While others talk about the country's multilingual future, many restaurateurs are living it. English is only one of the languages spoken in their operations.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, 12 percent of foodservice employees are foreign-born compared to 8 percent for all other occupations. In addition, 13 percent of eating-and-drinking place employees are of Hispanic descent.

Spanish is the native tongue of about one-third of the kitchen employees at Abigail Kirsch Culinary Productions, a catering company in Tarrytown, New York. Because the workers come from half a dozen countries that have different dialects, they don't always communicate easily even among themselves.

The staff of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, a multiconcept company in Chicago, is split just about evenly between native Spanish speakers and English speakers. It's a 50-50 situation as well at Robert del Grande's Houston restaurant, Cafe Annie.

The kitchen staff at Muer's has been 100 percent Spanish-speaking since the Washington DC restaurant operated by Detroit-based C.A. Muer Corp. opened 14 years ago. But the front-of-the-house staff could be taken for a miniature United Nations, with a mix that includes Latino, Egyptian, Moroccan, African-American and Asian.

Although their responses range from seat-of-the-pants strategies to formal instruction programs, all of these restaurants view language barriers as a management challenge. "This is a big issue for us. People can't communicate if they don't know each other's language," says Susie Southgate-Fox, Lettuce's vice president of human resources.

On-site instruction

As more kitchen-prep jobs were filled by Spanish-speaking staff, communication problems began to crop up at Abigail Kirsch. The new workers knew little English, nor did the English speakers have much facility with Spanish.

Concerns about efficiency and safe working conditions prompted the restaurant's executive chef Alison Auerbuch to find alternatives to the show-and-tell method of giving instructions. "It was taking too long to tell someone to grate some cheese. You'd have to physically get out the grating disc, set up the machine, and finally the person would say, 'Comprende,'" she says. "We get extremely busy, and with everyone moving at 100 percent, plus possibly hazardous situations involving hot equipment, slicing machines and knives, we needed better communication."

Auerbuch contracted with Arlen Gargagliano of On-Site Language, in Mount Vernon, New York, for an intensive eight-week language program. Spanish speakers attended a two-hour session in the morning, while English speakers went to class in the late afternoon. Rather than stressing correct grammar and complete sentences, as in a traditional language class, the classes focused on words and phrases used frequently in a restaurant kitchen.

"They learned expressions such as 'Dangerous — hot oven!' and 'Watch out!'" says Gargagliano. English-speaking chefs especially wanted to know words for specific fruits and vegetables, and they were surprised to learn how much difference a dialect can make. In Peru, "corn" is choclo, while in Ecuador, it translates as maiz. An advantage to holding the classes on site was the ease of pointing to the whisk or steamer under discussion.

Students unlikely to succeed in a traditional class often did well in this down-to-earth program. Gargagliano remembers one student's progress in particular: "This guy had no previous language training and was illiterate — even in Spanish. But he had a great memory and came all the time."

The company paid the cost of each session ($65 per hour for each group), but employees attended the classes on their own time, either before or after their shifts. Auerbuch strongly urged her staff to go, but participation was voluntary. Of the 20 Spanish speakers at Abigail Kirsch, 15 attended; of the 40 English speakers, 10 to 15 attended (some already knew Spanish).

The results? "It really worked well," says Auerbuch. "Even when someone missed a class, they were able to catch up the next time. We're going to do another round when our schedule slows down."

Off-site solutions

For Lettuce, on-site instruction was not the answer to communication breakdowns in the workplace. "We tried it, but we had trouble with shift schedules, having people in the right place at the right time," says Southgate-Fox.

Instead, the company has a listing of local English-as-a-second-language (ESL) courses and will reimburse its employees for course books.

Two years ago, Lettuce started a "Spanish for Supervisors" program. At a minimum, any new manager or chef must learn the basic "kitchen Spanish" on language cassettes; many mastered the material while commuting to work. For those who want to progress beyond this level, Lettuce produces a quarterly listing of language courses offered at local community colleges in which managers may enroll. Some of the courses even offer foodservice-oriented classes. Lettuce reimburses the cost of tuition and books to managers who successfully complete one of those courses.

Operators and managers who take the time to develop a working knowledge of another language may be rewarded with better teamwork. "I always stress to chefs that they try to speak a worker's language, learning a few new words every day, even as they are training that person in English," says Michael Carr-Turnbough, regional corporate chef for the Atlantic division of C.A. Muer Corp. "It makes day-to-day communication flow better, and creates a more pleasant working atmosphere."

Chefs who substitute pointing for words are probably making a mistake, observes Carr-Turnbough. In some cultures, pointing is a gesture that shows disrespect. Carr-Turnbough was also critical of "bosses who learn only how to curse in Spanish — they know how to yell at their employees, but not how to praise them."

Translating the message

At Cafe Annie, pantomime and elementary phrases usually bridge the gap between English speakers and Spanish speakers. "But when it comes to abstract points a manager is trying to get across, there is a potential for misunderstanding," says chef/owner Robert Del Grande. He relies on several staff members with a full command of English and Spanish to interpret in such instances.

Mustapha Rouissiya, who works for C.A. Muer Corp.'s Big Fish restaurant in Philadelphia, does his own translating. The Moroccan-born executive chef is fluent in Arabic, Berber, English, French and Italian, and is now learning Spanish on the job. Rouissiya uses his language skills to nudge his multilingual staff into learning more English. "The first time we talk about a certain product, I use their language so they can understand. The next time, it's English," he says.

In addition to English, all of Red Lobster's materials are translated into French and Spanish. C.A. Muer Corp. provides its restaurants with Spanish versions of some training aids. Maintenance and safety manuals in Spanish and French provided by a kitchen chemicals company are extremely helpful to Latino and Haitian workers in South Florida, according to Carr-Turnbough.

But Helen Gianella, manager of human resources for C.A. Muer Corp., adds, "You don't realize how many things need to be translated. For instance, we bought a new point-of-sale system where the staff clocks in and out, and the instructions are only in English."

Lettuce uses its own bilingual staff to translate training guidelines, forms and applications. "We'd rather give them the money than hire someone from outside," explains Susie Southgate-Fox. And there is another reason: The company wants a translation not in textbook Spanish, but in the informal and perhaps grammatically incorrect Spanish that is common among its employees — many of whom come from rural Mexican villages. Otherwise, those workers may not be able to understand or even to read the instructions.

Although useful in the workplace, translations can be prohibitively expensive and cumbersome, because employees speak several languages, the text is too lengthy or the text changes too frequently.

Accordingly, a bilingual employee reads and explains the policies and rules in the employee handbook, written only in English, to non-English speakers at Muer's. The non-English-speaking employees are then required to sign a document stating that they understand and accept the rules and policies.

When a Muer's worker receives a verbal reprimand or is informed of crucial information by a bilingual employee, a second English-speaking "witness" must be present. This management safeguard discourages employees from using language barriers as an excuse for disobeying a rule. Sometimes pictures communicate better than words. To train a work force that is bilingual or multilingual, Red Lobster relies heavily in some regions on the step-by-step visual sequences in videotapes and training manuals. "We've found that the best way to get an employee to understand a task is to show it," says Dick Monroe, vice president of public relations. "Whether the training aid is on preparing shrimp or changing the oil in the fryolator, even someone who is functionally illiterate can understand 95 percent of the job by watching."

Making language skills pay off

For an English-speaking restaurant employee, knowing a second language is an asset, but generally not one considered essential for advancement. Because most skilled positions, from supervisor to server, require facility in English, the situation is quite different for non-English speakers.

Intent on getting ahead, many non-English-speaking employees study the language on their own time. Often they are aided by sympathetic restaurant owners and managers who bend schedules to fit their needs or even serve as informal tutors. In helping his employees gain language skills that could make a difference in their futures, Mustapha Rouissiya is following the example of his first American boss, a chef in a Boston restaurant. "I was going to school at the same time. I'd come in with my homework and say, 'Can you help me?' And he would."

Rouissiya often links progress in English to opportunities for learning new work skills. A busperson or dishwasher with a minimal knowledge of English might be assigned to salad making or plating entrees. Someone whose English skills have progressed further could learn to read tickets and communicate with waitstaff. Sometimes the new skills translate into a promotion. "I don't believe that Middle-Eastern and Spanish-speaking staff can only wash dishes. If I don't give them a chance, they're never going to grow," he says.

At Lettuce, many staff members in responsible jobs such as sous chef, kitchen manager or waiter have come up through the ranks as their language skills advanced. Seeing this motivates Spanish speakers to participate in language-study programs, according to Southgate-Fox.

Building on limited skills

Employees like Rouissiya, who show initiative in learning English, are easy to help. But what about those who barely speak English even after years in this country? At Muer's Washington DC operation, management discovered that many hard-working, longtime kitchen workers were not showing much improvement in their English skills. For a variety of reasons, few were taking advantage of the company's offer to pay for an ESL course or culinary training. Some workers lived in a cultural enclave where their native language was routinely spoken, so they had little incentive or occasion to learn and practice English.

Working one on one with those workers, managers taught several Muer's employees enough English to improve their work skills — and their self-esteem. One Vietnamese food runner who formerly knew no English now takes pride in announcing the names of dishes as he sets them down before customers. And a Spanish-speaking cook, Ishmael Gonzalez, who knew scarcely any English after 10 years at Muer's, learned enough of the language to do inventory and purchasing. Eventually, Gonzalez reached the point where he could call in orders to suppliers on his own. Rather than being annoyed by Gonzalez's limited English, Helen Gianella says, purveyors are impressed that the company is giving him a chance.

When he was recently promoted to supervisor, Gonzalez learned another important lesson — in the restaurant business, language skills often translate into success.

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