Business Spanish: Week 8
This week we're back to working from the textbook, Éxito comercial. We´re on Chapter 6 La oficina.
Lunes: lectura comercial
1. We began with three minutes of "conversar sin parar" in Spanish like I often do. I paired students from different social media consulting teams and asked them to share about their experiences. As a follow-up, I asked the students what they are learning. Silence. I finally received three answers, that showed me that they are learning about things that go beyond "just" marketing. That is good!
2. Then I put students in groups of three. I gave them the following scenario:
3. I emphasized that there are some businesses that they can start with very little money. But one constant in business is change. So I told them to go back to their plans and budgets and recalculate according to the following.
2. Then I put students in groups of three. I gave them the following scenario:
The three of you are moving to Barcelona, Spain to begin your own business in bilingual social media marketing (just like you are doing in this class). You have a budget of 4,000 Euros to set up your office space with all the necessary equipment. Use Amazon and Apple in Spain to price your products. You also need to choose the best office space, but rent is not included in your 4,000 Euro budget for office supplies.Students had fifteen minutes to work on this, and they were very engaged!
3. I emphasized that there are some businesses that they can start with very little money. But one constant in business is change. So I told them to go back to their plans and budgets and recalculate according to the following.
- Business is going well so you hire someone else. This person has a wheel chair. What office supplies do you need to buy to accommodate this employee? First students watch this video about how to talk about people with disabilities. Then they watch part of this video about daily obstacles for people in wheelchairs.
- Business continues to grow, so you hire another person. This person is blind. Will your current office space work? What modifications will you need to make to your office supplies and office space? I'll ask all students to go outside to the hallway and then to walk back to their seats with their eyes closed. Then they need to do this activity about the office space.
- If there is time I will show them this video about accessibility issues for people with intellectual/cognitive disabilities.
- Suddenly, business drops. You let go the two new people. Now you need to let one of the original partners (one of the three of you) go. How will you go about making this decision? What will your criteria be? This was awkward! But I'm glad that they had to think it through because this is also a common business scenario.
All in all, I think it was a good class. Students had to apply the vocabulary and concepts from the textbook's Lectura comercial to a specific situation.
Miércoles: lectura cultural
This reading focuses on "El hombre, la mujer y el empleo." Based on Mary Long's recommendations in her chapter titled "Teaching Gender for the Multicultural Workplace" within the book Teaching Gender through Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Texts and Cultures, I will do three things:
- Explore a website. I will ask students to explore Mujeres de empresa and analyze the information it contains. What impression does it give you of Spanish speaking business women? (I suspect it will be that they are concerned about the same things any business person would be.)
- Provide biographies of Spanish, Latin American, and Latina women executives. I will refocus this slightly to highlight female leaders, even if they are not business executives.
- Lucía Maldonado, local Latina leader. I will show them the Facebook Group she runs with all the helpful information she provides to her community members.
- Guadalupe Abreu, local Latina leader and bilingual counselor. I will show them one of the videos from my textbook Comunidades featuring her and her expertise.
- Ruth Montenegro, a local Latina business woman with impressive training in business processes. She is also in one of the video interviews from my textbook Comunidades.
- Mujer Latina Today. A Facebook page that informs and educations Latinas in Ohio.
3. Interviews with Executives. Finally, I will ask students to watch Cultural Interviews with Latin American and Spanish Executives, the section on ¨Social Situations¨ and ¨Machismo.¨
Viernes: taller de asesoría
As always, we´ll analyze the posts from last week to see what worked and didn´t. We´ll edit their posts for next week. And we´ll add a new challenge. (Last week it was to incorporate at least one original video.)
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