HR Manager
Run the interview, explain the contract, deliver the feedback — in professional Spanish, out loud.
The contract words split by country, and using the right one signals you know the terrain: Spain's el contrato indefinido is Mexico's contrato por tiempo indeterminado, and in Argentina permanent staff are la planta permanente. Benefits are las prestaciones — in Mexico, las prestaciones de ley is a fixed block of workplace language. Modern offices mix anglicisms freely with the Spanish terms: home office usually beats el teletrabajo, el onboarding competes with la incorporación, and in reviews people dar feedback as often as dar retroalimentación. And mind the register on the hard conversations: despedir, not echar — though outside HR, Mexicans will just say lo corrieron.
Below: the recruitment, contract and performance vocabulary lesson by lesson, the country-by-country terms that trip people up, and a way to learn it with no flashcards — every term used out loud in a live workplace conversation.
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Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
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The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
Nothing to drill in the HR Manager lessons — you run the meeting, and Olivia feeds you the professional term at the exact moment the conversation needs it. One lesson you're conducting a structured job interview from the hiring side: el perfil del candidato, qualifications, expectations. Another you're presenting new policies on remote work and benefits to employees who have questions about la jornada laboral and el seguro médico. Then the hardest one: a performance review, where you deliver la retroalimentación constructiva, set los objetivos medibles, and keep it human. Out loud, across the desk, with Olivia answering back.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and HR Manager is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
In Spain, el contrato indefinido; Mexico's legal equivalent is el contrato por tiempo indeterminado; and in Argentina being permanent staff is estar en planta permanente. Its counterpart everywhere is el contrato temporal.
Las prestaciones — in Mexico the fixed phrase is las prestaciones de ley, the statutory package. In Argentina any benefits conversation includes el aguinaldo, the mandatory extra salary payment, and a bonus is usually el bono anual rather than la retribución variable.
La evaluación del desempeño — though multinationals across Latin America say el performance review in English. The feedback inside it is la retroalimentación constructiva, and in meetings dar feedback and dar retroalimentación are used interchangeably.
The precise trio: el despido (dismissal), la renuncia (resignation), la indemnización (severance pay). Colloquial Mexico says lo corrieron for 'they fired him', and the final payout package across Latin America is la liquidación.
El periodo de prueba — Spaniards shorten it to estar a prueba. Onboarding is la incorporación, though in tech offices the anglicism el onboarding competes with it head-on.
