Every Month Is Hispanic Heritage Month: Austin Japanese Restaurant Teaches “Spanglish 101” To Customers, Staff

Austin, Texas based Zen restaurant purveyors of, in their own words, “Japanese food fast” has gotten kind of ingenious with new uses for their Spanish-speaking kitchen help. “For years Zen has been a bastion of multicultural interaction,” a modest flier taped to their Coke fountain says, “Japanese cuisine, cooked by Hispanics and served by Americans. We have always strived to communicate fearlessly, despite cultural and linguistic barriers. Now we seek to further bridge those gaps by offering Spanglish classes!!”

The brainchild of one location’s General Manager Mason Evans, the name of the class comes from the fact that it’s teaching both languages at once, rather than actually teaching Spanglish. In other words, it’s more the culture of togetherness that brings the Spangle to the Ish. Awww, hippies. Classes are free and open to anyone at all who’s interested. They take place every Thursday afternoon at 5:00 at the local chain’s South Congress location where PM manager Nate Perkins says the group has been meeting for about a month now with steady attendance. “Kitchen guys come,” he says, “to learn English and customers come to learn Spanish.” And we’re sure they all gnaw on some edamame while they’re there, too. Everybody wins, and that ain’t such a bad thing.

Zen Website