Coming Soon to Club Lucky: Speak Spanish, Have Fun on Tuesday Nights

By chicago-pipeline at January 4, 2012 | 12:41 pm | Print

Sometimes it’s hard to escape the teaching bug, even after you retire from the classroom. What does a veteran educator with 25 years of experience teaching Spanish at a North Shore High School do after she retires, like she did this past June?

If she’s Bucktown resident Elaine Winer, she decides that she still wants to continue teaching Spanish, but with one exception: Not in a traditional classroom– perhaps in a fun place like a bar or restaurant– and only to adult learners who want to learn, rather than to high school students who are required to learn. And, while she reports that she can’t assume that everyone drinks wine, Elaine firmly believes that Spanish is best spoken over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee.

The logic behind learning in a less intimidating setting than a classroom is that it will free up self-conscious adult learners whom, while they might be able to read and comprehend some basic Spanish vocabulary on paper, are scared to speak the language, too.

While’s there’s no specific “ideal student” that Winer is courting for her inaugural class, to launch on Tuesday evening, Jan. 24th, at Bucktown’s Club Lucky Restaurant (no, balloons won’t always drop from the ceiling as you learn; this NYE pic was lifted from Club Lucky’s FB page!), she told The Pipeline that her class tone and direction will be determined by the students who’re registered in it. Perhaps it will be comprised of learners who took Spanish as a Second Language in high school or college and can speak and reply to maybe three phrases. Or maybe it will be for those who are planning a trip to Spain, or Humboldt Park, where coincidentally Elena recently joined the volunteer ranks at Casa Central, where she teaches Latino students in their 80s and 90s how to speak English on Tuesday afternoons, proving one is never too old to stop learning.

This class sounded appealing to us before Elaine reached out via email last month to inquire about advertising opportunities (we’d noticed her flier at the Starbucks on Armitage in Bucktown), as we’ve long wanted to improve upon our Spanish speaking skills, especially after having worked with a colleague on projects who was bilingual and we felt lame having Jon Lowenstein do all the translating for us!

So we’d stuck Elena’s flier in the Tidbits section over the past few e-newsletters, and this past Monday afternoon finally had the opportunity to meet her in person.

Like all exceptional teachers, Elena crackles with energy and enthusiasm and acknowledges that there is no right or wrong way to teach a subject. However, she reported that her experiences using a highly hailed method known as TPRS, introduced in the early 1990s by educator Blaine Ray, combining conversation, creative expression, and interpersonal touch, have been so much fun that a few years prior to retiring she had what she describes as “a vision,” in which to launch Elena Chicago, a small, intimate, and perhaps traveling classroom which focus exclusively on teaching adults conversational Spanish using the TPRS method.

An effective DIY marketer, when she’s not taking Zumba classes or spending time with her husband and three adult children and their families, all of whom live in Bucktown, Elena is trying to get the word out on her upcoming class, using numerous channels like First Ward Ald. ‘Pro’ Joe Moreno’s office, Pipeline, the chamber of commerce, and more. She’s also put fliers in various neighborhood coffee shops and on local bulletin boards. One student already came her way, via a stack of cards she’d left at Filter Cafe. A few other pupils came aboard through her continued relationships with former students, i.e. a parent of one of her former students always said, “If you ever teach to adults, sign me up!”  That pupil will now be traveling from downtown to Club Lucky, per Elena.

Elena would like to cap off the group at no more than 10 students, perfect for a nice big table of conversation, which will commence its first evening on Tuesday, January 25 in Club Lucky’s private party room, behind the bar.

Tuition is $200 or $25 per class for an 8-week session. There’s no word yet on whether Club Lucky will extend its $6 Killer Martini special to Tuesday nights, for the occasion of the class, but if that’s the case we might just have to vamos on over to Club Lucky. Or is is vas? Or voy? No se, no se…   oy vey.  Or maybe not.  Anyhow, if you have a spare $200 and a no-longer-secret desire to brush up on your rusty or just downright embarrassing Spanish speaking skills like we do, call 773-750-9960 to speak with Elena* to learn more.

* Warning/ full disclosure: Elena’s a good saleswoman, too, so you might end up being a student like we believe we may have just committed to doing, in exchange for advertising the class in the pipeline and possibly reporting on it, too.

P.S. Elena is on Twitter, too!

 

 

 

 

 

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