SOL at ORV- Catch the Wave of Success 2013

¡Pégate a la onda de éxito 2013!

Speak Our Language owner Tonya Tiggett will be attending the Ohio River Valley Women's Business Association Catch the Wave of Success event in Charleston, WV on April 22- 23 with Accessible Translation Solutions'owner Madalena Sánchez-Zampaulo. 

We look forward to meeting with many great companies like Macy's, Nationwide, Toyota and mucho más. 

Pictures from the event will be posted here after the conference. 

Year in Review: SOL 2012 Successes

SOL has provided over 2,108 hours of Spanish language instruction to 170 clients throughout 2012. We also moved for the first time in five years! After a long search and taking advantage of the connections and genius of our awesome student Diane Francescon, we landed classroom space at St. Timothy's school near Riverside Hospital. Principal George Mosholder has welcomed us to his school with open arms and we are happy to find a partner who is equally invested in our success as we are.

We also, by happenstance, found another great partnership with the Columbus School of Chinese and school owner Chris Stellato. So several of our smaller classes have moved to the Bethel Road location of the CSC and we will explore this partnership more in 2013.

SOL got a facelift; an aesthetic and electronic make-over courtesy of Gong Gong Communications. Because of our website overhaul, we were able to move our registrations from paper to online to be a little more green and provide you with more convenience in registering.

Finally, we had a lovely surprise with our client and student extraordinaire, Dr. Mark Allan Powell, who enlisted our help to assist his Trinity Lutheran Seminary students in learning basic Spanish. We have thoroughly enjoyed their dedication to studying and for putting up with our whacky sense of humor.

Check out our additional successes below that we are proud to share with all of you who make it possible to go to work each day, continuing to love what we do.  ¡Feliz 2013! As we like to say around SOL, "Hope we see you in a class muy pronto!"

• Kicked of Talking &Tacos at El Vaquero Olentangy River Road location
• Owner Tonya Tiggett featured in Columbus CEO Magazine, Good Day Columbus and most recently 10TV
• Re-launched Children's After School Spanish at Taylor Road Elementary School in Reynoldsburg
• Introduced brand new children's curriculum that maps to the Ohio Department of Education Standards for k-6 foreign language learning and also includes the 5 C's of 21st Century Foreign Language Standards
• Formed strategic partnership with Accessible Translation Solutions owner, Madalena Sanchez-Zampaulo
• Partnered with Max & Erma's Dublin location for Cinco de Mayo trivia
• First time four simultaneous language classes taking place, with Beginner 1 doubling the size of the class from all previous years to 15 students
• Returned to Cuernavaca and the Cemanahuac School for the third consecutive year with our annual study abroad to Mexico
• Welcomed seven new staff members to SOL: Lindsay, Ann, Annie, Patty, Jennifer and Emily.  Marvella is our new, awesome project manager who is not only a native-Spanish speaker, but who also holds a Master's degree in Project Management.  Whew - she will provide much relief to us in tracking our numerous sessions, pieces and parts!

Worthington Police to Train in Spanish with Speak Our Language

WORTHINGTON, Ohio - According to Worthington officials, two percent of the families in the city are Spanish speaking, and it’s a growing population.

The police chief admits there have been some problems communicating with that population.

“Currently we'll search for Spanish speaking officer which can be difficult to find, then we have a telephone service that offers translation,” said Worthington Police Chief James Mosic.

Mosic wants to knock down the language barrier, so he’s putting public safety employees through a 20-hour Spanish Immersion Course.

Tonya Tiggett of “Speak Our Language” is leading the charge to bring Spanish to officers and dispatchers.

Tiggett said that the customized instruction will focus on situations that include traffic stops, domestic violence calls, danger phrases, and field interviews.

The class will be in held in Spanish 95 percent of the time.

“The immersion is the only way they'll train their ear to understand what's being said, as well as to speak. Having the situations helps to cement the experience for them,” said Tiggett.

Mosic, who has taken the course, said it works. He believes it will make a difference.

“I feel it will help build the trust in developing relationships with our community,” said Mosic.

Watch 10TV and refresh 10TV.com for the latest news.

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2013/01/01/worthington-police-to-take-spanish-language-classes.html