(To read in Spanish, click here)Spain's Cervantes Institute will teach Spanish to some 100,000 Starbucks workers
throughout the United States. By virtue of an agreement signed Tuesday 26 May of 2009, those 100,000
workers will be able to learn Spanish via the Institute's online Virtual Spanish Classroom
(Aula Virtual de Español), or AVE.
The course will last one year and quarterly reports will be issued to evaluate how the
students are progressing in learning the language, according to a press release revealed by
the Cervantes Institute.
Starbucks will be able to follow the Spanish studies of its workers via AVE, which will be
available on the intranet of the Seattle-based chain. Also in Seattle is the first Cervantes
Classroom that the Institute opened in the United States (in Washington State),
located at the University of Washington.
The Seattle Classroom will kick off the training program, which will start with a pilot
course taught by professors from UW's Spanish department.
When the course ends, students will receive certification of their knowledge of Spanish with
a
Diploma of Spanish as a
Foreign Language (known as DELE) awarded by the Cervantes Institute in the name of
Spain's Ministry of Education.