With Spanish being the second most-spoken language in the United States, and among the most-spoken languages in the European Union, it’s no surprise that more and more companies are teaching their employees basic Spanish for business. But when it comes to improving communication in the workplace, time is of the essence. How can you level up your team’s Spanish for business knowledge effectively and quickly? And where is the best place to start?
Let’s examine the benefits of learning Spanish for business, as well as the most effective way for organizations and professionals to learn Spanish tailored to their business’s specific needs.
Table of Contents
- Why should your team learn Spanish for business?
- Identify your business’s needs
- How to begin your team’s Spanish for business training
- Blended learning: Why it works
Why should your team learn Spanish for business?
According to a survey conducted by the US Census Bureau, there are over 41 million Spanish speakers in the United States. And according to a 2024 report from the Instituto Cervantes, there are now over 600 million Spanish speakers worldwide. While some of these Spanish speakers are certainly bilingual, there are undeniable benefits to teaching your workers how to speak Spanish for business. These include clearer communication and reduced misunderstandings, better growth into new markets, enhanced employee development, and better retention rates in the workplace.
Clearer communication & reduced misunderstandings
It’s common knowledge that maintaining operational efficiency in your organization requires good communication. When partners, clients, or other business associates speak a different language, good communication requires the ability to speak in that language. Not only can misunderstandings become costly, they can also create an unsafe environment, especially in high-risk work settings.
Facilitates growth into new markets
According to a 2022 report from Stanford Business, the Latino population in the United States has a combined economic output of $2.8 trillion. That’s no small number! It’s clear that companies who can properly communicate with and engage these buyers stand to reach new customers. Becoming proficient in Spanish deepens our cultural understanding with these buyers, and allows for the back and forth that’s necessary for commerce.
Enhances employee development and retention
By teaching your employees Spanish for business, you’ll be encouraging them to better understand their Spanish-first colleagues, which increases morale. Plus, when teams learn a new language in a structured work environment, overall learning retention improves. In fact, 91% of L&D professionals agree that teams that learn new skills together are more successful.
Identify your business’s needs
But what’s the best way to learn Spanish for business? First, you’ll want to begin by figuring out where your current gaps are. If your business is located in the US, odds are good that some of your employees already speak Spanish, whether they grew up speaking it or whether they learned some Spanish in school. But even native speakers might not know the exact terminology that’s required in your specific industry. Complex construction terms and intricate supply chain descriptions aren’t really your average subject of conversation. Here are a few examples of how learning Spanish for business improves companies in different industries.
Business Spanish for hospitality companies
Customized Spanish builds better guest interactions and service quality. Many hospitality companies use Spanish for business in their interactions with vendors and clients, making it easier to place and track orders, and to satisfy their clients’ wishes. When workers speak even a little bit of Spanish in the hospitality industry, they’re much better able to communicate with their full teams on the line, in the kitchen, in the office, and at events.
Business Spanish for construction companies
Tailored vocabulary ensures clearer safety communication and reduces workplace risk, especially for construction companies. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), language barriers contribute to 25% of workplace injuries. When workers can communicate freely, there are fewer miscommunications, and it’s less likely that people get confused, or worse, hurt on the job.
Business Spanish for healthcare companies
Having some knowledge of Spanish equips healthcare professionals to handle emergencies and improve patient-provider communication. What that looks like in practice is happier patients, and nurses and doctors that can see patients more quickly, and with greater accuracy. With some basic medical Spanish, your healthcare providers will be better able to understand exactly what hurts, how much it hurts, and what other symptoms their patients have. They’ll also have the words to describe what their patients can expect in regards to treatment, surgeries, medication, and more.
How to begin your team’s Spanish for business training
Once you’ve identified your team’s specific goals, you’ll want to look for gaps in your team’s existing Spanish knowledge. Focus particularly on barriers that lead to slowdowns, safety issues, or misunderstandings. Then, speak with your team or send out a survey so you can put together an accurate picture of where to begin your team’s training. We put together a survey like this and other materials Once you have the insights you need, you can start assembling a language learning plan, an implementation plan, and a way to track your team’s progress.
Blended learning: Why it works
With Babbel for Business, helping your employees learn Spanish for business is quick, fun, and measurable. That means your team will easily get the lasting language skills they need, and in a way that you can accurately track and report on.
In a study performed by Yale University, 80% of employees who learned a new language using Babbel had reached a beginner level of fluency in that language. Another 20% of that group also reached intermediate fluency. Nearly all of the employees surveyed (95%) said that using Babbel to learn a new language was convenient, and fun (91%).
The reason Babbel is so efficient for learning Spanish for business is that our programs were developed based on science, with over 200 linguist-designed virtual classes on demand. With our curriculum, your employees can learn the terminology they need at their own pace.
Babbel for Business’s signature Blended Learning model allows for live virtual classroom instruction, independent study via our app lessons, and AI-powered conversation practice. Together, this blended approach is scientifically proven to help build lasting proficiency in Spanish for business, thanks to a combination of factors.
Flexible learning methods
With Babbel for Business’s blended learning method, each employee has 24/7 access to the Babbel app, which means they can learn at their own pace, on their own schedule. Plus, with Babbel, they have the option to learn the way that’s best for them, lesson by lesson. Our app classes offer review options that build language skills in ways that benefit visual learners, audiotory learners, and kinetic learners of all kinds. Best of all, this app access is only one piece of the puzzle—its supported by supplemental materials and streamlined class offerings that ensure your employees are learning the Spanish for business that you need first, and Babbel for Business is backed by the support of our learner support team.
Tailored, industry-specific classes
Babbel for Business’s Spanish for business classes come in all kinds of models. After all, different businesses have different vocabulary needs. Babbel for Business classes ensure that your supply chain workers, for instance, are learning all of the most useful Spanish for business that they’d use on the manufacturing floor, in conversation with shipping partners, and analyzing order reports from partners. Similarly, doctors and healthcare professionals who use Babbel for Business to learn business Spanish wouldn’t learn terminology that wouldn’t be of help to them in their clinics, emergency rooms, or private practices. Each Babbel for Business Spanish for business class is tailored specifically to your company’s particular needs, and builds on foundational coursework that teaches the basics of conversational Spanish, so that conversations flow naturally, and aren’t stilted or strange.
Because Babbel for Business is tailored to your company’s particular needs, you can determine which industry-specific Spanish content you’d like your employees to learn, decide whether you’d like them to learn Latin American Spanish or European Spanish, set benchmarks and goals for learning, and monitor your teams’ progress using our Control Panel.
The Babbel Method is scientifically proven!
Discover in our report “Scientific Findings on Learning Success”, what a Yale University study discovered about learning with Babbel and why the Babbel Method quickly leads to success.
