NOTE: This presentation is designed to help clients understand how Command Spanish ® works, and why a more traditional, academic class will not be effective in promoting workplace communication. In other words, this is aimed at two groups: 1) those naysayers who point out that after 2 semesters of college Spanish they still can’t say anything, so how could 12 hours of training work; and 2) those traditionalists who can only imagine a “Spanish conversation class” as the only option to avoid extensive grammar lessons. It may be given as an introduction to a sample class (see ???.doc), or as a stand-alone presentation. As part of our corporate marketing package, ORPs and individual certified instructors, in addition to LORPs will be allowed to use our slogan Real Spanish for Real People ®
Point out that until now virtually all Spanish classes promoted in higher education (whether in credit or non-credit settings) have been based on an academic / liberal arts / humanities model. This causes the general assumption that this is a subject for “smart” / “well-educated” / “cosmopolitan” persons, and is not either immediately applicable for use on-the-job, or is not accessible for persons with limited education, limited interest, or limited time. Because of the stress on “whole language” and creativity, rather than on job-related specifics and rote memorization, this stereotype of language learning is often supported by reality.
It is important to point out that CS classes are different because they stress only job proficiency, not whole language learning. You will want to relate the “Boletos por favor” story that you heard in the TOS seminar (the Wackenhut Security ticket-taker whose only function was to ask each person on the train if they had a ticket—whether they spoke English, Spanish, or Haitian-Creole. This person was 100% fluent in job proficiency, but would receive a zero in any sort of academic language proficiency testing.) What sort of language does your client need to be productive and efficient in his/her job? The “More is less and less is more” anecdote is also illustrative. Whole language gets bogged down in grammar (adjective agreement, multiple vocabulary words for the same concept, etc.). The more language students know about these potential problems, the less likely they are to actually use the language. Knowing fewer phrases well (and not having to worry about minor grammatical details) will allow clients to feel confident in using everything they know.
Don’t belabor these lists, but they are instructive in HOW a Command Spanish ® class will be different from any other academic language class they may have attended (or paid for) in the past.
Each company/occupation will have its own needs, and therefore its own benefits. This is a fairly generic listing. Notice that several of these benefits may be perceived differently by different occupations. For police “provides for a safer environment” will speak to personal safety, but in manufacturing this will reflect in safety issues for the Spanish-speaker (not necessarily the English-speaker) and will have a greater monetary impact (less lost time).
This is when you will talk more specifically about how Command Spanish ® will work for your client, and will have an opportunity to ask him/her to help you design the class and select the participants. For example, in a hospital: Audience-specific means nurses only Workplace-specific means ER nurses, not labor & delivery nurses Limited language means diagnostic discourse…they will not be able to chit-chat about the weather Predictable protocols and Formulaic Speech Acts are those phrases that we KNOW every ER nurse will say on a fairly regular basis…In other words, a nurse in Florida will be prepared for heart attack patients, but not for frostbite patients, while a nurse in North Dakota might be prepared for both Momentary Interface is just that—preparation for dialogues or exchanges that last only a few minutes at a given time, although perhaps over several days (such as a respiratory therapist giving the same patient breathing treatment 4 days in a row, but each instance lasts only a few minutes).
This is where you describe what you are selling— Limited hours (generally 8-24) of instruction No written homework; No grammar Cross-cultural training as needed, depending on the nature of the business being addressed Well-defined proficiency objectives based on the needs and demands of the client
If you are a LORP and have marketing copies of the manual you are selling, this is the time to share it with your client. ORPs and individual instructors will want to either Bring along another manual (perhaps an instructor’s copy of a different occupation) if available, and/or Have prepared “leave-behind” copies of the Table of Contents and other Marketing Guide information about the specific manual you are selling. You should also include the sample language pages if they are available for that manual, or, if they are not available, include the generic language pages from the front of the Marketing Guide . *“Take the trainer home with you” refers to the CDs or cassettes that come with each manual. Be sure to check which is available for the manual you are selling before making your sales call. NOTE: When you are selling Command Spanish ® training you are selling a SERVICE (your service and your school’s reputation) first and foremost. The manual is the foundation of this training, but is rarely if ever the “make or break” point in making a sale. There are other books for some occupations (nursing, police, business) but they do not lend themselves to CS TRAINING styles; for other occupations (probation, warehousing, firefighting) there are no other books available, so the format or choice of manuals will not be the deciding point—only the SERVICE that you promise to provide.
In a one-on-one situation you will probably not use this opportunity, but in a group setting (a networking breakfast or luncheon for example) you may want to involve everyone in a sample class. Depending on your time limitations you may want to teach the seven “Simple Arrest” phrases that you learned in the TOS seminar (plan on approximately one hour), or simply six or seven generic or courtesy phrases from pages 17-18 of the Marketing Guide (20-30 minutes).
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