“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world,” says a famous proverb. However, knowing how to express yourself in a foreign language in business is to have one more door open for new business opportunities.
That path towards upscaling your business is paved with good speaking skills in a foreign language and great writing skills in a foreign language. Business correspondence is a necessity so mastering your business writing skills in Spanish is a smart business decision.
To amp up your BBA degree or business correspondence will well-written content in Spanish, use the following tips to uplevel your writing skills.
Read Religiously
Reading is a bedrock on which learning a new language rests. People who read in a foreign language have a regular input of proper writing in the target language.
Since you want to increase your proficiency in business writing in Spanish, that’s the kind of literature you need to aim for. However, keep it versatile in terms of reading material. Read business books in Spanish, blogs, news portals, etc.
If you don’t know where to start, these suggestions can give you the initial push:
- The book “Guía de Hábitos Inteligentes: 36 Pequeños Cambios de Vida que su Cerebro Agradecerá (Spanish Edition)” by I.C. Robledo
- The book “La Regla de Oro de los Negocios” by Grant Cardone, Gabriel Ortiz, et al.
- The book “Cómo Emprender Tu Propio Negocio” by Walter Grant
- The blog El Rincón del Emprendedor
- The blog “El Blog Salmón”
- The online magazine “Emprenderalia”
Listen to Business Podcasts and Shows
Adding listening to your reading practice will help you improve your business Spanish on two fronts. While reading material can give you a more formal perspective on business Spanish, podcasts and shows will introduce you to more causal business lingo.
There are lots of different podcasts and shows you can easily find online and use as a practice tool. Here are some recommendations:
- The podcast “Libros Para Emprendedores” by Luis Ramos
- TED Talks Negocios (for all you TED Talks fans!)
- The podcast “Tu Business Coach”
- TV show “Velvet” (the show focuses largely on the business, so you can pick up some helpful business terminology)
Listen to the podcast while you commute to work, cook, or clean around the house. You can watch the TV shows when you want to relax, and you’ll be absorbing the use of Spanish in business along the way. Who says that learning has to be hard?
Practice Every Day
“Practice makes it perfect” is the hard truth of life. You won’t be seeing any improvement in your business writing in Spanish if you don’t work on it regularly. By regularly, I mean daily.
When someone says to you that you need to practice writing every day, you probably imagine yourself sitting at a desk and writing for hours. But your practice schedule doesn’t have to be that rigid to be effective.
Even a 10-minute revision per day can do the trick. Add a quick blog post, a few pages of the book, or an episode of the TV show to the mix, and that’s it.
For example, you can wake up 15 minutes earlier than you usually do and read a business blog post in Spanish while drinking your morning coffee. Take a glance at your latest lesson (if you are still attending those) or review some phrases when you have an extra 10 minutes to spare.
Short time-investments in exposing yourself to Spanish language and business terminology will be more than enough. Just as long as you are consistent.
Write Down New and Important Words and Phrases
Create your dictionary that will contain all words and phrases that you don’t want to forget.
Make your dictionary available to you at all times by having it in your phone. Use a free app such as Evernote to organize your terms. You can even create separate notes for useful words, idioms, phrases, and sentences.
Armando Moreno, a writer at BestWritingAdvisor, said that “Keeping a list of terms you need will personalize your learning experience. Rather than going back to the dictionary or aimlessly googling the term you can’t recall, simply pull out your little dictionary, and the terms will await you.”
Aside from writing the terms down, you should also revise them regularly. Add reviewing the terms in your dictionary into your daily practice schedule. With continuous repetition, those terms will be stuck in your mind for good.
Encourage People to Correct You
In case you are writing to your employees or business colleagues, let them know that it is okay if they correct you. You might feel self-conscious at first but focus on the goal – boosting your written communication skills in Spanish.
This can especially come in handy if you could send daily memos or email reminders to your employees or coworkers in Spanish. Combining the regular practice, aside with tips and corrections from your colleagues, will be a winning combo.
Keep Your Business Emails Short, Sweet, and Informative
Bear in mind that the person who’ll be receiving your email is a very busy person. Emails are not the place where you should show off your writing skills by writing essay-long content.
If you want to write effective emails in Spanish, follow these three principles:
- be concise
- be direct
- make it actionable
Get straight to the point and format the email to increase the readability. That means, use bullet points, short sentences, and paragraphs and be careful about the use of Spanish business idioms.
Get a Native Speaker to Edit Your Writing
Working with a native speaker will ensure that your writing skills in a foreign language are more natural. For example, the natives can introduce you to technical jargon you haven’t heard of.
Additionally, they can give you hints on how to rearrange your sentences to sound native-like.
In case you can’t get in touch with a native speaker, find a professional business writer for the Spanish language. Such an expert will have enough experience to know all the ins and outs of business writing in Spanish.
Getting a native speaker or professional business writer will especially come in handy if you have an upcoming presentation in Spanish, or you need to submit a business proposal in Spanish. Their corrections can help you realize where you commonly make mistakes in those forms of writing.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to boosting your business writing skills in Spanish, it is all about variety and consistency. Adopt different methods into your practice and be regular about it. That’s the whole mystery behind excelling in business writing. Now, it is up to you to put these tips to use and be diligent. Buena suerte!
Estelle Liotard is a writer, editor, and proofreader, with years of experience in different fields of business, marketing, and technology. She works as a writer at the best dissertation service. Her passion is teaching people how to overcome obstacles in business writing and help brands communicate their messages to their customers.