March 27, 2009 UNC Global News

If an associate dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School can find the time to study, then just about anyone can.

James Dean, who is now dean of the business school, carved out time to learn Spanish despite his demanding schedule. He did it by taking a Working Languages course, which teaches professionals a second language without the constraints of a traditional course.

“The program only met periodically and all of the other work we did on our own time,” Dean, who took the course six years ago, said. “It was a really convenient way to learn another language.”

Besides monthly meetings, students use interactive CD’s and online audio files to enhance the learning experience.

Working Languages focuses on the new language from a business approach, teaching about business customs in other countries as well as focusing on specific phrases that are commonly used.

Dean Dean said learning another language allows businesses to compete in a global economy, a goal the Kenan-Flagler Business School has moved to the forefront.

“I think there is an attitude among Americans to say that we don’t really need to learn other languages,” Dean said. “Our willingness to extend ourselves out to other languages is a good effort to show how the school is globalizing more.”

The program started as just a Spanish program but has since expanded to Mandarin Chinese and Portuguese.

The course is broken down into several month-long units, a final project and an in-country immersion that give students a strong base for conducting business in other countries.

Students learn about building business relationships, including what is the appropriate way to address others in the culture and what are some of the cultural differences between the U.S. and other countries.

Professor Maria Elena Rodriguez, who helped start the program eight years ago and teaches the Spanish course, said this is a focal point of Working Languages.

“First impressions are very critical, especially when dealing with people in other countries,” she said. “When the students learn the way to present themselves initially, it goes a long way in a business relationship.”

The program also focuses on language used at work, and students practice introducing their jobs and what they do in the second language so they can effectively convey their job description and purpose to businesses in other countries.

Rodriguez said cultural differences are also important to understand in a business relationship.

“Hispanic culture does business in a more social setting,” she said. “We teach the students what kinds of things to talk about. Politics, sports, the weather. These are all things that are very important.”

Students practice writing memos and making presentations and the course stages a conflict situation so that students can learn how to properly handle problems without offending a colleague.

After the coursework is completed, the class goes on an immersion to a country in which the target language is spoken.

“Everyone comes back saying the immersion is the highlight and that it really helped solidify what they had been learning for the past few months,” Rodriguez said.

Those in the first level of Spanish go to Costa Rica for a week and the second level Spanish students go to Spain.

Melissa Rudolph, a second year MBA student, completed the beginner level of Spanish and is now taking the intermediate level. She said the immersion trip was definitely the best part for her.

“Everybody stayed with a family and we had to speak in Spanish the entire time,” she said. “We went around and visited companies and talked to them in Spanish. After we came back, I felt like I had a much better grasp on the language than before.”

Rudolph said learning a second language would have been difficult without Working Languages because of the time business school takes.

“There is basically no way a business school student would have the time to learn another language,” she said. “That was the draw of this for me. Especially since learning another language is so important now.”

Professor Zhou Yi, who teaches the Working Mandarin course, said the course she teaches is a little more intensive because Chinese is more challenging to learn.

“We meet once a week, and students meet with a conversation coach every week because it is difficult to learn and students need help,” she said.

While in China for the in-country immersion, students stay with a native speaker and take Chinese classes for three hours a day, but the highlight is the sightseeing and business visits, Yi said.

“We want them to learn about the language and the culture while they are there,” she said. “They learn a lot on the business visits and we take them on a tour throughout Beijing and Shanghai. All the students face a big culture shock though.”

Dean Dean recently gave a speech in Spanish and in French about the importance of globalizing in the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

“I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have been able to give the talk without having taken the class,” he said.

Rodriguez said there have been talks about expanding the program to Arabic or Russian in the future, though no definite plans have been made.

For Dean Dean, he said the Spanish he learned has allowed him to really surprise native speakers that he encounters.

“I was at the car wash recently and it really took them by surprise when a Gringo like me started talking to them in Spanish,” he said. “I bet they wished they had known that I could understand what they were saying to each other.”

For more information or to sign up for a Working Languages course, visit http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/ki/culturelanguage/workingLanguage/index.cfm.

- Story by Andrew Cummings ‘10