Survey your People. In order to know what your people want and need, you must get their feedback. This, of course, makes sense.

You should never "obligate" a person to learn language. You can obligate people to take cultural training, but language is something that a person must want to learn in order to learn well.

In order to find out what your people really think, you must do an effective survey process. In this case it's easy, since we're going to provide the survey for you!

The survey process should be non-threatening and non-binding. People should never feel like they "have to" say the right things or they will be on the "outs" with the company. You really do want and need, honest answers.

Surveys should begin with the following header: "We are considering a Spanish training program and want to get your feedback. Please give us your true feelings. Even if we decide to move forward, no one is obligated to take the training. Thank you for your cooperation."

The power of a survey is in the questions that are asked. Also, the number of questions should be controlled so that it doesn't take too long to complete the survey.

Once you administer the survey and receive the responses, we can help you to interpret them correctly. This will insure that you are making accurate assumptions.

Two different surveys are available to you. One is written in English, for people interested in learning Spanish, and the other in Spanish, for people in need of learning English.

Based on the surveys, preliminary determinations should be made as to who should participate in a training program and what they should learn.

You can download these surveys from the "Quick Links" box in the Right Hand Column of this page.