Being a bilingual speaker not only broadens the ability to speak with other people not of one’s native language but it often makes you able to make more money in your field of work especially if there are people that can only communicate in their native language.

Businesses are needing more bilingual speakers to make their company profitable by having a diverse employee base that can communicate efficiently with their customers. Alorica, a local call center with many campaigns within the facility, utilizes bilingual speakers more than most companies because they need that ability to communicate with Spanish speaking customers. Alorica has debt collecting campaigns, which has Spanish customers, along with other campaigns. Other campaigns may not work with money but they all make great use of their employees that are bilingual.

Businesses provide the employees that speak multiple languages with a pay raise or different benefits than the rest of the employees in that facility. “As a whole I take fewer calls than the rest of my campaign because I am bilingual ability,” said Stephani Arroyo a bilingual representative at Alorica. “I also make more per hour because of my skills of speaking two different languages.”

Without the bilingual speaking employees, many companies would lose an incredible amount of revenue. They may not be able to keep their business going without being able to cater to Spanish speaking people. “Our product is our personal interactions with customers based on verbal communications,” said Jeremy Plexco, a manager and trainer at Alorica. “Our bilingual program allows us to broaden and increase the diversity on how and who we interact with, improving the services we can offer to a very diverse list of clients”.

Many students at Southeastern go to the university because of their Spanish speaking backgrounds in an attempt to not only improve their abilities to speak bilingually but to connect with others on campus and outside of campus, who cannot communicate properly. “I go out and assist other bilingual speakers and help them connect with others,” said Jose Rubio, a bilingual student at Southeastern. “I also get with other students that are starting to learn Spanish and help those who know Spanish already, but aren’t as fluent as they would like, to improve their skills,” Rubio said. Southeastern also offers a Spanish Speaking group that meets up on Mondays throughout the semester.