By Anthony Rifilato
Here, four Hispanic employees sit in the cool dining room, not waiting for their shift to begin in three hours or to clean. They came early to learn English, and their books and lessons litter the tables instead of crumbs.
Their teacher, Blanche Garcia, a middle-aged Cuban woman who has been in the United States since "Castro," as she puts it, sets up her makeshift classroom, hanging a fresh roll of butcher paper from two hooks meant to hold coats during a rush.
Today Garcia, who has taught English as a second language for 20 years in Freeport, is going over the present tense with the students -- it gets tricky when you add an "s" to words she says -- and tells them to repeat, "I'm cooking a steak. I'm washing dishes. Our telephone rings often."
She also wants them to learn the names of clothes in English: sweater, socks, and tie.
"Pair of shoes," Garcia tells Jose Villatoro to repeat. "Come on,
it's easy," she prods him. After several bungled attempts, the 46-year-old dishwasher nails it.
Odilia Cabrera, 23, has worked at Ben's for two years bussing tables. "Sk-irt," she says, barely containing her nervous laughter with each try.
"She's very timid," Garcia says. But Garcia pushes each student until they get it right.
"They have a lot of fun," she says, as students often giggle at the absurdity of each other's pronunciations, a hurdle they all face.
Since late June, Ben's corporate office has been trying to ease that daunting hurdle by providing free English as a second language classes to all their employees with certified teachers provided by the New York State Department of Education.
"We're doing something really helpful for the staff," said
Betty Jones, Human Resources Director for Ben's. Jones says about a quarter of the 40 employees at the Baldwin location need the lessons.
Ben's now wants to attract other Hispanic people in the community in order to get more students and perhaps new workers, so they can promote current employees to front-of-house and other positions, as well as provide a convenient location to learn English and to make their workers' jobs easier.
Employees say the classes are helping.
"A big problem is we speak Spanish to each other and sometimes can't understand the English-speaking workers who ask for stuff, like a dinner plate," says Carlos Benitez, 26, here on his day off. He came from Honduras three years ago and, like Mario Morales, a 27-year-old line cook, is a little more fluent than the others.
They need to learn English they say, to understand the customers with the empty bellies, crying babies and 8 p.m. movie tickets. They have to understand the rapid orders in the kitchen and whether the various burger concoctions need to be medium rare or well done or which Kosher cold-cuts to pile on a thick triple-decker. They have to understand the managers and waiters who are also busy with the empty bellies and crying babies and need things fast, like a dinner plate.
If they want to move up, they have to speak English, so they come early for two hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays when
they're usually asleep because of their rigorous work schedule.
"We need it because it helps, I can understand the customers better," Morales said.
Benitez echoed his friend's sentiments and said, "I don't speak good English, but I want to learn and advance."
About a year and a half ago, Ronald Dragoon, the owner of the nine Ben's Delis who said he knows what it's like to struggle, had advancement in mind for his 450 employees. He wanted to certify some employees in sanitation, which involves food preparation, temperature storage, clean fingernails, and the like.
"The Department of Health offers certificates for restaurant workers, but not in Spanish," Dragoon said. Although he was able to certify his English speaking staff, Dragoon had to find an alternative. One national restaurant organization, ServeSafe, was able to send a private health sanitarian to administer the course in Spanish right in one of Dragoon's restaurants.
"It cost me a bit of money, but I wanted productive workers who understood the health code," Dragoon said.
The idea of doing something productive for his employees and having someone teach at his restaurant stuck, and Dragoon said he had Betty Jones find out if it was possible to do something similar for his workers, albeit without the hefty cost.
"We eventually tapped into something that was available,"
Jones said.
What was available was a $20 million New York State grant for businesses across the state to help build the skills of their workers, with individual businesses able to receive up to $100,000.
After some calls, Jones said that the Department of Education, which administers the grants, proposed English as a second language for on-the-job training. Through the Department of Education, teachers were sent from the Freeport Adult Education Center, and the classes are now being offered at three Ben's locations: Baldwin, Carle Place and in Bayside, Queens.
But there's one catch. To maintain the program there has to be at least six students in a class.
"In the beginning we had nine, but sometimes they lose interest or are busy," Garcia said, who is leaving in September to return to her full-time job as a teacher's assistant.
Jones said that at this early stage, it's crucial to get not just employees to attend, but other people for whom Spanish is their native
tongue.
"We originally did this for our staff, but said to ourselves, why not open it up?" said Jones, noting that with the influx of Hispanics in the area, Ben's could attract more workers while at the same
time breaking down barriers.
"We do a lot of promotions, and there is room to move up with English proficiency," said Jones, adding that it's not unusual
for an entry-level employee to be promoted to restaurant manager eventually.
Dragoon said they will try to advance the program in more stores, and perhaps open it up to people who speak other foreign languages. But with only two teachers at the three locations, it's easier to concentrate on Spanish.
At last week's lesson, the four students at Ben's in Baldwin finished off the lesson with an improvised version of Bingo. Carlos and Mario sit next to each other and try not to look at each other's answers as they cross off the words in English that Garcia dictates in Spanish.
This time, the winner is Olidia. ""Bingo," she calls out, all smiles and to the delight of Garcia.
"Don't worry, it's only the beginning," Garcia says happily.
