MILTON — Kim and Chris Andersen are educators on a mission to improve people’s lives and the world we live in.

Kim teaches Spanish at Ballston Spa Middle School, and her husband is a science teacher at Gowana Middle School in the Shenendehowa school district.

They are also co-owners of Mango Tree Imports and Las Mariposas Language Center on Doubleday Avenue in Milton.

The store features fair trade items from about 50 countries, and the school has more than a dozen teachers offering classes in eight languages as well as English as a second language.

Both ventures have grown from in-home businesses to a small office site and then last year to a storefront with about 1,000 square feet of total teaching and retail space.

The Andersens said the store is a reflection of their personal feelings of fairness and justice. The couple often speak to groups about the fair trade process, which brings foreign goods to American consumers and American consumers’ dollars back to those who produced the goods.

“Fair trade means there are few people in the path between the producer and the customer,” Kim Andersen said. “It’s really about honoring the producer and knowing they were paid for their work.”

The Andersens are members of the Fair Trade Federation.

According to the federation’s Web site, “Fair trade is not about charity. It is a holistic approach to trade and development that aims to alter the ways in which commerce is conducted, so that trade can empower the poorest of the poor.”

The organization works to ensure that producers receive fair wages but also looks for environmental protections, respect for cultural traditions and opportunities to educate consumers.

“We feel like fair trade is picking up speed,” Kim Andersen said. “We hope that someday fair trade will be thought of as commonly as organic food is now.”

Respecting workers

The couple met when they were both teaching in San Francisco. Chris Andersen was back in the United States following an assignment with the Peace Corps in Botswana.

“We both wanted to live abroad, and we ended up teaching in an American School in Paraguay,” Kim Andersen said.

They stayed in the South American country for four years, teaching and exploring the region and its people.

When their family had expanded to include two children, the couple decided to move back to the United States, closer to grandparents and other family.

But the time they spent in foreign lands stayed in their thoughts.

“We had traveled enough to know there is exploitation of poor people, and we wanted to be part of the movement to change that,” she said. “When we moved back from Paraguay, we missed the handcrafted jewelry and authentic lace, and we decided to import some of the goods.”

Some of the items were offered for resale on the Internet and from their home as well as at events where parents and children adopted from South America would gather.

“Part of the reason we have been involved with fair trade is that we want our own children surrounded by art from the world and to have a different perspective of other cultures,” she said.

Their store features clothing, artwork, jewelry, baskets and other handcrafted items from around the world displayed on shelves and racks.

Andersen joked that her 9-year-old daughter sometimes works behind the counter, but that is the only example of child labor in her fair trade store.

Through March 7, the store is featuring the work of photographer Diane H. Reiner.

“Global Village: Faces of Asia, the Middle East and Africa” features photographs from China, Japan, Iran, Syria and Uganda.

Language offerings

Students of Las Mariposas Language Center pass through the Mango Tree, which occupies the front portion of the building.

At about the same time the Andersens began importing and selling merchandise, Kim started teaching Spanish to adults and children and found there was a huge market for a language school.

“I started in July of 2002, offering eight-week courses from my home. A short time later, we moved to 357 Milton Ave., and within a year, we added teachers and doubled the space we were renting,” she said.

The school was later moved to 233 Milton Ave. and last year relocated to the present site on Doubleday Avenue, which is also Route 50.

“There is no limit to what we will offer as long as we can find qualified instructors,” Andersen said.

Currently, Spanish, French, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Latin and sign language are taught, as well as English as a second language.

“Russian has been requested, and we’re looking into offering that as well,” she said.

Students’ reasons for joining classes are varied.

“People are exploring their heritage, they’re traveling or maybe had served in the military and want to know more about the languages of countries where they lived,” she said. “Some people want their children to know the language of their grandparents.”

Pam and Dean Higgins of Saratoga Springs started taking Spanish lessons at Las Mariposas Language Center last year for fun as well as for a greater purpose.

The couple were married in March of last year and spent their honeymoon in Paris. When they returned home, they decided to pursue another language.

“I had five years of French previously, and I always wanted to learn Spanish,” Pam Higgins said.

Dean Higgins is a lawyer who works in the state attorney general’s office in Albany.

In his previous private practice in Saratoga Springs, he was sometimes called upon to do pro bono work for backstretch workers at Saratoga Race Course.

“He would always have to get an interpreter to talk with his clients, and he felt it would be better if he understood them more,” she said.

Dean Higgins said he took Greek, Latin and German courses in high school and college.

“Then I was drafted into the Army, and during basic training, they gave me a battery of tests and decided I had a language aptitude,” Higgins said. “I went to school in Texas to learn Vietnamese and was sent to Vietnam as an interpreter for Army units.”

He said he was involved in interrogations of enemy soldiers and in helping Americans to converse with allies.

Small classes

His studies at Las Mariposas (Spanish for “the butterflies”) have been much more enjoyable than the lessons he had for the military, he said.

“Kim and Chris work very hard and have a nice program,” Dean Higgins said. “There are small classes, and the course material is done with a laid-back approach. You get to interact, which is helpful.”

He said he and his bride practice Spanish at home a little bit, but there are no lengthy conversations yet.

Andersen said she and her husband speak Spanish to their 7- and 9-year-old children in passing at home, but there are no formal lessons.

“Children learn more easily from a stranger than a parent,” she said.

She said classes are kept to three to six students to assure everyone is getting attention.

“You can’t hide in a corner in these classes,” she said. “We want an intimate setting where people can bring their coffee or tea. Language is interactive, and a cozy setting is best for adult learning.”

She said the classes cost from $30 to $50 an hour and last from an hour to 90 minutes.

Nine classes on average cost $270, she said, and will allow the student very basic knowledge for foreign travel.

“For example, with the Italian instruction, a nine-week course will give you common courtesies and an understanding of the basic foods on a menu,” she said. “Better understanding will come with a larger investment of time. It’s not like learning a first language when you were a child.”

She said there a subtleties in every language.

“In English, we use the word ‘crazy’ very loosely. ... ‘crazy’ means insane, and it is taken very seriously” in other cultures, she said.

As for the future of the thriving businesses, Andersen said she and her husband are scouting locations in Albany and may open a branch there later this year.

“We have four students in one class who travel to Ballston Spa each week for their classes. We know there are others in the Capital District who would be interested in the courses but do not want to drive to Ballston Spa,” she said.