\ SPANISH IN INDIA

Spanish: Opportunity or Explosion?

Who is learning Spanish in India these days? If it took you more than five seconds to answer this question, let us work on your blindfold. With 329 million native speakers, Spanish Language has proven to be one of the most important languages in the business field, due to growing interaction between India and Spanish speaking countries.

Let´s have a brief look at where India stands at the moment. In terms of world economic growth, Asia in general has reached a half way mark from which it will only take us a decade to become a Global Provider in key economic spheres such as those related to Sustainable Energy and Agricultural Products. Keeping this interaction in mind, the expanding global economy would require a workforce of 471 million. Out of those, 142.4 million would be provided by India.

Therefore, taking advantage of India’s lower costs and its educated and English-speaking population, major players within the international scenario, feel confident about approaching the local markets. The question is, is the Indian market fully prepared to face the demand created by the global economy? This is where the blindfold needs to be removed.

The integration of Indian economy with the rest of the world depends on creating awareness within the Private and Educational Sectors. The Industry needs to restructure its vision of the future. Likewise, schools need to start paying attention to the linguistic tools that future leaders will require in order to perform well in business sectors.

Moreover, Spanish speaking regions such as Latin America and Spain are specifically seeking bilateral cooperation with India. This approach is opening a world of opportunities for specific Indian industries such as Agriculture, Information Technology, Telecommunications, etc. and is consequently leading to the signing of contracts among India and these regions that are experiencing similar growth.

From the food and beverage to the BPO industry, the Spanish-speaking workforce is more and more in demand, but unawareness of this fact is corroding Indian industry from within.

SERVICES OF INSTITUTO HISPANIA

• Teaching of Spanish

• State of the art books

• Qualified Spanish national teachers

• Placement services

• Translations and Interpretations

• Corporate packages

Since the impact of Spanish language has been overlooked, delegations of future leaders as well as field employees will have to face a serious linguistic barrier. Contracts are signed, but the ones who suffer the most are the specialists in charge of implementation of plans and ideas. Due to the urgency of this demand, Indian industries turn to the only available source of linguistic assets: Indian colleges offering Spanish philological studies.

In the rush to fill vacancies, companies recruit employees from this Spanish philological background. Subsequently these philology students are trained by the companies in the required technical field.

But how effective is it to hire a Spanish teacher for a technical post not related to teaching?. In plain words, it is a waste of time, money and human resources. From a language student’s point of view it is an underuse of his linguistic skills and an inaccurate choice of career. Nevertheless he opts for these opportunities since he does not possess a clear vision about the most right area to apply his skills. We end up with philology students who do not understand the main role of a teacher in society, and instead try to make a place for themselves in the business world with the wrong skills.

Today more than ever before, it is important to provide philology students with the right awareness about the role of a Spanish teacher. They need to be aware of the possible scenarios and audiences where they can find professional satisfaction and contribute to society in a meaningful way. These audiences could be school children, technical college students or businessmen.

This is the main role of a teacher: to provide the necessary knowledge to the right audiences and to help society fulfill its core need. A Spanish teacher in India should be teaching Spanish, not occupying work positions which belong to students with the actual technical background. But when companies realize that hiring Spanish teachers is not a good idea, it is already too late. They end up firing people and importing foreign technicians to fill the vacancies. At a macro level, India, with a population of 1.2 billion, does not need a larger work force. But the fact remains: Indian professionals are not given the opportunity to prove their potential at an international level only because linguistic tools are missing.

Instituto Hispania

Phone: (91) 26968016, 26968043info@institutohispania.com

D-59 Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016

www.institutohispania.com.com

SPANISH IN INDIA

It is time for India to awake: to create a work force that can cover the demand and sustain growth. As an emerging country in the business field, India is able to establish business alliances and create enough work positions, but unable to meet such a need: an imperative demand for Spanish speaking professionals.

It is time to introduce linguistic skills to the future technicians, bankers, insurance salesmen, computer experts, agro-chemists, biotechnologists and school children. Companies must become visionary enough to understand that this time-bomb is hanging above us, and the only thing that will help India remove this blindfold, is a change of paradigm.

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