Café y Conversación

It’s critically important to be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes when having a conversation. A few years back when I was young in my career, I remember responding in a way I felt was extremely polite: “Yes Sir.” The dour look on my colleague’s face suggested I had made an error. Turns out, while this is pretty common where I’m from in Texas, it's less so in central England. The true implication of my statement was that he was old. A grave mistake coming from a 23-year-old recent college graduate just getting started in life. 

Barriers exist between us all, today more than ever with more working remote than ever before. Even if you are geographically proximate, life experiences are different and maybe you are from different cultures, speak differently, or have different life views. At Voyansi, our team comes from many backgrounds and grew up speaking other languages. 

Informal communication on our IM platform, Discord, is often in Spanish, dependent on who is participating. Sometimes, I need to review documents in another language. Google Translate is good, but often vernacular language is misinterpreted. When I started working here, I realized I’d better improve my Spanish really quickly. My colleagues in Argentina feel the same way about English. We all just want to be able to understand each other quickly to accomplish our tasks!

This year, we started a new program: Coffee & Language with Colleagues. We don’t outline or formalize anything about “what you should do” if you choose to participate. The time for precision of language comes with negotiating contracts, not while you are learning. Instead, we facilitate match-making internally, and externally with some of our partners and customers! Our employees sign up to sit down with a native Spanish or English speaker dependent on their goals, and at that point, it’s off to the races. 

Want to spend 30 minutes meeting one of our team members and improving your Spanish or English? Join us by signing up now!