With English being the international language, studying English isn’t just a hobby or a useful skill to have, it’s essential if you want to progress in the business world. It can literally boost your career.
There are plenty of ways to learn English outside of lessons to make English a part of a daily routine and the same is true of business English. As with everything, the more practice people do, the faster you will learn.
It’s very useful if you have a friend or colleague who is a native speaker as simply just practising speaking English regularly will help improve confidence and improve fluency. This could be done face to face or online. If there is a colleague at work, it’s worth asking if it would be possible to meet for a chat on a regular basis. As well as making a new friend, you’ll be helping to progress your standard of professional English!
Why is working on your professional English important?
There are plenty of reasons for learning professional English, whether you want to be able to make your existing job easier or whether you want to improve your job prospects.
Improving your professional English will certainly open up more job opportunities. Most successful businesses need English speakers for certain roles, especially if they have international clients or intend to in the future. Good business English skills will be a real asset when attending an interview.
In such a competitive employment market, every extra skill will greatly improve your chances of being chosen for the position you’ve applied for.
Professional English skills will also greatly improve your chance of promotion within the company you are working for too. As companies expand and as people move up the career ladder, it’s more and more likely that the employees who speak English will be seen as the best candidates for the managerial roles.
If you are looking to broaden your horizons and work abroad then professional English skills won’t just be an advantage, they will be a necessity. Professional English skills can mean the difference between staying in a dead end job that’s going nowhere to landing a dream job working in an exotic part of the world with all the benefits that come with it. So, working on your professional English could change your life!
How can I progress in learning business English?
The kind of business English you need may depend on the type of job you have.
If you’re working in an advertising department you will need to be familiar with the words and phrases that are related to the advertising world. If you’re working in I.T then it will be a totally different set of words and phrases. Identifying what you need is the first thing you need to be aware of when considering how you can progress when learning business English.
Once you’ve identified your needs, you’ll be able to set clear objectives with your learning and it will help motivate you to progress.
It takes time to improve so try to set aside a set time each day when you are going to do some extra practise and stick to it. This could be the time when you learn some new vocabulary or do some online exercises, whatever you have chosen to do as part of your business English studies. A period of 6 months to learn English online ensures good progress. You can also work on your professional English 15 minutes a day.
Whether you’ve been asked to do a presentation in English as part of your work or not, it’s a good way to practise and will improve your confidence when you come to actually presenting. Doing a presentation can be scary but the more you practise the less daunting it will become until one day you might actually enjoy it! Ask a friend or colleague to listen and get their feedback then practise again.
Reading regularly in English is always useful when trying to improve and the same is true when you are trying to progress in business English. The only thing that will change is the topics, which should be business related. Constant reading of business topics will help improve your understanding of business vocabulary and phrases. Regular reading will help you develop a better knowledge of collocations and idioms. Business idioms and phrasal verbs are often used by naive speakers in business situations and thorough knowledge of them will be invaluable.
A daily dosage of international news will be helpful for developing your listening skills and most news stations have a business section. These can often be accessed online so you’ll be able to fit them into your schedule. As well as helping your business English skills to progress you’ll also keep up to date on the latest developments around the world.
Learning business English is like everything you want to get better at. If you really want to improve then you need to make a plan and get on with it. You also need to remember that the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. One way to ensure you make progress is by following an online business English course such as the GlobalExam Business English course.
How can the Business English help me progress?
Learning Business English is another aspect of English language that should be learned by anyone who really wants to take their skills to the next level. You’ll learn the kind of vocabulary and phrases you would encounter in a work environment. The course covers typical workplace situations such as meetings, phone calls, emails, negotiations and more.
There are lots of activities to complete related to dialogues about business trips, recruitment, marketing and sales on the course. If you’re working or planning to work in areas such as marketing, customer services, Human Resources, sales, purchasing tourism, banking, logistics or management then you’ll find content that deals with those areas too. Choose your career and start improving your professional English.
The course deals with so many different situations and includes videos of native speakers to listen to and there is the opportunity to produce an English cv (Curriculum Vitae or resume).
The Business English course has three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Candidates can complete a level test to find out which level is most suitable for them and everyone finishing the course can get a certificate of completion. So, if you are serious about progressing in professional English, sign up for the Business Course today!
