Bilingual has its benefits
If you live in Florida, you know how big the Spanish-speaking community is across the state. One only needs to travel to Orlando or Miami to know that at this point English has pretty much become a second language in certain Florida cities. And if you live in Super Heat & Air’s home-base city of Tampa, just take a ride to the West Tampa district and you’ll almost feel like you’re passing through a Latin American country!
The three most spoken languages in the world are English, Spanish and Chinese. But in the diverse nation we call The USA, knowing any second language is a social and professional advantage. But this is Florida and it’s September. That means Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct.15) is here! So today we’ll focus mostly on the personal and professional benefits of knowing how to speak Spanish fluently.
Professional Benefits
Speaking a second language — Spanish or otherwise — is a valuable asset to your professional growth. Whether it’s schools, hospitals or air conditioning companies, the ever-increasing cultural diversity of the United States in the 21st century demands more professionals who speak more than one language. And more companies are listing positions that seek fluency in a second language as a job requirement. If one of these positions is attractive to you but you don’t speak the desired language, unfortunately, you’re out of the running. So learning a second language is beneficial to any professional. And becoming fluent in Spanish in the state of Florida increases your chances of getting hired almost anywhere.
How it Relates to Us
Fluency in a second language helps you stand out among prospective employers. It can also open doors to other opportunities and provides a nice enhancement boost to your resumé! For a company like Super Heat & Air, having bilingual employees on staff allows us to tap into a new customer base. It also gives us the ability to relate to non-English-speaking customers and creates diversity in our workplace.
Money doesn’t speak one language. So hiring bilingual employees is crucial to success in business for a company like Super Heat & Air. We won’t bore you much with statistics, but we operate out of Greater Tampa Bay, where as of 2016 approximately 17% of the population is Hispanic-Latino.
It’s Not Just About Sales
Money isn’t all that matters here. It’s also about providing the best customer service possible and ensuring your company knows how to approach customers who speak another language. Super Heat & Air has more than a few Spanish speakers on staff to ensure sales, customer service and our reputation don’t get lost in translation.
And it’s not just customer service and sales that bilingualism helps benefit a company like Super Heat & Air. Studies have shown that speaking a second language improves other skills such as problem-solving, multitasking and decision-making. These are all skills our AC technicians need to perform their daily tasks up to the standards we uphold. Some of our AC techs are bilingual. So not only can they better explain the services performed to our Spanish-speaking customers, but it helps ensure that we have excellent problem solvers and multi-taskers on staff!
Personal Benefits
Fluency in a second language doesn’t just improve your professional prospects and business opportunities: it improves your personal life too! Not only is it fun to be able to communicate with speakers of another language. But it also helps you get a better understanding of the nuances of another culture. In simple terms, it does wonders for your social life! Meeting new friends; checking out different cultural activities; making travel to a foreign country easier; exploring new music and films; and even improving your dating prospects are just some of the many social benefits being bilingual has to offer!
Editorializing
Your friendly Super Heat & Air blog writer here is going to “break the fourth wall” and tell you that being bilingual has been an immeasurable benefit to both my personal and professional life. As a native of Puerto Rico, I grew up speaking both English and Spanish. I got my secondary education mostly from an English-speaking school on a military base in Puerto Rico. And my Bachelor’s degree in Communications came from the University of Puerto Rico, a Spanish-language university.
From starting out my career as the editor of a Spanish-language magazine to becoming a bilingual copywriter and copy editor at subsequent jobs to my current position here as the “web content guy” for Super Heat & Air and (our sister company) SMART Efficient Solutions, being fluent in Spanish has made me a valuable asset to both companies. We have fluent Spanish speakers on staff as technicians and customer service and sales reps. But when Spanish is needed and nobody else is available to take a call or attend to a walk-in customer that only speaks Spanish, I’m the guy they call over to help out!
Better Customer Experience
We’ve had Spanish-speaking prospective or existing customers visit the offices that just needed a little help with clarifications. So having somebody on staff who can not only interpret what they are saying but can also relate to them in the manner they speak leaves them comfortable and satisfied that somebody was available to communicate with them effectively.
It gives me a sense of fulfillment when I’m able to help both the companies and the Spanish-speakers in need of assistance. It’s a pretty cool feeling! And it doesn’t hurt Super Heat & Air nor SMART to have a certified interpreter on staff. (Nor does it hurt my sense of job security either, wink wink)!
The pride it gives me to be fluent in a second language, as well as the opportunities it has presented me in life, is something I will never take for granted.
And because I like to throw in shameless plugs in almost all of the blog posts I write for Super Heat & Air, remember that we’re available 24/7 to take care of all of your cooling and heating needs. In English and Español! So call us anytime at (813) 279-8213
!
— Stephen Byrne“Web Guy “at Super Heat & Air and SES
