

My cofounder thinks we need to speak fluent Spanish. I'm not so sure. Thoughts? - erdaypixelin

My best friend and I were lucky enough to have met a business owner during our past work experience, who resides in a Latin-American country, that one day decided he would like to start a software company in his industry. So we packed our bags and relocated down south to join him. This gentleman happens to speak perfect English and the majority of his staff speaks English as well. Our company has also grown to 5 full-time employees and we all speak English. Not to mention all of our client contacts speak English and maybe a few of their employees. Even though we occasionally have to do business in Spanish (contracts, training, etc.), we have specialized contractors that perform those tasks for us or our on-staff language specialist performs the translations.<p>Now my cofounder thinks that we should focus our energy learning to speak fluent Spanish because &quot;we made the choice to do business in Latin-America and no business owner who cares about their company would choose to ignore the dominant language.&quot; I make the point that the time would be better spent on improving our products and advancing our own knowledge in the areas we operate. Not that I&#x27;m advocating to ignore the dominant language as we should learn enough Spanish to get around and we have at this point. But I mean we&#x27;re barely getting started, have more interest than we can manage and features that will take us years to build out. Am I way off base in my thoughts here?
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andymoe
I think you are both right. Learning spanish will be good for business but at
the same time will take a long time and could be a distraction. Perhaps don't
make it a requirement but offer to pay for spanish lessons for yourself and
staff to encourage this.

My father had a friend from college who moved to Spain in the early 80's and
married. I went to visit him a few years ago when I made a trip to Madrid and
I ask how he learned the language since I never successfully did. His response
was basically that he had no choice if he did not want to get screwed in
business and he did much better after becoming fluent.

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erdaypixelin
There's a great deal of insight there. We have definitely run into trouble
because we lacked understanding of the language but, more importantly, we
lacked understanding of the laws and regulations involved in operating a
business here as well. We're definitely learning the hard way but I believe
that we need these experiences to improve the way we operate. Especially since
we plan to grow into new markets. Even those outside Latin-America. I can only
imagine how many languages I will need to learn fluently to be considered a
serious business owner then. :(

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pseingatl
You can purchase the Michel Thomas cd's and go from there. An hour per day,
even a half hour while communicating will yield good results. The journey to
fluency is a long one. But if you stay in Latin America there will be great
rewards from being at least conversationally fluent, which is a matter of say,
2000 words. The grammar is not that difficult and there are many cognates.
Spanish starts out relatively easy compared to non-European languages but it
has extraordinary subtleties. It would be ridiculous not to at least try.

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erdaypixelin
Thanks for bringing Michel Thomas to my attention. I had never heard of him
before but a quick Google search has got me interested. I actually picked up
Rosetta Stone and use it regularly. Although, I'm learning more from just
attempting to have conversation. We make out pretty well but definitely can't
say anything outside the present tense. And that's where my buddy is going
with all this.

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emilga
You might also want to check out the FSI Language Courses [0]. The "Basic"
course is probably the one you want. Good luck!

[0] [http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Spanish](http://fsi-
language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Spanish)

~~~
erdaypixelin
Thank you :) This is a great resource.

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sheepdestroyer
How many languages do you speak? If just one, isn't that a bit limited? Anyway
learning languages, moreover if it can be useful in your business, should be a
no-brainer. Even only for your personal bettering would be worth it.

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erdaypixelin
At this point I'm only fluent in 1 language; English. I would say I'm
conversational in Spanish and introductory in German and Italian. It's
actually easier for me to write than it is to speak new languages, oddly
enough.

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lauradhamilton
I would take a Spanish class on the side and focus your hiring efforts on
bilingual people.

I certainly don't think that learning Spanish is your #1 priority.

