The same thing holds true for hiring Virtual Assistants or VAs. With the proliferation of the Internet and the easy accessibility of advanced communication tools, it has become easy for independent workers, solo business owners and online entrepreneurs to hire a VA to perform some daily tasks for them.

Whether you need someone to act as receptionist during the odd hours that you are out of the office, if you need a personal secretary or if you just need someone to handle the paper works for you – you can hire a virtual assistant to do just that. Not only will you be able to save on labor and equipment costs, but you will also save time and energy which you can use to focus on the core of your business.

The Ever-Widening Scope of the Spanish Language

Now, whether you are a virtual assistant yourself or if you are planning to hire one, an important trait that you should posses is being able to read, speak and understand the Spanish language. Although this is not necessarily a requirement, it will be a great addition on your part to learn Spanish.

As you may already know, Spanish is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world. The Latino population is one of the largest minority groups in the United States, and the figures are seen to increase over the years.

Currently, there are more than 390 million Spanish speakers in 22 countries in the world. Aside from the United States, Central and South American countries are the areas where you will find majority of the population speaking Spanish.

Why Learning Spanish is so Important for Virtual Assistants

Now, why does it pay for virtual assistants to learn Spanish and those who are hiring VAs to consider someone who knows how to speak Spanish? Perhaps the number one reason is that the needs of Spanish speakers are not necessarily being catered to these days.

Let’s take a look at the Customer Service department of businesses as an example. If you’re a Spanish speaker and you are calling the customer support hotline of a big company, chances are you will get a Spanish option on the calling menu. However, it is only the bigwig companies who can afford to hire a team of Spanish speakers to answer calls that have this option. If you’re calling a small to medium-scale business, there’s a big possibility that your call will not be entertained if you do not know how to speak English.

So as an entrepreneur who will hire a virtual assistant, it will give you that big business image if you have a Spanish speaking virtual secretary who will answer calls for you. Not only that, but you will also save on labor costs while catering to the non-English speaking market at the same time.

More importantly, it is the virtual assistants themselves who will benefit by learning the Spanish language. Your ‘marketability’ as a VA will be given a boost if you know how to speak Spanish, because there are many entrepreneurs who are looking for such skill. You can also increase the per-hour or per-project rate for your services as a VA because of your skills in speaking Spanish.

Finally, being an able Spanish speaker will open up entirely new career opportunities for you as a virtual assistant.

This post was contributed by Nick, you can read more of his posts on his twitter link at: http://twitter.com/OffshoreAlly

Pronunciation: Tah-xee,  Sahnd-weech,  Kohs-toh, Ah-dool-toh,  Ray-sayr-vah-seeohn,  Ah.hayn-tay,  oh-tayl,  Ahay-roh-plah-noh,  Ahey-roh-lee-naya,  Dees-tahn.seeah

Translation: Taxi,  Sandwich,  Cost,  Adult,  Reservation,  Agent,  Hotel,  Airplane,  Airline,  Distance

Function: Nouns

Intro :

These all are very useful Spanish nouns for the airport that write and sound pretty much the same in English. Also, maybe you noticed that the ending “tion” in “Reservation” gets slightly changed to “ción”. This is a useful thing to remember: Most words ending in “tion” in English end in “ción” in Spanish.

Detail:

You can also see that “Distance” is translated as “Distancia”. The ending “-nce” is often mapped to “-ncia”; as in “assistance” and “asistencia”. You should also keep this in mind, especially while in Latin- America or Spain.

Example:

¿Me puede recomendar un hotel?

Translation:

Can you recommend me a hotel?

Pronunciation: Trahns-pohr-tahr, Een-dee-kahr, Ray-koh-mayn-dahr, Ohb-tay-nayr, Ah-tayn-dayr, Ray-see-beer, Bayn-dayr, Bay-ree-fee-kahr, Ahoo-xee-lee-ahr

Translation: Transport, Indicate, Recommend, Obtain, Attend, Receive, Vend, Verify, Auxiliary

Function: Verbs

Intro :

If all the Spanish you know are a few nouns and you’ll be landing soon in Latin America or Spain, these are the very first 9 verbs you should learn, if you don’t want to be reduced to sign language when asking for something. These all mean (and are written) almost the same in English, so you are already familiar with them.

Detail:

You can easily construct many useful sentences for the airport with them if you start with ‘Me puede”, as in: ‘¿Me puede transportar a Teotihuacán?’ [Can you transport me to Teotihuacan?]. This ‘me puede’ is very convenient because the following verb never changes. The result is not perfect Spanish -or English- but locals will understand you (you would still need to know some nouns to end these requests)

Example:

¿Me puede auxiliar a recibir mi equipaje?

Translation:

Can you help (serving as an auxiliary) me receiving my luggage?

Pronunciation: Mahg-nahn-tay, meel-mee-yoh-nah-reeoh

Translation: Magnate, billionaire

Function: Nouns

There are gradations is Spanish too for the very rich, so magnate doesn’t change: ‘magnate’, a billionaire is a ‘milmillonario’ (still to be widely accepted), a multi-millionaire is a ‘multimillonario’ and a millionaire a ‘millonario’

‘Milenario’ has nothing to do with money, but with time: it means “millennial”.

Example:

Ahora es un millonaria… antes de 2007 era multimillonaria

Translation:

She is now a millionaire… before 2007 she was a multimillionaire

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Spanish Nouns: Los dedos

Pronunciation: Lohs day-dohs

Translation: The fingers

Function: Nouns

Fingers in Spanish have special names too: the thumb is ‘el pulgar’, the index is ‘el índice´, the middle is ‘el cordial’ [related to the heart], the ring is the ‘anular’ [for the 'anillo'] the little finger is the ‘meñique’ or ‘auricular’ [because some people use it for ear (áurícula’) cleaning]

There are informal names too, as ‘el dedo gordo’ [the fat finger] for the thumb, and ‘el dedo chiquito’ [the little finger] for the little one.

Example:

Se fracturó su meñique

Translation:

He fractured his little finger

Pronunciation: Ahn-tah-nyoh

Translation: Times gone

Function: Adverb

‘Antaño’ is a very old word about very old times, and gives Spanish sentences the flavor of times gone past: ‘Ya no hacen vinos como los de antaño’ [they don´t make wines as in the old times] If you find it resembles the word ‘año’ [year], you are right, they are related: ‘antaño’ comes from ‘ante-’ [before -] and ‘año’ [year]

‘Como en antaño’ is very much in use, but the ‘en’ is out of place: ‘como antaño’ (‘como antes’) is the right way to use this word.

Example:

Las mujeres de antaño no podían estudiar en las universidades.

Translation:

In the old times, women couldn´t study in universities.

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Pronunciation: Bee-ayn

Translation: Very

Function: Adjective

‘Bien’ [good] has a second meaning: [very] and it is very much alive in the Spanish language. You can find in food praising ‘está bien rico’ [it is very tasty] or -for example- in the time of day: ‘ya es bien tarde’ [it is very late already]

This adjective works very much like the word “well”, but it has to appear before the adjective to function as “very” -and praising something too-

Example:

Es un muchacho bien malo

Translation:

He is a very bad boy

Translation: Wise and educated

Function: Noun

One who has both talent and knowledge, and also gets to produce new ideas is known in Spanish as ‘sabio’. Sometimes the word is mistakenly used as ‘erudito’ [erudite], but this last word means knowing many things about many topics, not necessarily related with one another.

Also, if you get to know about somebody who knows a great deal about one subject, but doesn´t produce that many new ideas, you can call him/her ‘docto’ [taught]

Example:

No solo era erudita sino sabia también

Translation:

Not only did she was an erudite, but a wise woman as well

Pronunciation: Doh-layn-ceeah

Translation: Ailment

Function: Noun

‘Dolencia’ comes from Spanish ‘dolor’ [pain] and it is used frequently instead of ‘enfermedad’ [sickness]. In case it comes across, you should find out whether or not a pain is involved.

Should pain be out of the picture, you must take it as ‘ sickness’, not as a suffering pain.

Example:

Esa dolencia tiene más de un mes con él

Translation:

He has had that ailment for more than a month

Pronunciation: Moh-rahl

Translation: Moral

Function: Noun

In Spanish, this word has a clear different meaning than ‘ética’ [ethics], as ´moral’ refers to a way to achieve the ethical principles. The first is about practice and the second about theory.

Furthermore; ‘Moral’ is taken in Spanish as a series of ‘modos’ [ways] and ´etica’ as a series of principles.

Example:

Ética

Translation:

Ethics