Q2 2020

8 LATIN AMERICA NEWS / Q2 2020 , Language of Success Based inMexico City, Lengua & Cultura is a language school providing communicative and cultural tools of the highest quality to enable people to understand and speak Spanish, English, German, Italian and French. Following their success in the 2019 Latin American Business Awards, we got in touchwithMarco Téllez to find out more. Founded in 2002, Lengua & Cultura is a language school endorsed by the Federal Mexican Government, providing interactive classes for those who wish to learn a new language and do business. To begin with, Marco gives us a brief overview of the company and the clients they typically serve. “Lengua & Cultura is a 18-year- old language centre based in Mexico City, helping people overcome language and cultural barriers in a short period of time, using a unique conversational system. Typically, our clients are people who need to communicate effectively with their business or life partners, as they work and travel through Latin America.” As a language school, the centre set themselves very high standards when teaching a new language to their clients. Moreover, as Marco informs us, learning a new language or improving it should be a fun experience; however, the environment should remain a professional one. “At Lengua & Cultura, we don´t see students as clients, but rather as human beings with a genuine interest in learning our language and understanding our culture; therefore, we are fully committed to providing the best experience as whole. In order to ensure that happens, we have a quality assurance system, which every staff member knows and applies to. In addition, we hold regular meetings to keep the quality standards up.” Feb20578 Working in an educational environment, it’s important that those teaching have a passion for delivering language courses. A candidate’s suitability to teaching has to be carefully considered when the centre are looking to recruit new talent as Marco further explains. “When hiring a new member of the team, we look for people who are passionate about teaching, like people, and hospitality. These traits are not teachable, but they´re necessary to make sure all our new staff are great at helping our students overcome the communication challenges they often face.” As educational technology has developed, it has further enhanced clients’ understanding of different learning channels as Marco points out. “Through this pandemic, we´ve been teaching via video-conference and we have included an e-learning platform to reinforce our students´ skills. This means anyone can learn/improve their language abilities with L&C 24/7 from home, anywhere in the world.” With 21 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, the pool where potential clients may come from is a considerable size. Although this does present great business opportunities, the firm have to be aware of potential factors which may affect the economy. “Mexico is the secondlargest economy in the region of Latin America and the most important financial and cultural hub; however, being interdependent with the US economy, where our daily trade is about USD $500 million, financial market volatility can affect our economy both positively and negatively.” Operating in an industry which is constantly moving, Lengua & Cultura have developed a unique conversational method, which adds value to their services. Furthermore, as Marco points out it’s important to compliment these innovations with full-immersion activities. “We have included a number of hands-on learning activities, such as guided visits to museums and archaeological sites, Latin dance and Mexican Food cooking lessons. We have done these online over the last eight weeks, but it´s better in person!” Some language schools are trying to teach at cafés or restaurants; however, today´s restrictions to use these places, plus loud noise in these establishments makes it nearly impossible to conduct a real class. On the other hand, Lengua & Cultura teach in a much more appropriate environment as Marco points out. “Our students are currently taking live online lessons, with our expert tutors via video-conference, they get the video of their class for reviewing afterwards and the audio to listen to the conversations again while running chores. Also, we have state-of-the-art facilities, including confortable classrooms with whiteboards and projectors, plus a nice coffee bar” With the industry quickly moving towards a blended learning model, internet-based education is a clear trend. In response, the firm have been busy working on innovations to progress their students learning as Marco confirms. “We have recently created a powerful School Management Software called Demiks (https://admin. demiks.com/intl/home ), which is benefiting our students, as they take advantage of our discount rates through affiliation programs; next year we will launch our own language learning app.” Although the world is facing another bad economic and financial situation, the future for Lengua & Cultura is looking bright as Marco explains further. “Many Spanish native speakers have reached out to us asking for teaching training courses, which is something that aligns perfectly with our mission; therefore, next month we will launch our new program: CEPELE, an innovative online Spanish teacher´s course, with international accreditation for those who want to work and travel around the world.” Finally, Marco gives us his thoughts on Lengua & Cultura being awarded Best Spanish Language School 2019 – Mexico. “It feels great to have this sense of achievement and we believe the reasons behind our success are: Ultimately, we provide our students with a powerful communication tool to connect deeply with the Spanish-speaking people they care for or do business with, while making them part of an international community.” Company Name: L&C Spanish School Contact Name: Yamel Robledo