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Thank you for your interest in Speak Shop. To learn more about us, please click on these links.
OUR MISSION
OUR MOTTO
OUR STORY
OUR SERVICE
OUR FUTURE
PRESS & AWARDS
NEWSLETTER
OUR TEAM
OUR MISSION:
Opportunity and Community Through Language Instruction…
Speak Shop’s mission is to improve the lives
of language tutors and students and to foster
intercultural understanding and respect. Speak
Shop offers tutors the chance to be entrepreneurial
in managing their own tutoring services. Speak
Shop provides students with the opportunity
to achieve new educational goals, change their
careers or prepare for travel abroad. At Speak
Shop, students and tutors are active participants
in creating a fun, educational and friendly
environment.
OUR MOTTO :
Study Spanish at Speak Shop. Build a community with a cause.
OUR STORY :
Not everyone can travel to Guatemala.
A few years ago, at the age of 31, I decided I was finally going to learn to speak Spanish. Having tried and struggled when I was a kid, I thought I couldn't do it.
Then I spent three months in an immersion program in Antigua, Guatemala and became nearly fluent. I studied Spanish a few hours every day, hung out with Guatemalans and lived with people like me who were trying to learn Spanish and supported each other.
In Guatemala, I saw some of the worst poverty I had ever seen, and I realized that even skilled, hard-working people, like Spanish tutors, struggled to earn a decent living. Students were seasonal and when hurricanes hit (like Hurricane Mitch did during my visit) visitors stayed away. The number of tutors often outstripped the demand for lessons, and there was nothing tutors could do to change that.
After I returned, I thought often about what I could do to improve things for the people I’d met in Antigua. I also told my sister about my trip and how I finally found a way to learn Spanish. She was happy for me and wanted to take classes in Guatemala too. But she couldn’t take three months off from work and was scared to travel alone to take Spanish lessons in a foreign country. There wasn’t a flexible, affordable way for most people to learn Spanish the way I had.
The idea of bringing tutors and students together through videoconferencing
made sense to me, and I started writing the business plan for Speak Shop.
I couldn’t fly more students to Guatemala, but I could take them there through
the Internet. I couldn’t make an impoverished area rich, but I could create a
web-based marketplace where tutors became entrepreneurs.
Today we have students all over the world. With Speak Shop,
they can schedule private classes when they want. They can try
several tutors to find one they like and feel comfortable with,
just like I did in Guatemala. They can try out immersion-style lessons
before deciding to study abroad. And every time they take a class, they
are creating hope and better job opportunities in poverty-ridden communities.
I developed Speak Shop for communities like Antigua and
people like my sister.
Clay Cooper
Co-Founder & CEO
OUR SERVICE:
What makes us different.
Speak Shop makes it easy for Spanish students all over
the world to benefit from one-on-one tutoring
with experienced instructors who are native to
and living in a Spanish-speaking country. Use
Speak Shop to brush up on your Spanish, learn
new vocabulary, start from scratch or just to
practice your pronunciation. You control what
you want to learn, when and from whom.
You and your tutor communicate through video & voice
conferencing. You can also use text chat, download
materials and an online conjugator and translator.
You will be able to work with your tutor to create
personalized lesson plans, receive answers to
your questions, and receive immediate feedback
on grammar, vocabulary and accent. Tutors typically
have many years of experience working for top
language schools that train tutors using proven
methods of teaching foreigners to speak Spanish.
Your Speak Shop membership grants you access to all necessary
Spanish learning tools online: translator, vocabulary
tools, grammar texts, chat rooms, etc. Once you
join Speak Shop, you can search for tutors based
on their qualifications and prices and schedule
a lesson with the tutor of your choice. Speak Shop does not collect
any of the tutoring fees in order to maximize
the economic benefit to the tutor. Keep in mind that
tutors bear costs to teach online, such as Internet fees, which they build into
their fee structure. Speak Shop´s
services are completely free to Spanish tutors
and schools, and Speak Shop also provides technical and business
training to tutors free of charge.
If you have already studied Spanish abroad,
you may be able to continue studying with the
same tutor and school you know and trust. If your
tutor is not registered at Speak Shop, let us
know. We may be able to help you re-connect.
OUR FUTURE:
Beyond Spanish
Speak Shop is in search of exceptional Spanish tutors to join our network. We carefully screen and train tutors and schools. We hope you will be one of the first people to try this new way of learning
Spanish. Speak Shop will eventually offer language instruction for other languages from native speaking tutors in their home countries.
AWARDS:
- Finalist, Investors' Circle, Spring 2009
- Finalist, Oregon Ethics in Business Awards 2008
- Finalist, PBS Project Enterprise Contest 2007
- Fast 50 Readers' Choice, Fast Company 2007
- 2006 Innotech Innovation Award, Innotech Oregon
- Semi-Finalist, 2006 Global Social Venture Competition
- Best Social Return on Investment Analysis, 2005 Social and
Environmental Technologies Challenge
PRESS:
Oregon firm offers lecciones de español via Skype video
by Howard Wolinsky
Skype Blog
April 13, 2009
Interactive web-based language courses provide extra income for Guatemalans
by Jill Replogle
Ode Magazine
April, 2009
Friendship grows from online lessons
by Josefina Loza
Omaha World-Herald
March 31, 2009
For tonight's lesson, a trip to Guatemala Video technology links students, native speakers
by Jennifer Fenn Lefferts
The Boston Globe
March 26, 2009
Speak Shop links tutors, students around globe
by Jill Replogle
The Miami Herald
March 09, 2009
Learning Spanish via webcam a fair trade for all
by Lisa Monforton
Calgary Herald
February 20, 2009
Startup: SpeakShop.com
by Amy Hsuan
The Oregonian
December 27, 2008 (print); December 30, 2008 (online)
Speak Shop Announces 2007 Online Spanish Tutor of the Year
Press Release
February 28, 2008
Speak Shop offers new concept in Spanish lessons
by Christina Lent
Beaverton Valley Times
November 29, 2007
Speak Shop on KPTV 12 News
October 31, 2007
'Speak Shop' Explores New Way To Foreign Language Learning or click to Listen
By Kristian Foden-Vencil
OPB News Radio on NPR
Portland, OR October 29, 2007 3:35 p.m.
Local Start-Up SPEAK SHOP a Finalist in PBS NOW Project Enterprise Contest
Press Release
October 16, 2007
Speak Shop Accredited for Nursing Spanish Lessons
Press Release
September 23, 2007
Speak Shop featured in article "Fair Trade Spanish: How Speak Shop uses
the Web to help teachers earn more and students pay less" by Laila Weir
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Summer, 2007
Speak Shop profiled in article "Active Engagement: International education is helping
to spread the benefits of social entrepreneurship across the globe" by Karen Leggett
International Educator
May/June, 2007
Speak Shop is in the Top 25 of Fast Company Reader Favorites in the
2007 Fast 50 Awards
Fast Company Magazine
February, 2007
Thank you for voting us in!
Speak Shop Joins Starve Ups Incubator
Press Release
November, 2006
Four Innovative Companies Snag Innovation Awards
Portland Business Journal
April 7, 2006
T-bird Couple Connects Tutors and Students
Thunderbird Magazine
Spring 2006
Speak Shop Awarded 2006 Oregon InnoTech Innovation Award
Press Release
March, 2006
Global Social Venture Competition Names Speak Shop Semi-Finalist
Press Release
February, 2006
International Inspiration for Business
Speak Shop's lesson on the transformative power of the web
Good Four Business Monthly CSReport
November, 2005
www.goodforbusiness.com
Learn Spanish and Help Guatemalan Professionals: Speak Shop
Treehugger.com
October, 2005
Online Spanish Tutoring Brings Immersion Spanish
Lessons to U.S. Medical and Legal Professionals
Press Release
September, 2005
Spanish Lessons for Better Tourism and a Better World
Sustainable Travel International
July, 2005
Speak Shop Wins Top Honors in Business Plan Competition for Socially Responsible Tech Companies
Press Release
June, 2005
Speak Shop and PROBIGUA Partner to Offer Face-to-Face Online Spanish Tutoring
Press Release
April, 2005
NEWSLETTER:
Issue #2 -- February 7, 2006
Issue #1 -- October 28, 2005
OUR TEAM:
Clay Cooper (Cindy's husband) – Co-Founder and CEO
Until the age of 31, Clay struggled to learn Spanish through traditional classroom techniques. Clay finally succeeded when he completed an immersion program in Guatemala. That experience inspired Speak Shop. As an executive at the world’s leading online financial services firm, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Clay conceived of, created
and led dozens of technology and web-related initiatives. Clay has also consulted on technology and strategic development to several early-stage ventures. An early-adopter of distance-learning courses, Clay has studied and taught online courses. Clay graduated with honors from Thunderbird School of Global Management with a Masters of International Management (global MBA) and graduated from Montana State University with a major in Finance.
Cindy Cooper (Clay’s wife) – Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer
The poverty Cindy witnessed growing up in Brazil fueled her drive to make the world a better place. As Co-Founder and CMO of Speak Shop, the first company to offer fair trade, live online Spanish tutoring, Cindy has taken a social venture from concept to market. Prior to Speak Shop, Cindy spearheaded marketing, strategy and program development for social sector organizations such as the Social Entrepreneurship Incubator (now Social Fusion) and Net Impact, the world’s largest association of MBAs and professionals committed to using the power of business to create a better world. At Net Impact, she created and marketed new programs that helped triple membership within two years, forged alliances with the United Nations, Skoll Foundation and the World Bank and gave presentations on social
entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility. Cindy also draws from a corporate marketing background at Nike and The Capital Group. A Brazilian American, Cindy has worked as a tutor in Spanish and translator in Portuguese. She holds a Master of International Management with distinguished honors from Thunderbird and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish.
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