Eric Tabone ’08 picked up Spanish the same way he learned how to start a business — by doing it.

Since 2011, he has owned Bogota Business English, where he teaches workplace ingles to human resource managers, MBA candidates, finance directors and professionals in the Colombian capital and other parts of the South American nation. His staff has devoted more than 32,000 teaching hours to almost 1,200 students. Clients include General Motors, PayU Latam and Moffatt & Nichol.

How Tabone got there began with a strong sense of wanderlust. After graduating in May 2008, he backpacked throughout Latin America for three months, then returned home in time to find Texas in an economic slump and a hiring freeze.

He waited tables, which soon led to restaurant management. “I hated it,” Tabone remembered. “It wasn’t a bad job, but it wasn’t for me. But it taught me a lot — like how to work in a business environment and how to show leadership.”

“You can do business well and still make grammatical mistakes, but you have to be able to communicate clearly and cross-culturally.”
Eric Tabone

The dissatisfaction was building to a big life decision, said former roommate Ryan Johnson ’08.

“He found himself during that trip [to Latin America]. So much so that going back to the restaurant business, he was very unhappy. He took a huge risk and jumped out into the unknown and used his money from the restaurant to live and start a business in another country.”

Tabone picked Colombia because he felt like he hadn’t spent enough time in Latin America. His plan: Stay for six months, teach English in the morning and learn Spanish in the afternoon.

“After several months of teaching, I thought about starting a business,” he said. “I asked myself, ‘What are people looking for?’ I realized there was a demand for English classes at a high level.”

Tabone thought he’d take the American service industry model — with an emphasis on timeliness and top-notch customer service — and merge it with the world of English instruction.

He started small. “I had $100 to my name in 2011,” Tabone said. “I had the teaching thing down, but figured this would be different in execution and be more Americanized.”

To make his venture stand out, he focused on details like punctuality and sending invoices — typical U.S. practices that are not so standard in Colombia.

Now, Tabone has more than 1,200 students, mostly from companies that hired his business to provide English classes two to three times a week before work, after work or during lunches or breaks.

Unlike typical language instruction that stresses mechanics and syntax, Bogota Business English concentrates on conversation and developing confidence.

“We focus on doing business in English rather than just grammar. You can do business well and still make grammatical mistakes,” he said. “But you have to be able to communicate clearly and cross-culturally — just things like showing up on time. Being late can be a deal breaker.”

Learning English — the global tongue for international business — can make a big difference in an employee’s life. Some Colombians make 50 percent more in salary after picking up the language.