In test marketing this video we found that many viewers experience a sudden and compelling desire to engage us for Spanish translation services, to conduct search engine marketing in English and/or Spanish, or to recruit bilingual employees (strangely, independent of whether the services are actually needed).
Bilingual abilities at all levels of business organizations are becoming more the norm than the exception. Just as having bilingual abilities can be a tremendous personal advantage for individuals, many companies also benefit by hiring employees that speak a language in addition to English.
How many foreign languages do executives speak? We came across the following survey results and thought they were worth noting. Well-known executive search firm Korn/Ferry International asked visitors to its web site the following question: “How many languages do you speak?” Of the 12,562 responses they received, the answeres were:
One language (36 percent)
Two languages (31 percent)
Three languages (20 percent)
Four languages (9 percent)
More than five languages (4 percent)
What’s interesting about the percentage distribution? For one thing it seems there were almost as many bilingual respondents as there were those who speak only a single language. Other observations?
Over the past year our company has continued to evolve in some interesting and unanticipated ways. Since our inception we’ve made a conscious effort to chart a course that’s a little different from that of more traditional language services companies. And, well, we think we’ve done that. In our view there’s no other company quite like us.
Our activity in areas where the Spanish language overlaps with defined business categories like search engine marketing, human resources, international business and communication ensures a unique market position for Affinity Spanish. Of course we hope our unique position will continue to be a valued one.
That said our primary service categories for the foreseeable future into 2008 are:
Each of the above service categories are linked to pages that describe them in more detail.
Thanks go out to all our current customers for your loyal patronage in 2007. We extend our holiday best wishes to each of you, and look forward to helping support your business objectives in the coming year.
A problem with traditional translation and language services companies is that they’re too interested in language alone. It seems strange to say it, but language services by themselves are not very marketable.
Rather it’s when language overlaps with other professions and business categories that marketable services are created. We see this with interpreters and the legal system for example. Products targeting multi-language markets create a need for localization services. Numerous examples of this principle can be cited.
Bilingual recruiting services are another. The need for English-Spanish language speaking employees exists with US companies seeking to do
business with the US hispanic market, much of which prefers Spanish language interaction. Two-thirds of Latin America is predominantly Spanish speaking. Worldwide around 500 million people speak Spanish. US companies interested in doing business with this sizeable in-part-language-defined market need language skills represented in their work force.
Thus a growing service offering for Affinity Spanish is bilingual employee recruiting. Here language overlaps with an established business category — that of employee search and recruiting. My original point you may recall.
