So your company has just set up an international headquarters in Dallas, Texas. As head of HR, you’re both hiring local employees and bringing in tons of expats from abroad. Your head is spinning thinking about how to make it all work.

Fluency Corp is based in Dallas, so we have lots of recommendations for you — and not just about helping your employees from overseas attend English classes in Dallas. (Although we’re pretty great at doing that!) Read on for some of our favorite resources for international expats coming to the Dallas area.

English Classes in Dallas

International employees who are relocating to Dallas need plenty of support to adjust to their new home. One important way you can help your expat employees succeed is by offering English classes in Dallas. Even if an employee from abroad has experience using English at work, speaking it all day, every day with native speakers is a whole new challenge. He might have trouble understanding colleagues, and, in turn, they might struggle to understand him. That damages both his morale and his productivity — which, with so much riding on a successful relocation, you just can’t afford.

But relocations don’t succeed or fail based just on what happens at the office. Your international employees will feel at home in Dallas faster if they can talk proficiently with their neighbors, the other parents at their kids’ schools and their local merchants. This is another reason language training is important — and a great reason to offer it to your employees’ families as well. Remember, an employee’s family can make or break the success of a relocation.

We recommend making English and accent reduction classes part of the relocation packages for your employees moving to Dallas. When they work with English language tutors in Dallas, they won’t just be getting language training. Their tutor can serve as a guide to the local culture. A savvy language trainer will help them understand the ins and outs of daily life in Dallas, as well as local etiquette, slang and customs (like what to expect during Texas-OU weekend).

Looking for English language training in Dallas that fits the needs of your employees? Of course, we suggest that you start by checking out our offerings at Fluency Corp. I founded Fluency Corp in 2009 when I moved to Dallas after teaching English in Mexico. Today, we have hundreds of instructors across the U.S., but we still call Dallas home. We think of ourselves as our students’ fluency partners. We tailor all classes to their specific needs and focus on overall fluency, which allows our students to speak confidently, clearly and with ease. Fluency Corp’s English training is live, not recorded, and all instructors are native speakers. We offer customized, private or small-group corporate English lessons throughout the area. English lessons can take place in the office, at employees’ homes or even online.

We’re also happy to recommend some fellow language trainers in Dallas:

  • OneWorld Language Solutions – Gabriele Hayes, founder of OneWorld, came from Germany right after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1990, she founded her company in Dallas. OneWorld also does voice-over, interpretation, translation, subtitling and transcription. Gabriele understands what it’s like to work in your second language daily.
  • Dallas International School – The Dallas International School is an award-winning bilingual (English and French) elementary school and high school. But the school doesn’t just educate children in languages. It also offers Spanish, French and English language courses at the school or at your office. Students can even opt for intensive language courses that jump start learning by immersing them in their chosen language for several hours a day.
  • Excel English Institute – This school, located in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, has a variety of offerings that feature an interactive approach. The Intensive English Program (taught at three levels) is most popular. Excel also offers accent reduction training, TOEFL test prep and a two-month Business English Program for students with advanced proficiency.

More Tips for International Expats in Dallas

  • Place2Place – If you’re looking for a trustworthy partner to help with your Dallas relocations, Place2Place eases employees’ transition to new environments. Founder Clivia Bettelli Baskin and her team are a dependable resource throughout an employee’s transition in a new country and culture. Place2Place provides spousal support, culture training, language training and more. Based in Dallas, they operate in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
  • Internations.org – You’ll want to tell your relocating employees about this organization, which hosts events where they can get to know other expats in Dallas. Through Internations, expats might meet at a wine bar, go dancing, start a book club, volunteer at a Dallas homeless shelter or have a picnic in a park. Most people say they feel really comfortable walking into an Internations room, since everyone there has also transferred to a new country. It’s a chance to enjoy hearing accented English from dozens of countries while making new friends who have already walked down the same path.
  • Meetup.com – This is another great resource to share with international employees moving to Dallas. Whether they want to connect with other parents, soccer fans or hiking enthusiasts, they’ll easily find new friends at Meetup.com. Bonus: Their English will improve as they listen to the native speakers they meet, and they’ll learn all about their new city from locals.
  • The Wild Detectives – If your expat employees include Spanish speakers learning English, point them toward this cool spot in the hip neighborhood of Oak Cliff/Bishop Arts. This small wine and coffee bar has shelves lined with curated books in both Spanish and English. The Wild Detectives hosts writers and poets every month in its backyard, which has picnic tables and lights hanging from the trees. The semi-monthly book club in both English and Spanish is a great way to listen to native speakers talk, even if your expats are not quite ready to jump in with their own thoughts. Then, after the book club, they can hang out and make friends with locals, learning English in Dallas as they get to know a cool neighborhood and make friends.

We hope that this info will help your relocating employees come to love Dallas just as much as we do here at Fluency Corp. To learn more about our English classes in Dallas, or if you have any other questions about international relocations to Dallas, please contact us to schedule a free consultation.