Notes regarding credits...

This course consists of 40 hours of instruction. However, students may earn 45 hours by attending supplemental sessions and completing additional coursework. Please check with your home university to find out whether you need 40 or 45 hours to earn course equivalents.

Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

High Advanced

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of five semesters (or seven quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

Foreign Trade

Introduction

This course is designed for those students that wish to learn as much the language of commerce in general as the particular content of commercial activity. The small Spanish business is separated from the constitution and students will study its problems with initiating, growing, and finally, in its conquest of the international markets. This activity is complimented with: (i) preceding authentic documents from the file of exterior commerce, such as the texts and articles of specialized magazines and of journals of real and virtual economic information; (ii) a practical focus on the cultural risks in doing business and establishing commercial relations in Spain and in the largest countries of Latin America.

The methodological orientation of the course is eclectic in that it combines a focus on tasks and communication and activities from the structural court; in other words, the course favors as much individual work as work in groups. Finally, the course includes contents to develop tasks through the internet and in connection with themes analyzed in each chapter.

It is worth mentioning that the contents of this course can help to prepare students for diverse chapters of the themes in exams organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madrid to obtain Superior Certification and/or a Spanish Diploma of Business.

Program

Theory of exterior commerce

Introduction to commerce.
The commercial enterprise: its juridical nature.
The decision to import or export.
The politics of exportation.
Means of payment.
The documents of exportation-importation.
International transport of merchandise.

Skills and activities

Analysis of a complete file of documents utilized in a international commercial operation in Spanish.
Comparative analysis of articles and news related to Spanish and Latin American external commerce (Magazine El Exportador; volume of Claves de la economía mundial; other printed materials and the Internet).

Intercultural communication in the commercial relations with Spanish speakers

General risks
Business in Spain
Business in Mexico
Business in the countries of the Cono Sur (Argentina and Chile)
Business in Andean countries (Colombia, Peru and Venezuela)