How Can Language Learning Help in a Virtual Office Environment?

Virtual office technologies have gone a long way toward enabling international business. Companies with locations in multiple countries, as well as partner organizations, can communicate and collaborate across unified communications and voice and video conferencing technologies, co-working on the same documents, the same workflows and the same projects. But barriers often remain, particularly across international borders and with customers rather than co-workers: language. While there are translation options available, they’re often not a substitute for humans. In some cases, this means learning new languages.

While technology-based language learning solutions company Rosetta Stone may be better known as a company that helps you brush up on a language before an international vacation, the company also sells language training enterprise solutions for corporate customers. These Rosetta Stone for business modules offer unlimited live tutoring, personalized feedback on pronunciation and writing exercises, general and industry-specific content, and a fully mobile solution. The goal is to help users learn and retain industry-specific language skills that can allow them to serve customers and partners who may speak a different language.

“The most successful global companies recognize that language training can help them better serve diverse customer populations by bridging cultural gaps,” said Matt Hulett, President for Language at Rosetta Stone, in a statement. “We’ve specifically designed this new version to help companies that want to be more inclusive, both internally and externally. Our solution can be tailored by industry, such as retail or manufacturing, and addresses business-specific skills such as customer service, negotiation, and leadership.”

Updates to Rosetta Stone for business include approximately 600 new lessons that cover a wide range of topics, including general business communication, industry-specific terminology, and culture; unlimited access to live online tutoring sessions with native speakers; a mobile version; personalized pronunciation and writing exercises; and more intuitive and user-friendly course navigation, allowing learners to easily search for content that meets their needs, such as travel, healthcare, manufacturing, etc.

The platform offers demonstrable benefits to businesses, including those operations in a virtual office environment. After using Rosetta Stone, 69 percent of workers stated they performed better at their jobs and 86 percent of workers stated they found some time savings at work due, according to the company.