In the beginning, my teammate Ibra told me he thought we should talk in English all the time. Even more, all the company should do it and they will be happy with that. Take into account, in Stomio most of the team is Spanish.
To be honest, as usual, I was not sure about it. That sounded weird to me and could be understood as us pretending to be cool. In fact, when I explain that to some friend, someone used to tell me that, or at least, I can see it in their faces they are thinking it :)
There is a problem for every Spaniard who has not lived outside Spain in a country where English is the main language. You can have a “not bad” level because you have studied it, you more or less have a basic understanding, but when you go to speak, you are not able to do it. Why? You have not done it before. Never. This is a blocker for us.
So, the more we thought about it, the more sense it made. The best way of improving on something is by trying it. The more, the better. We will improve with the help of each other. Finally, we started Stomio talking in English. Not Spanish allowed.
In the beginning, it was weird talking with someone you know for years in a different language. Yes, that’s true. But this is not a real problem, the second day we were used to it. And the learning is clear in the team. I received direct feedback from a teammate telling me he was having dinner with a friend and his English wife and he had finally been comfortable talking with them. And not only that, they had even told him that he had improved a lot. He was super proud of himself.
Hopefully, we will be a successful company, but if not, our teammates will be able to work from a US company. Their success is our success.