Marisa Mostek
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How to Learn Business Spanish in 10 Steps
If you have to use Spanish at your job or want to work in a Spanish-speaking country, you need to know how to write emails, read contracts, learn industry jargon and more.
Here are 10 ways you can learn business Spanish plus resources to use.
Contents
- 1. Buy Business-focused Spanish Textbooks
- 2. Enroll in an Online Course
- 3. Find an Online Private Spanish Tutor
- 4. Watch YouTube Video Lessons
- 5. Listen to Spanish Business Podcasts in Your Field
- 6. Learn How to Write Emails in Spanish
- 7. Learn Industry Jargon and Terminology in Spanish
- 8. Learn How to Pass a Job Interview in Spanish
- 9. Learn How to Read Contracts in Spanish
- 10. Practice with a Language Partner
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1. Buy Business-focused Spanish Textbooks
Good old-fashioned text on paper can provide you with all you need to know and more about business Spanish.
“Business Spanish (Teach Yourself)”
If you’re already fluent in Spanish, this book is a good option for you.
It teaches tons of vocabulary and provides brief grammar explanations to keep the often-confusing elements of Spanish fresh in your mind. It also covers varying dialects of Spanish.
“Manual of Business Spanish: A Comprehensive Language Guide”
Are you someone who gets overwhelmed by gigantic textbooks that seem impossible to get through? Well, you’re not alone.
If massive language learning books don’t appeal to you, you may benefit from the concise and comprehensive nature of this book: it’s particularly helpful for those that find themselves in translating roles at work.
“En Activo: Practical Business Spanish”
This book is available as an audio CD, Kindle book or hardback.
- Thousands of learner friendly videos (especially beginners)
- Handpicked, organized, and annotated by FluentU's experts
- Integrated into courses for beginners
It’s comprised of 20 chapters and features role-plays, dialogues, grammar instruction (pertaining specifically to business) and much more, making it suitable for a variety of learners.
“The Hispanic Economics English/Spanish Dictionary of Banking & Finance: Words, Phrases, and Term”
This book contains over 2,300 words and phrases related to the banking and financial industries.
It’s designed for English speakers learning Spanish and Spanish speakers living in an English-speaking country.
“Speak Business Spanish Like an Executive: Avoiding the Common Mistakes That Hold Latinos Back”
This book is organized like a dictionary of business words. Each word comes with a translation and usage notes. It also goes over common mistakes made in professional settings.
You’ll need an intermediate to advanced level of Spanish to get the most out of it.
2. Enroll in an Online Course
Reading old-school textbooks not your learning style? Fret not, as there are numerous websites offering courses in business Spanish. While many of them are free, some of the more comprehensive and detailed courses are available for a small fee.
Businessspanish.com
Most of the business Spanish information on this website can be found in the vocabulary section. It’s divided into alphabetically ordered subdivisions.
FluentU
FluentU uses video clips from authentic Spanish media to teach the language as it’s really used by native speakers. You’ll find business-related news segments, clips from movies and more.
Every video comes with a downloadable transcript and interactive subtitles so you can learn new business terms as you watch.
- Interactive subtitles: click any word to see detailed examples and explanations
- Slow down or loop the tricky parts
- Show or hide subtitles
- Review words with our powerful learning engine
After watching a video, you’ll take a personalized vocabulary quiz to go over the key words and phrases from the clip. You can add any terms you want to review to a flashcard deck.
Lengalia
Lengalia offers two business courses: Business Spanish I and Business Spanish II. The first course features 10 lessons focusing on topics like job seeking, job interviews, market analysis and more.
Once you complete the course, you earn a certificate you can use on your résumé.
123 Teach Me
123 Teach Me’s business lessons are divided into three parts:
- Business Spanish Vocabulary, Verbs, and Quizzes
- Business Spanish Dialogues and Quizzes
- Business Spanish Basics
Once you choose a lesson from one of the topics, you’ll watch a slideshow of the new vocabulary with relevant images and audio pronunciations.
Fluent Spanish Academy
Fluent Spanish Academy features live video and audio training, and the opportunity to ask questions with trained teachers.
There’s a live weekly Facebook meeting that lets you learn from peers and also practice your conversational skills.
There are also short stories and a library of conversational recordings.
Cactus Language Training
Cactus Language Training offers private business and corporate language training in-person and online. You can choose from four courses: General, Business, Technical and Industry-specific Spanish.
- Learn words in the context of sentences
- Swipe left or right to see more examples from other videos
- Go beyond just a superficial understanding
3. Find an Online Private Spanish Tutor
Finding an online Spanish tutor is one of the fastest ways to improve your business Spanish. You get completely personalized lessons from your tutor since they know your goals, current level, your industry and more.
You can base your tutoring sessions on your business course, having your tutor guide you through the lessons. Or you can practice what you’ve learned with your tutor—such as roleplaying job interviews, presentations, etc.
Of course, you can also use your tutor as your primary resource instead of a course, having them construct completely unique lessons for you or follow their own curriculum.
Here are some of the best platforms for finding online affordable Spanish tutors:
Rype
Rype offers live daily lessons with professional teachers. You can book individual lessons with more than one teacher to get a feel for different teachers before deciding who to study with. Group lessons are also available.
Preply
Preply is my favorite online tutor platform. There are tons of filter options that let you search for the perfect tutor. After taking a trial lesson, you select a subscription option based on how many lessons you want to take with your tutor per month. Preply has several tutors who specialize in business Spanish.
italki
italki is similar to Preply, but you pay for lessons as you go with the option of buying a lesson package. There are also a ton of filters, letting you specify that you want a tutor with experience in teaching business Spanish.
4. Watch YouTube Video Lessons
The Internet is an infinite resource for content, including Spanish business videos. Use it wisely and you can improve your Spanish very quickly through immersion without even having to visit a Spanish-speaking country.
For example, YouTube has several videos that teach business Spanish in particular. Here are some that you might find helpful:
Start building sentences.
- FluentU builds you up, so you can build sentences on your own
- Start with multiple-choice questions and advance through sentence building to producing your own output
- Go from understanding to speaking in a natural progression.
How to Learn Spanish Words for Business
This video is hosted by a Hispanic woman who teaches practical and useful Spanish phrases applicable to everyday business affairs.
Along with verbalizing the phrases slowly in her native Spanish accent—so you can hear the proper pronunciation of each word—you can also see them in written form on the screen: assisting you with the spelling of each word.
Basic Spanish for Business Owners
This 20-minute video features helpful business phrases and vocabulary.
It also kicks off by providing viewers with some information about Latino culture, which can be important when conducting global business or simply working with those from other countries.
Learn Spanish – Spanish Office Vocabulary
This is a more simplified vocabulary video containing images and words in both English and Spanish. It ends with a short quiz as a recap.
Learn Spanish with Movies: The Wolf of Wall Street – Business Vocab and Phrases
This video from the FluentU Spanish YouTube channel extracts business Spanish vocabulary from the lines of the movie Wolf of Wall Street.
5. Listen to Spanish Business Podcasts in Your Field
Finding industry-related podcasts in Spanish will help you immerse yourself in the environment you’re soon to be in. You’ll pick up and practice new words and phrases that you otherwise might not have thought to look up.
Plus, you’ll be able to test your comprehension and then fill in any vocabulary gaps you might have—preparing you to enter the actual Spanish environment.
Here are three Spanish business podcasts you can check out to get started:
- Images, examples, video examples, and tips
- Covering all the tricky edge cases, eg.: phrases, idioms, collocations, and separable verbs
- No reliance on volunteers or open source dictionaries
- 100,000+ hours spent by FluentU's team to create and maintain
6. Learn How to Write Emails in Spanish
Have you seen those memes poking fun at how Gen Z writes emails to their bosses, or how people with social anxiety stress about how they sound in an email?
Typing up and email sounds easy until it comes down to you versus the blank message box.
Knowing how to write professional, well-written, properly formatted emails is essential for learning business Spanish. Depending on the company you work for, email might be the primary method of communication between you and your clients, boss or colleagues.
“Email” in Spanish is (el) correo electrónico.
Like English, it has an introductory line, the message body and a sign-off.
Here are a few ways you can start an email in Spanish:
- A quien corresponda (To whom it may concern)
- Muy señor mío/a (Dear Sir/Madam)
- Estimado/a Señor/a (Last Name) (Dear Mr./Ms. Last Name)
- Don/Doña (First Name) (Especially for titles or professions)
And here are a few ways to close off your email:
- Saludos cordiales (Cordial greetings)
- Atentamente (Sincerely)
- Cordialmente (Cordially)
- Sinceramente (Sincerely)
- Para cualquier cosa estoy a su disposición (For anything, I am at your disposal)
- Agradeciéndole de antemano su cooperación (Thanking you in advance for your cooperation)
I highly recommend checking out this guide to learn how to write an email in Spanish from start to finish:
How to Write an Email in Spanish from Start to Finish | FluentU Spanish Blog
I started FluentU to build a new kind of language app. Want to learn more about how FluentU got started?
Writing a formal Spanish email and at a loss for words? Click here to discover how to write a formal email in Spanish by learning phrases like “A quien corresponda,”…
7. Learn Industry Jargon and Terminology in Spanish
Each industry uses its own terminology. So once you get down general Spanish business vocabulary, it’s time to dive into learning your industry’s jargon.
Think of all the words you use on a daily basis. Write them down or keep them in a spreadsheet, then look them up using a Spanish dictionary or online translator.
You can also search for blog posts, YouTube lessons, ask a bilingual friend or hire a Spanish tutor.
To get you started, here are some in-depth guides to teach you the Spanish terminology of a few industries (and/or point you to resources to learn them):
143 Useful Spanish Medical Terms | FluentU Spanish Blog
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Important Spanish Vocabulary for Dentists | FluentU Spanish Blog
Learning Spanish for dentists will greatly improve your ability to serve and care for your Spanish-speaking patients. While becoming a fluent Spanish-speaking dentist will…
80 Banking and Financial Terms in Spanish | FluentU Spanish Blog
Knowing financial terms in Spanish is more important than you think, and it’ll pay off in dividends. Click here to learn 80 banking and financial terms in Spanish, like…
115 Words and Phrases in Spanish for Customer Service | FluentU Spanish Blog
Looking to learn Spanish for customer service? Get started with these 115 Spanish customer service words and phrases. Plus, explore seven resources specially designed for…
8. Learn How to Pass a Job Interview in Spanish
If you want to start working in another country, enter a new field or learn business Spanish to boost your chances of getting a certain job, you’ll first need to know how to ace the interview.
Here are a few words and phrases you can expect to hear during a Spanish job interview:
- Currículum vítae (Resume)
- Entrevista de trabajo (Job interview)
- ¿Por qué le interesa este puesto? (Why are you interested in this position?)
- ¿Cuáles son sus fortalezas? (What are your strengths?)
- ¿Cuáles son sus debilidades? (What are your weaknesses?)
- ¿Por qué deberíamos contratarlo /a? (Why should we hire you?)
- ¿Tiene alguna pregunta? (Do you have any questions?)
- Trabajo en equipo (Teamwork)
- Habilidades técnicas (Technical skills)
- Habilidades blandas (Soft skills)
- Liderazgo (Leadership)
- Horario (Schedule, working hours)
- Motivado /a (Motivated)
- Puntual (Punctual)
- Disponible (Available)
- Sueldo / Salario (Salary)
- Salario esperado (Expected salary)
9. Learn How to Read Contracts in Spanish
You’ll most likely have to sign various contracts when you start working with/for a Spanish-speaking company. There are countless types of contracts, so the terminology will vary depending on what you’re signing. But for now, here are some basic words that appear in most Spanish work contracts.
- Contrato de trabajo (Employment contract)
- Empleo (Employment)
- Trabajador /a (Worker, employee)
- Empleador /a (Employer)
- Puesto (Position)
- Jornada laboral (Work schedule, work hours)
- Vacaciones (Vacation)
- Días festivos (Holidays)
- Permisos (Permissions, leave)
- Seguro médico (Health insurance)
- Beneficios (Benefits)
- Obligaciones (Obligations)
- Confidencialidad (Confidentiality)
- Rescisión (Termination)
- Despido (Dismissal)
- Indemnización (Compensation)
- Ley (Law)
- Reglamento (Regulations)
- Convenio colectivo (Collective Bargaining Agreement)
- Cláusula (Clause)
- Estipulación (Stipulation, formal)
- Párrafo (Paragraph)
I also recommend you find sample work contracts. Read them and learn any terms you don’t know to customize this list to your field. Typing “ejemplos de contrato de trabajo” (examples of a work contract) in Google will show you plenty.
But for a shortcut, here are some links I’ve found to example work contracts in different Spanish-speaking countries:
10. Practice with a Language Partner
Lastly, you need to practice your business Spanish with native speakers, which you can do through language exchange apps.
For example, Tandem lets you connect with native speakers by trading languages.
It’s a fun, safe language tool that will help you to practice what you’ve learned by having real conversations with other native Spanish speakers regularly, teaching them your language in return.
HelloTalk is another great option. I’ve personally used HelloTalk for years, and I even met my best friend through the app. I live in Peru and turned the settings to Lima, searching for women my age who lived in the area and were looking to trade Spanish for English.
I highly recommend reading our Tandem review here and HelloTalk review here.
You can also find more language exchange apps here.
With these resources at your fingertips, you’ll be picking up business Spanish and using it like a pro in and outside the office in no time. Keep focused and keep learning.
