Going Dutch with Skype Prime

I'm an undercover languages fan. I'll be the first to admit that I'm terrible at speaking most languages (except maybe French and Spanish), but I can read and write in a fairly wide and diverse range, including Swahili (Habiri!) and Maori (Nau mai!). For me it's a hobby, but it has become incredibly useful in a company where the individuals are from such a wide range of countries. Even just being able to say good morning to someone in their native language can help break the ice a little.

For most businesses today, having foreign language speakers on your staff can make a big difference to how you treat and work with different countries.

Being able to hear how a word is pronounced is at least as important as seeing how it is written, and goes a long way to understanding that language and being able to speak and use it yourself. I use a combination of audio language courses (mostly from Audible and using the alternative langauges on DVDs to help me learn, coupled with the Rough Guide phrasebooks.

Skype Prime, the service which lets individuals charge end users through they Skype Credit (and lets those individuals earn money in the proess) is being used by Say It In Dutch to provide Dutch language courses.

Quite simply, how cool is that? The courses can be tailored to suit you and are probably the best way to get one-to-one specialist instruction without finding a local expert to provide the same service.

If other companies/individuals would follow suit, there could be a whole language learning university set up around the Skype model.