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Why should your company offer language courses?
Of course, English is a great language to use to conduct international business, but should it be the only language you rely on? Also, should you train only your salespeople in a new language? What about personnel in customer service? Human resources? Operations? And other departments of your business? If you deal with people from different countries, here are a few reasons to consider language training for your employees.
Opening new markets. We offer English, French, and Spanish, as our main languages. These three languages can open doors to many different countries and regions. English is used as an official language in over 50 countries. French is spoken in more than 30 countries and Spanish in more than 20 countries. In all, about 2.3 billion people speak one of the three languages. That would get you busy.
From a geographic perspective, Canada has two official languages, and although French is the main language in Quebec, it is also spoken in New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and can be heard in other provinces as well even if English is their main language of business.
The USA has a strong Spanish-speaking community that represents about 13% of the population. The rest speak mainly English although we hear languages such as Chinese, French, and others being spoken by immigrants coming from various countries.
South of the USA, Spanish is the main language with roughly 400 million speakers. The main exception would be Brazil (about 213 million people as of 2022), where Portuguese is spoken.
In Africa, French is spoken in many countries. It is estimated that more than 120 million people speak French in various countries of the African continent.
We are left with a few very important languages such as:
Mandarin, which is spoken by about 1.4 billion people.
Hindi is the official language of India and is the native language of about 300 million people. Many others speak Hindi as a second language, which makes it one of the most popular languages in the world.
Arabic is another language worth mentioning as it is spoken by about 310 million people.
Bengali is spoken by 230 million.
So is Urdu (230 million).
Brazil and Portugal combined have some 221 million Portuguese speakers.
Russian is spoken by 150 million people.
Many other languages have a good representation worldwide, but these are some of the most popular.
Cultural understanding. When learning a new language, it is almost impossible to separate it from the cultures that use it. And why would you? Of course, you can hire local resources to help with these two aspects, but I think that learning a country’s or region’s language and cultural aspects says a lot about your company’s commitment to that region; you are not being opportunistic, you are truly committed. And that can earn you a good amount of brand loyalty.
Also, understanding the language and culture makes you less dependent on the opinion of outside consultants; “Was this necessary, or was it strongly proposed because of an economic interest?”.
Not all countries do business like you do back home. So, while learning the language, you might very well start to understand how business is done in your target market.
Improving communications. If you have various offices in the world, then, for all aspects of your operations, you will have people communicating in different languages: customers, your local legal consultants, border agents or freight forwarders, members of your team working locally, etc. Would it be easier if everyone just spoke English? Well, this could be one option (we do offer English classes). But, as English speakers, we do tend to be short, direct, and precise with our message. Not all cultures react the same way to this type of communication. Some may perceive it as being too direct. Modulating our message is part of learning a language. So, cultures using a less direct way of speaking may receive your information with a more open mind, even if all communicate in English.
Hiring employees. Are you looking to hire employees in your new market? It would be a great idea to have team members already speaking the local language. This would go a long way to making the new employees feel welcomed and functional at least language-wise, from the word “go”. Not to mention what this will do for your employer branding in the target market. This could very well help you to land the best candidates, simply because you tried to include part of their reality into your company and their future work environment.
International branding. Imagine this scenario. You have a query about a product. You call the 1-800 number printed on the packaging. The person answering speaks Spanish, but upon realizing that this is not your first language, switches to English. How would this make you feel? Well, you could have the same impact on your international clients; the same, for your investors, bankers, people involved in operations, providers, business associates, freelancers, etc.
Imagine that your providers are from Mexico, and instead of speaking to them in English, you speak in Spanish and make a few appropriate cultural comments, showing that you understand their reality. This might very well be the difference between getting the products faster or having to wait. Of course, many factors weigh into that relationship, but when everything else is the same, speaking their language might set you apart from the others who don’t.
Team building. Our courses are all online. We made the move a few years back due to the pandemic. And since then, the advantages of doing the courses online far outweigh the disadvantages. For one, team members from different offices can be included in the classes. This is a great way to build relationships and a stronger bond between your employees. An example: in a conversation workshop, two employees discovered that they share the same passion for the same type of music. One plays drums and the other guitar. Guess what; they formed a company band! Talk about team building! The other is that the teachers pool is far greater. We have had teachers from England, the USA, Western Canada, the Maritimes, and Quebec teach English with us. This helps with accents and regionalisms that are an integral part of speaking.
Investing in your employees. In an ever more competitive labour market, having a language training program for your employees can help to attract the best candidates. Why? For one, investing in the growth of your employees speaks volumes about your culture. Also, most of the top performers will continuously want to improve their skills. Of course, language might be what they are looking for, or not. But you send the right message about investing in people’s self-improvement, and those looking for personal growth will now put you on their radar.
Regulatory requirements. For some countries, doing business in a certain language can be mandatory. This could be for many reasons, but having your employees speak the language of that country can help to prevent this from becoming an issue. Besides, as we said previously, it can send a great message about your commitment to that region and help with employee integration and retention.
There are many more reasons to organize language training for your employees. We have highlighted but a few of the reasons why you should.
If you have questions or comments about this or other topics, feel free to contact me.