Executive Travel : Interest in Language Courses Grows

For many people who travel on the job, the globalization of markets has added a new challenge: language barriers.

To get around more smoothy, travelers find that learning a foreign language is helpful--in some cases essential--to getting their jobs done.

Indeed, business-related purchases of language tapes are behind a sales boost in the first six months of this year at Jeffrey Norton Publishers Inc., one of the largest producers of self-instructional language courses in the country, according to President Jeffrey Norton.

Norton Publishers offers its Audio Forum tapes in 94 languages, ranging from Afrikaans to Zulu, and many of its courses were developed by the Foreign Service Institute of the State Department.

“Spanish is most in demand,” said Norton. However, other languages are growing. “We just had a very large order for Swedish courses from a company in Oklahoma that was bought by a Swedish company.”

Americans have gotten by for years with the “why bother?” attitude toward learning foreign languages, assuming that the international language of business was English.

That may be true in major financial centers around the world, but as American companies have gone into more and smaller international markets, the number of people who don’t speak English has multiplied.

“If you’re in Kiev [Ukraine], they don’t always hire people who speak English,” he said.

Even in areas where English is commonly spoken, it can be extremely helpful to be able to communicate in your business partner’s native tongue, said Dorthea Redd, director of international marketing for Ammark Label Co. in Covina. Redd, who already speaks Italian, Swahili, Creole, Spanish and English, is currently taking a course in Portuguese through a Berlitz school in Pasadena in preparation for her company’s expansion into Brazil.

In addition, she and her staff are in the process of learning Mandarin and Cantonese since Ammark is owned by an Asian company.

“Out of every five people, 2 1/2 are Asian, and 1 1/2 speak Mandarin,” she said.

Speaking the language is important to helping you understand how the people in that market think, how they make purchases and how they do business, she said.

It can also be critical to getting business done. Ronald Cohen, a systems engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, is taking night classes to learn Japanese in order to better communicate with his Japanese partners on a joint NASA project. “One reason I’m very motivated to learn is [that] knowing a language is a very valuable skill in a global marketplace,” he said.

Although translators are available for major meetings, Cohen finds it helpful to have a command of the language for more spontaneous interchanges. “It’s been very helpful to be able to explain some concepts in their own language,” he said.

Also, interpreters are only as good as their own command of the language, said Redd. Knowing the language enables travelers to tune in to nuances of a discussion or conversations that may be going untranslated. “It adds to your business if you can do it,” she said.

Executives who have to travel to foreign countries to conduct business have a number of options for learning the language. They can enroll in local college courses, take classes through private foreign language schools, such as Princeton, N.J.-based Berlitz International Inc., or Swiss-based Inlingua, or purchase tapes. Taped courses range in price from about $25 to $195, while courses in a language school can run between $300 for a typical six-week class and $5,500 for a two-week total immersion course.

The method that works best depends on the business traveler’s schedule and aptitude for languages, instructors say.

The key to success is to not be afraid to speak, said Redd. “The biggest fear of adults in learning a foreign language is sounding foolish.”

For executives who can’t commit to attending classes on a regular basis, a taped course can be ideal, said Norton. “You can do it while you’re driving or while you’re walking. That’s why tapes have increasing popularity with business people.”

Of course, “absolutely the best way to learn a language is to live in the country where it is spoken,” he said. “And it sure is easier to learn another language when you’re young.” But if that’s not the situation, Norton said, a person can still master an initial level of a new language by investing about 25 minutes a day for two to three months.

Other students, however, feel there is no substitute for actual interaction with fluent speakers of the language.

Berlitz schools, for example, conduct classes entirely in the “target language,” using no translation, said Patricia Sze, director of marketing. “You learn through building blocks, using visual cues, demonstrations, pictures and acting out.” Berlitz has 322 language centers in 32 countries, including 62 in the United States and six in the Los Angeles area.

It also offers a range of instructional options, including total immersion, which is the popular course for executives being relocated to another country, to twice-weekly lesson plans.

Spanish is the most commonly requested class, followed by English, French, German, Italian and Japanese, Sze said. “But Eastern European languages have grown tremendously in the last four or five years.”

About a third of Berlitz International’s students are from corporations, she said. “About 80% want to learn a language for use on the job, including overseas assignment and business trips abroad.”

It’s much more important in today’s marketplace to be able to speak a foreign language than it may have been 10 or 15 years ago, she said. “If you don’t operate globally, you go out of business.”