I say potato, you say patata: as workforce and customer diversity grow, employers offer foreign language training to staff - Training Agenda - language training

HR Magazine, Jan, 2004 by Kathryn Tyler

HR professionals may be disappointed in foreign language training because they expect too much too soon, George says.

For example, he says, "We met with a major airline yesterday. They wanted to train 20 associates in Spanish in 10 weeks. They wanted them to be able to speak proficiently behind a counter." George spent an hour explaining to the airline that the workers could not achieve the desired proficiency that quickly.

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) in West Conshohocken, Pa., classifies languages based on how difficult they are for native English speakers to learn. The easiest to learn are the Romance and Germanic languages, such as Spanish, German and Swedish. Next are African and Eastern European languages, such as Russian. Finally, the hardest languages are Middle Eastern and Asian languages, such as Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.

Even the easier languages such as Spanish require 150 classroom hours to reach a minimal level of proficiency, according to ASTM's Standard Guide for Use-Oriented Foreign Language Instruction. Minimal proficiency means being able to exchange greetings, get directions, shop and order food in a restaurant, for example. That level of proficiency in a difficult language, such as Chinese, requires 350 classroom hours.

Another pitfall is a lack of time to attend classes and study. At a minimum, to reach a low level of proficiency, students should plan to attend classes for an hour or two, twice a week, says George. This does not include the time students are expected to study outside class, which is at least 15 minutes a day.

"You may say, 'Our people need this.' But if there is a big project due and you don't release the people to go to classes, two people show up and there are supposed to be 10, then things start to deteriorate," says Karen Decker, president of the International Center for Language Studies Inc., in Washington, D.C. "There has to be a real commitment on the part of the company and a real interest on the part of the individual. How much time, realistically, can the employee be released to go to classes? It has to be consistent," she says.

"You have to set definite guidelines," adds Hutcherson. In the Casa Rio language program, anyone who missed more than two classes without an excuse was dropped from the program.

McKee Foods Corp. and Affiliates, a snack and cereal company in Collegedale, Tenn., addressed time constraints this way: "We meet during lunch. This avoided the evening hours, which would interfere with employees' personal lives," says Mark Newsome, SPHR, corporate HR manager. "We also provided the class on-site, so employees would not have to travel. This increased our team's interest," says Newsome, who provided the class for his HR staff.

Companies that offer such training outside regular work hours must determine how to compensate employees for that time.

Hiring Language Trainers

HR professionals can hire a foreign language training school or hire the instructor directly. Hiring a teacher directly usually is less expensive but also requires more research.