Happier Holidays For Multilingual Businesses

During the holiday season many retailers, both at the store-level and online, find that communicating with customers in their native language to be a challenge. Selecting which languages communicate in for both employees and website retailers, should reflect your product’s market opportunities and long-term goals. Using backend technologies like geolocation or tracking of billing addresses help identify the origin of your consumer and determine their language preferences.

For merchants seeking to penetrate new international online markets, there are 13 languages that can unlock nearly 90% of online business opportunities. They include English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Arabic and Swedish.
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Create a Positive Customer Experience in Any Language

As the American population continues to diversify and businesses expand operations around the world, multilingual employees provide a valuable resource. Their words often generate a customer’s first impression of your company and determine his or her willingness to engage in the future. Determining that your multilingual employees are proficient will ensure that they will provide excellent service in all their interactions and is an investment in your company’s future success. As the recognized industry leader in language proficiency assessment, Language Testing International (LTI) provides consistent and defensible testing that helps companies make that investment wisely.

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Will the US Become a Bilingual Country?

In the U.S., speaking more than one language fluently is not very common – except in Los Angeles, California.The city has one of the largest populations in the U.S. of young people between the ages of 18 and 34. This generation is often called millennials. More than half of millennials in Los Angeles are bilingual, which means they speak more than one language.

Maria Elena Burgos is cooking a Mexican breakfast. She says making Mexican food is just one of the many traditions in her home. Another is speaking Spanish to her children.

“We want them to be bilingual. We want to keep the Spanish somewhere in their learning too, not only at home.” When Ms. Burgos first came to the United States from Mexico, she learned English. She knew her children would learn English quickly. So she wanted them to speak Spanish at home and study the language at school.
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Measuring English Proficiency in Real-World Situations

Trust — but verify. We trust that English language learners are gaining something through their studies, but how do we verify what they actually can do with their language skills? We may believe that a job candidate has the language ability to take a certain position, but where is the proof?

The answer comes through evaluation of language proficiency using a common measuring stick, such as the proficiency guidelines published by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). These evaluators describe “what individuals can do with language in terms of speaking, writing, listening and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-rehearsed context.”
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