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A large telecom company wanted to gain a larger share of the rapidly expanding Hispanic market which prefers to conduct its consumer business in Spanish. To quickly empower English-speaking sales and customer service staff to build rapport and present products and usage plans directly to customers in Spanish, we designed a customized short term course containing company-specific vocabulary and product information.

A corporation identified a need for high level, foreign-born employees to improve their ability to clearly pronounce American English. Accent difficulties affected the ability of these employees to deliver complex presentations and other business development activities. Customized small group and individual pronunciation and presentation skills improvement programs were specifically designed for these executive-level employees.

Members of a restaurant trade association experienced communication difficulties between Spanish-speaking kitchen workers and their English-speaking supervisors.   With the assistance of grant funding, a two-prong approach using bi-lingual trainers was implemented to teach basic ESL to the workers and essential Spanish to management.   These parallel activities improved productivity in the workplace by reducing the gap in communication.   Additional grant funding allows food handling certification programs to be delivered to kitchen staff in Spanish, Chinese, or Creole

A major regional medical center was troubled by problems arising between patients and care-givers of different cultures. Factors such as differences in communication styles, dress, and verbal expression created miscommunications and misunderstandings. We developed an intercultural course to address how employees can better interact with and understand their patients, and co-workers.

A pharmaceutical manufacturer faced challenges associated with the assimilation of foreign-born workers and assisting them to achieve the minimum English competency required. A culturally sensitive workplace-centered ESL program was designed to provide a solution.

A corporation employed a large number of highly technical foreign-born staff.   Managers had difficulty communicating with them and the staff had difficulty in making presentations to non-technology personnel. The target group was already at an advanced level of English, but had problems with idioms, pronunciation and some advanced grammar.   We designed a course to meet these needs, customized to course participants, which enabled them to increase their value to the company and making them more promotable.

The patient base of a city hospital had become mostly Spanish speaking. Neither medical nor administrative staff was conversant in Spanish and the few bi-lingual staff members were stretched thin.   The hospital was forced to use a translation phone service at a significant cost.   A 20 hour health care-specific course in Spanish for medical, clinical, admitting, and billing staff made them able to perform basic care and secure essential information directly from Spanish speaking patients without the need for costly translation or interpretation.   This course was grant-funded at no cost to the hospital!

Safety and productivity issues were experienced by a manufacturer arising from gaps in communication between management and workers. A solution was to design a short "essential Spanish" communications course.   This type of course can be delivered in any language to remove any communication barrier.

The Human Resources director of a distribution center expressed concern for the low percentage of employees participating in Open Enrollment. In addition, the director was concerned about privacy issues when a third party was needed to bridge language barriers.   A basic ESL course was adapted to include lessons and role-play to eliminate the need for a third party in an HR interview.

TESTIMONIALS

"The class was fantastic and moved at a pace that was challenging yet realistic and I never felt "left behind'. The Spanish words and phrases I learned have helped me in business, personal interactions with merchants and even vacations. I found that with a basic foundation...it empowers you to communicate and interact in an environment that you were unable to before. I would highly recommend this class to anyone who wants to refresh their Spanish speaking skills as well as anyone interested in starting from the beginning."

Victoria Martin
New Jersey Regional Administration
MBNA America

''I thank ... for her help in assisting me to gain my confidence in communicating fearlessly. Language Directions helped me in improving my communication in English. Though I had good skills, I was bit a shy talking in public. The 12 week course helped me to overcome my fear and shyness."

Gopala Kurra
Automated Data Processing, Inc. (ADP)

"I had been working with Irina prior to her taking the English grammar course. It's apparent that she did benefit from taking the course because she is now better able to explain situations and problems in writing and verbally. Since taking the course she has been more involved in writing technical documents than in the past. There is an improvement here too in terms of clarity and conciseness.''

Patricia Kennedy, supervisor of Irina Popova
Automated Data Processing, Inc. (ADP)

"If you already know how your accent affects your communication, you would understand the excellent value Sharlene could possibly bring to your life.. I enjoy every joyful lesson with her."

Yang Li
Internet Engineer
Verisign, Inc.

''I want to thank you for improving my English pronunciation dramatically.  I've tried so many different things in the past but none of them helped as much as your program.  Your understanding of individual needs, your dedication, and your experience surpassed all my expectations.  Thanks once again.'' 

Dave Yoon, CPA
Rosenfarb Winters , LLC

'"To pronounce correctly and have the right intonation is essential to get the attention of your questioner in what you are telling him or her. That is essential in a job interview, where you have to convince your interviewers that you are the best person they could hire for the job.   That is not possible if they cannot understand what you try to say. If you have problems with the American pronunciation, Sharlene Vichness has the ability to identify rapidly your problem.   She is a master at helping  you to understand it, and  she motivates you to correct it. With extraordinary patience and kindness, Sharlene puts you on the right pathway, and you make progress almost without knowing it .I was really surprised when after a few lessons the people around me told me how big an improvement I was showing. I have a job where communication is an important part of the work and I'm totally convinced that without help I never would have gotten this job. The classes were without doubt my best investment in searching for a job.''

Ramón Sánchez-Morillo
Chemical Engineer
DeGussa AG

"I am a recruiting manager for a credit card company. I am Puerto Rican, but I am not fluent in Spanish, so I contacted Language Directions to be able to speak easily with my grandmother and improve my resume equity. My experience with Language Directions has been great. I feel more confident about speaking Spanish to native speakers and I am willing to initiate conversations in Spanish now."

Tanya Sanchez
Recruiting Manager
MBNA America

"Participants were very enthusiastic about the classes and what they were learning. Subject matter was very relevant ... they were able to use some phrases immediately. The classes were organized and punctual, and the instructor held their interest at all times."

Terry Adelgais
Director of Education
Barnert Hospital

"Sharlene ofiaruje program zmniejszenia   akcentu który jest bardzo pozyteczny i pozwala kazdemu studentowi   na znalezienie jego wlasnych slabosci.

Sharlene jest zawsze dostepna i jej lekcje sa urozmaicone zywymi przykladami ktore pozwalaja studentom zrozumiec jak wykorzysta? nowa wiedze w codziennym zyciu.

Gwarancja na polepszenie akcentu jest 100%"

Jakub Nuta
Automatic Data Processing Inc.

"Sharlene's accent reduction program is extremely useful and allows each one of the students to position themselves and to work on their own weaknesses. (The instructor) is always there to provide everyday examples and do the extra step to explain and demonstrate the proper way pronunciation. Improvement is 100% guaranteed!"

Jacob Nuta
Automatic Data Processing, Inc.

"Sharlene Vichness has been a source of mentoring and knowledge to the foreign-born professionals enrolled in Language Directions' language programs. Sharlene and her staff are always helpful with their knowledge of the English language and American business culture. They have always acted with integrity and professionalism to me and to the members of the Polish immigrant community. The best part ...is the ability to understand a real language and real American business culture. For me personally it was a "career booster" and the best investment I could make in my business as a motivational speaker. I recommend Language Directions for people of any profession who want to grow their careers, improve their communication skills and have fun while studying English."

Matt Domogala
polishclassifieds.com

"I would like to thank you for great experience and value you provided me over few short personal lessons on accent modification coaching. Although I have good command on spoken English my goal was to improve my accent so that I can blend in. I hate when I see blank or quizzical expressions on my native English listeners; this sometime is downright embarrassing.Before these sessions, I had never thought an adult could be coached how to reduce accent. You showed me how technical and scientific this process could be. I was very impressed when you identified my critical mistakes in very beginning and showed me a plan of action right way. Key aspects I learned were, stressing at right syllables in a word, the sentence intonations, train my own mouth to make proper sounds like "th", "A" "e" etc, but above all, the most important thing I got out of the class is to train my own ear to identify pronunciations errors; I think that is the key. If one does not know what is wrong, how can they improve upon it?"

Debasish Sinha
Avaya

"Our staff enthusiastically responded when Spanish Class was offered on site, and 50 staff members signed up immediately.  The instructor was knowledgeable and kept class interesting and fun and the flexible scheduling enabled staff to work around the needs of the nursing units.  Now that the word is out, other staff members are asking when it will be offered again!"

Patricia Schepis, MS, RN,C
Director, Staff Education
Carrier Clinic

"The Spanish for Medical Personnel courses are extremely popular at our Medical Center. Clinical and administrative staff have showed great interest in this course. We hope to continue offering the class in the future."

Eva Matos-Botex
Director of Organizational Development and Patient Relations
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center

"Although I've missed some classes because of staffing issues, I was at enough to know what an excellent job Kim did teaching this class. She clearly loves what she's doing and it shows in her work. I was impressed by the amount of work we accomplished in those weekly two hour classes. . I'd love to give your firm and Kim all the recognition you deserve.It was a pleasure. Thank you."

Cynthia Zemo
ACCESS SERVICES REP
Jersey Shore University Medical Center

"I just finished our last Spanish class ...and I just wanted to let you know that this class was very helpful.  Kim is an excellent teacher and we as a class learned a great deal.  She was very in tune to what we as students needed to learn in order to effectively speak to our Spanish-speaking patients/families. I gained a great deal of knowledge not only in the Spanish language but in the cultural differences which will help me understand our patients and their families as well. If there is ever an Advanced Spanish Speaking class, I will definitely be interested in participating.  I think once we know our basic vocabulary, an advanced class would be helpful in learning and practicing different patient scenarios."

Cecilia Bongartz
Infant Apnea Center, JSUMC

"Thank you so much for the handbook you provided our company. It has become a part of our managers' daily routine to use this most helpful guide. We know you will be making it into a pocket size guide. Thank you so much for letting us test it out and let me know when they are available for purchase so we can distribute them to our management."

William Friedman
Executive VP
Jerry's Famous Deli
Guy's Ba

For more information on these programs, click here.