This is an excellent question.
The answer is, of course, English for business purposes. Specifically, this involves the language skills required in making presentations, negotiating, holding and taking part in meeting, sales, writing and reading reports and emails etc. There are many statements and definitions that are ‘bandied around’ (put forward for discussion).
The key is… if you need to say, write, read or listen to English in a business scenario of any description, it will fall under the banner of Business English.
We ask about your job, industry, location and the nationality of the native English speakers that you are/will be dealing with. These are all very relevant to the type of information that you will need to carry out your role efficiently.
Most of my students are extremely highly qualified professionals in their own career (IT, Accountancy, Finance, Sales etc), and when they are at work have to:
- Report to their English speaking management
- Attend and fully contribute to meetings within the workplace
- Communicate with English speaking international colleagues
- Make presentations to management and/or customers and/or potential clients
- Negotiate deals
- Network effectively
- Entertain customers and visiting colleagues
Let's take a look at how we help Kay;
Kay is one of our students. She works in the advertising industry. She works in the New Business department and her role (job) is to bring in new clients to the agency. Therefore, she needs to create a pitch, present this pitch to clients, negotiate prices, etc.
Kay has to make a pitch to a client next week. To help her get ready, together we:
- Prepare a pitch (Kay explains what she would like to say and then we make it sound fantastic, fully clear, and understandable for her English-speaking clients).
- Role play the pitch.
- Discuss questions the clients may ask about the pitch and plan the best answers.
Another student, Ahmed, is an IT professional in charge of installing new IT systems into companies and ensuring the system works perfectly. He has no need to learn about presenting or negotiating. He does need to be able to teach new users how to use the system correctly and troubleshoot problems. This is a completely different set of skills.
To prepare instructions for a new user of the system. Together we;
- Prepare the instructions (Ahmed explains exactly what he would like to say and we use correct vocabulary, phrases, and idioms to make it clear and fully understandable)
- Role-play the instructions for that one user
- Go over any questions that the user may have and practice potential answers
If you would like to contribute fully to meetings, make presentations, negotiate, network, entertain, enjoy banter around the office and have fun meeting all of these challenges, in English, CONFIDENTLY…..
Get in touch right now and we can do a ‘Needs Analysis’ and see if we are a good fit!
