BusinessReport.com

If local CPA Elio Ramos didn’t speak Spanish, he’d lose 98% of his income-tax clients. Then again, if he didn’t speak English, he wouldn’t have the job.

When Ramos came to Louisiana in 1991, he was armed with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Universidad Central de Venezuela and not a drop of English. He spent a semester at LSU learning basic English before passing the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Then he completed courses in accounting and taxation before he was allowed to take the CPA exam, which was another mountain itself.

“I took the test two times before I passed,” he says, attributing the failures to his less-than-honed English. “There were maybe 300 people taking the test, and I was the last person to finish.”

But English was a necessity then for Ramos, just as it is now. For example, any CPA classes and renewal certifications are in English.

“Basically if I could not speak English, there’s no way I could be a CPA,” he says.

Whatever struggles he first endured or continues to endure have paid off for Ramos, who employs his bilingual tongue to stir up business for his company, E&R Accounting Services. He estimates all but 2% of his income tax-related revenue comes from Spanish speakers and 50% of his accounting and bookkeeping revenue comes from Spanish speakers.

Though Ramos may have doubled his market possibilities because of the “sink-or-swim” mentality, he’s onto something. According to 2000 Census data, 13.8 million people in the United States who spoke Spanish at home reported they spoke English less than “very well.” Another 14.3 million reported they spoke English “very well.” That’s not even counting the some 19 million non-Spanish speakers who reported speaking English less than “very well.”

However you want to slice the data, Spanish isn’t going away anytime soon. And even though Louisiana isn’t on the same bilingual level as Texas, California or Florida, we’re slowly shedding “Parlez-vous Français” for “Habla usted español.”

From the dining area at New York Bagel Co. on Lee Drive, the kitchen sign is visible, dictating sandwich-making instructions in Spanish and English. Owner Jay Gomez says the sign was put up a long time ago, and the business has had Cuban kitchen workers for more than a decade.

Of his 10 employees at that location, four speak Spanish—two older Cubans who speak Spanish only and two who are bilingual. Gomez says he speaks “caveman Spanish” out of necessity and doesn’t know what his employees are discussing when they speak in Spanish about non-kitchen-related topics.

“I wouldn’t want to get dropped off in Mexico and have to rely on my Spanish, but for here it’s fine,” he says.

The business runs pretty smoothly, though Gomez occasionally has to translate for his employees like when a dentist calls to confirm an appointment—or a bilingual employee has to translate for him when they chat about soccer.

Despite learning bits of Spanish out of necessity, Gomez says his employees should learn English out of necessity as well. But he says they tell him they’re too old—he estimates they’re in their 50s and 60s—to learn.

“It would definitely make life easier for me if they spoke English in an English-speaking country,” he says.

For those who want to speak Spanish and those who want to speak English, more and more resources are becoming available. Louisiana Community and Technical College System recently started offering Command Spanish classes designed to educate businesses and employees in Spanish tailored to their needs.

Designed by two college instructors from Mississippi, the comprehensive program covers more than 50 areas like real estate, hospitality, health care, construction, banking and industry. Locally, the classes are offered through Baton Rouge Community College, last about eight hours and cost roughly $98 per student.

“It’s a very quick type of learning, and it’s not like college,” says Celyn Christophe, BRCC’s executive director for continuing education. “It’s not an intensive course where you have to learn subject and verb agreements.”

Conversely, the program also offers minimal English for Spanish speakers. Conquering the divide, it seems, goes both ways.