Chef David Garrido visits Guero’s Taco Bar
On Tuesday, January 27th, employees at Guero’s Taco Bar welcomed special guest David Garrido. Mr. Garrido is the former Executive Chef of Jeffrey’s. He has also worked for Chuy’s in Austin and is in the process of opening his own restaurant.
But Mr. Garrido’s current success owes a lot to the long hours he put in working in restaurants and learning English when he first came to the U.S. The goal of his January visit was to share his story with English at Work students in order to encourage them to keep attending class and practicing their English, no matter how frustrating it can be.
Mr. Garrido was the first member of English at Work’s new Speakers Committee to visit one of our workplace classes. We created the Committee after noticing that student attendance dips approximately mid-way through a course. We thought that if we could bring a guest to class who shared our students’ struggles and has been successful in the business community, it might provide the motivation they need to continue.
The Committee members come from a varitey of backgrounds but they all have one thing in common: they came to the U.S. knowing little or no English and learned the language while working their way up.
English at Work is grateful to the Kellogg Foundation for supporting this exciting new project. We also want to thank JP Kloninger for recruiting our fantastic speakers. Here are some of Mr. Garrido’s comments on work and language:
Working in a kitchen is like working in a mechanic shop. You can read 10 books about how to change a tire, but if you haven’t changed a tire, you don’t know how to do it well.
Practice English with everyone, especially your co-workers, every day.
Mexicans have a reputation for being very hard workers. So if we learn English, it’s one step further for all of us.
Sometimes you’ll say, “I feel dumb when I speak English. No one understands me.†But it’s the only way to learn. Don’t take it personally if people laugh when you speak English. They think it’s charming. But if someone starts to get mad, then you know you’ve said something really bad.
Work is like going to college. It doesn’t matter how old you are. If you don’t have money to go to college, you have to use work like a university. If you put “Jose Luis, Kitchen Manager,†on your resume, no one can take it away from you. Your experience is your degree.