational Spanish because there was such a variety of work environments seeking training," Turner said. "I just wanted so badly to find a way to help them because I knew it was so intimidating to come into a classroom and think, 'Maybe someday in 20 years I'll be able to come and use this at my work when I become fluent.'"

The motto of Workplace Spanish is that a person doesn't have to be fluent to communicate effectively.

"It helps to allay those fears, and people are not as anxious when they come to class, knowing it's more relaxed, knowing it's OK to make mistakes," Turner said. "It's basically getting your point across, so we do work on pronunciation so they can pronounce it correctly, but as far as exact grammar rules, it's not a big focus."

Leavitt said she also had Turner's experiences, noting that many nursing students would sign up for her classes, which didn't go as in-depth as was necessary.

"I felt the same frustration that Jasmine did, because it was a big class with a lot of different needs, I couldn't focus on what the nursing students needed," she recalled. "I'm really excited, I think it's a huge need in this area and think it will help bridge some barriers that we have in our community with non-English speakers and non-Spanish speakers."

Turner and Leavitt are working to include cultural capsules to familiarize students with the differences between the cultures as well.

Glendenning said that the first group of trainers is tentatively scheduled to be trained Sept. 10, and the courses available in October.

"For businesses for their people to have a cursory understanding of the Spanish language, the return on investment is phenomenal," Glendenning said, pointing to figures that the Hispanic population rose 57 percent in the last 15 years, comprising 13 percent of the American total population, and is growing at 3 percent a year. The population is expected to reach 24 percent of the total in the next 50 years and is becoming a driving force in the economy, Glendenning said.

The pilot program at Warden School District in May and June drew rave evaluations, she said, adding that the program at Wenatchee Valley College has also drawn success.

Companies call up CBIS and receive custom delivery on site. Glendenning said that the program is arranging so that teachers and administrators can receive clock hours for updating certification. She added that Wenatchee is finding success offering public sessions, and BBCC will follow suit.