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Answers to these questions will help them to understand how people
from other cultures act differently.
3. Ensure that you speak clear and plain English to avoid any
misunderstandings and miscommunication.

YOUR PLAN: MAKING LANGUAGE SKILLS WORK FOR
YOUR BUSINESS

You may need to greet customers at reception, help them with the
menu or promote your attraction on the street. You can win and retain
more business by speaking to your customers in their language.
Survey the skills you have already, and then consider language
training to improve these skills, and multilingual recruitment to take
on new people who speak the right languages. You could even badge
frontline staff with the languages they speak.

LANGUAGE TRAINING

Start with motivated employees – learning a language takes time and
commitment. You’ll need to think about:
 The type of training needed (i.e. one-to-one, online, sharing of
language skills, intensive, weekly, abroad, self-study).
 Realistic targets (it always takes time to learn a language, and
some languages are more difficult than others).

 Qualifications and assessment (you need ways of checking
progress).
 The level of the language needed for the role – simple ‘meet and
greet’ for everyday pleasantries; or perhaps for reservations, as an
example, a more advanced, conversational level.

MULTILINGUAL RECRUITMENT

If staff needs to be recruited or moved around the business, why not
ensure that their skills match your visitor welcome plan at the same
time? 60% of employees in the hotel and restaurant sector were born
outside the UK, according to the Greater London Authority – and their
language skills are a valuable resource. Bilingual staff may be only
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