Why Spanish?

Spanish is the third most common language in the world, after Chinese and Hindi, with over 358 million speakers worldwide.   In the United States it is the second most common language with 41 million native speakers, and over 1 million students learning Spanish in college.

In business, Mexico is the United States´ third largest business partner, after Canada and China. Exports from the United States to Mexico in 2004 totaled over $110.7 billion in 2004, and imports from Mexico totaled almost $156 billion. So, business is going strong. Why learn Spanish?

The effects of diversity in the US are strong and long lasting, especially in business.  And the trend is that they will continue to grow in the future.  Today, many successful companies – from large corporations to SMEs -- prefer a bilingual employee over someone with a postgraduate degree. Why?  Because bilingual skills enable you participate in a foreign environment with ease.  This makes you more comfortable, and therefore, more productive.  Adding cultural knowledge increases the possibilities of a successful business venture.

Language translation is an art.  It is a skill that needs to be learned.  Speaking a foreign language does not necessarily mean that a person can be a professional translator.  Successful international marketing is dependent on a good translation.  Slogans, advertisement, and even packaging need to be accurately translated to convey the right message.  One example is the word “billion” which translates into Spanish as “one thousand million”, as the Spanish word “billón” means “a million millions”.

On the other hand, cultural translation is equally important.  I refers to the ability to translate from culture to culture.  It means analyzing, adapting and understanding the different ways people react depending on their culture, and how others may interpret them.  A cultural translator eases the way in business between cultures.