VLLC Case Studies

Simon Illingworth, Arabic Student

11/5/2015

Simon is currently studying Arabic to attain his Certificate II in Foreign Language Studies accredited Course. He wants to “keep going with Arabic “and travel to an Arabic country to practice the language in real life. Simon would also love to learn another language, most likely Spanish for fun, (or Russian) at VLLC. "I started Arabic at VLLC because my professor at Uni and my cousin from DFAT told me it would be beneficial. I always thought it would be cool as well and I think its a good looking language as far as the writing goes. ..

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Patritti: Our Experience with Chinese at VLLC

6/5/2015

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Patritti is metropolitan Adelaide’s only remaining family-owned winery, with a history dating back to 1926. Under our founder’s intuition and determination, the winery and its sales grew steadily throughout the decades, and by the mid-1970's export became a major focus for the family business. It remains this way today; Patritti shipped more than 170 20’ containers of juice and wine to various export markets during 2013. Many of these shipments landed in China’s Yunnan, Guanxi, and Liaoning provinces, where some of our most beneficial export relationships are based.

These relationships are kindled and grown by two key members of our team; our Export Manager Anna Nuttall, and one of our winemakers, Ben Heide. Both Ben and Anna play an integral role in developing our business relationships with export clients, including conducting tours, tastings, and feasibility studies with potential clients on-site at our winery, plus extensive discussions, negotiation, and assistance with labelling, entry requirements, marketing, and shipment arrangements.

Ben and Anna began the VLLC Chinese language course about 10 weeks ago, and they have found it challenging, relevant, and useful. As Ben learns Chinese he is finding his interactions with clients far more transparent. He says,

“It really helps to eliminate some of the ‘lost-in-translation’ moments, so I can understand when they like something, or perhaps when something isn’t working for them”.

Anna agrees, adding,
“It helps us be courteous, and hold at least some conversation in their native language… they really enjoy listening to us communicating this way, and we can understand a lot more of their needs too”

They both find the mixture of online and face to face lessons, good study support, and flexible structure very helpful in fitting learning Chinese into their already busy working day. The reward of learning another language is far outweighing the challenges, as Anna says,

“At first I was overwhelmed, it just seemed like my mouth would never be able to get around those words, and those sounds… but after a few lessons I realised I could do it, and I could be understood.”

Right from the inception of Patritti, our founder – Giovanni Patritti, an Italian migrant who landed in Adelaide in 1925 with not a word of English – recognised the importance of communicating to people in a way that matters to them. Upon his arrival from Piedmont, he quickly picked up some English, which helped him to negotiate land contracts for some of Adelaide’s most fertile soils. He went on to become fluent in his new native language, and very successful in his business.

Today, Patritti is still completely owned and operated by his immediate family, and they still value the same things – transparency, relationships, and business intuition. As our export business continue to grow, these values stay at the forefront. Ben and Anna being able to effectively learn Chinese aides them to build new and lasting relationships with people in our core markets, and paves the way to continued growth, and a bright export future.

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Joshua, German student

Simon Illingworth, Arabic Student

Patritti: Our Experience with Chinese at VLLC

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