BUSINESS ENGLISH COURSES: KEYS TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR WORK IN ENGLISH
To develop your work in English, it is not enough to learn basic English. For business, it is essential that you have a professional command of the British language and, to do this, you must learn Business English. How do you do it? The best way to learn English is with business English courses.
Even if you learnt English at school and think you have mastered it perfectly, when you have to use it in the workplace you may not be able to express yourself properly. The English we learn as children is used to understand the words of a song or to hold informal conversations outside of work. In the case of Business English, this is the variant that allows us to enter the business world and understand what is going on.
It is essential that you know the basic expressions of Business English. This language is the essential tool for making a business grow, hence the importance of English in the world of work. English classes for companies allow us to focus the learning of the language on the specific sectors in which the company carries out its activity.
What is Business English?
When we talk about Business English, we are referring to the teaching of English for business. It is a vital tool for professionals in many sectors such as: finance, business administration, sales… But it is also necessary for many other branches and professions.
Using specialised business jargon helps us to develop a successful professional career, but it is not enough just to have a good level of English, we must also know the particularities of business English. Business English is much stricter than conventional English, as it is essential to know how to write, answer emails, make presentations, attend business meetings… all of this focused on the professional area in which you are developing your career.
Therefore, it is essential to have the ability to understand the more technical and professional English focused on the development of communication skills and the improvement of professional relationships. Therefore, Business English is based on developing real and more complex situations, as well as the analysis of texts, reports, statistics and even case studies of the profession. What is one of the greatest advantages of Business English? The teaching methodology for specific purposes, depending on the sector.
How is Business English different from normal English?
- Business English is simpler and more direct
- Facilitates effective communication
- Conversations tend to be more formal
- Requires the learning of specialised vocabulary in the sector
- There are not as many variants as there are in normal English
- In addition to vocabulary, it also includes some etiquette conventions
5 tips to improve your Business English
Mastering Business English can bring many advantages when it comes to working in a large multinational company or in some institutions dedicated to international trade. As mentioned above, Business English is a specific branch of the English language. To master it, it is important to learn English through business English courses.
While General English focuses on learning grammatical structures and everyday vocabulary, Business English courses focus on business and workplace skills. Here are 5 key tips to follow if you want to improve your Business English.
1. Improve your general level of English
To learn business English, the first thing you need is to have an acceptable level of basic English, especially in the skills of speaking fluency, listening, writing and reading. Once you have mastered the grammatical structures and basic vocabulary, you can then move on to the specific branch of business English.
2. Business English, a more formal language
Una de las diferencias entre el inglés general y el inglés de negocios es el estilo de las conversaciones. En el caso del Business English, se trata de un estilo más formal, apto para tener una conversación profesional en el trabajo y una comunicación más eficaz dentro de la empresa. Igual que ocurre con otros idiomas como el español, es necesario que conozcas los formalismos de algunas expresiones básicas de inglés.
3. Learn the ‘star’ expressions of Business English
This advice is suitable for people who are looking for a job or those who are going to incorporate their English into their job. Whether you are having a professional conversation, an interview or a business negotiation, there are business English expressions you need to know that will help you in any situation you encounter.
- Back to the drawing board: You can use it whenever a work project does not go ahead and you have to start from scratch.
- Eager Beaver: If you know a colleague in your company who is enthusiastic about his or her work, you can address him or her as an ‘eager beaver’.
- Big picture: is often used in the business world to refer to the overall vision of a project.
- Call it a day: this phrase will be very useful if you have been sitting in your chair at work all day and decide to stop.
4. Prepare your ear for business English
Of course, the first step is for the company to offer English courses for its employees. But if you want to prepare your ear for Business English, the best advice is to listen. Listen to conversations in the business world, in companies and in the workplace in general.
5. Make a glossary of all the new vocabulary you learn.
One of the best tips that will help you pick up a lot of business English vocabulary is that when you read, don’t just try to look for the general idea of the text, but also stop and look for new terms. Once you identify all these words that are new to you, try to create a glossary of your own that you can revise or reuse every time you have to write a professional text.
Business English courses focus on the skills that can be applied in the workplace, and in particular, the vocabulary that you might encounter during a professional conversation. At Classgap for Enterprise, we have over 10 years of experience and offer the best option for learning English online. We have our own platform, “Virtual Classroom” where students and teachers have a two-way communication.
Don’t hesitate any longer and contact us today to get your employees started on employee English classes.