Mastering English for Better Career Choices
8 April 2008
Read by 1884 persons
All recruiters will tell you: speaking English has become essential.
"Essential English", "fluency in English is an asset" and many other variations are recurring phrases in job offers. They show that English occupies first place among business languages.
Because of the internationalization of business, English has become a minimum requirement to access certain positions and evolve professionally. The goal you should therefore pursue is to quickly become operational in English.
How to do it
Methods vary depending on the learner's language level, motivations, and work methods. Thus, one can immediately contrast the self-taught learner who will have the sufficient will and discipline to learn alone from a generally interactive method, with the student who will prefer the supervision and program offered by an individual or group course.
It is important above all to realistically assess your level: "beginner", to become familiar with the language, "intermediate", to acquire a solid foundation, "specialist", to acquire English for finance, insurance, for example.
It is clear: it would be unrealistic to want to specialize in business English while your mastery of everyday English is still hesitant. It is therefore essential to acquire the fundamentals, in other words, a solid grammatical foundation and a varied vocabulary.
In addition to this systematic learning, listening to the radio (whether news or music programs) will undoubtedly improve your understanding of everyday words and expressions and get you used to the "music" of this language. Many programs such as those from the BBC are easily accessible online; get in the habit of putting them on in the "background" while you do another activity. Certainly, at first you won't understand everything, but gradually, your ear will get used to it and you will see that from one word in seven you will soon distinguish two then three, etc. You can also read the Anglo-Saxon press.
Choosing trips to English-speaking countries or conversing with a pen pal, exchanging, for example, French conversation for English, will help you progress.
This direct confrontation with the foreign language can be reinforced by systematic learning through more classic training that will allow you to acquire the grammatical basics. Depending on your availability and budget, you can follow "à la carte" programs, a crash course for a short period full-time, or for a semester, or even a year.
Specializing in Business English
It is true that some companies have set up specific English training programs according to their field of activity that can be validated as part of continuing education. However, if you do not wish to wait for this opportunity and if you have sufficient linguistic bases, you can embark on this specific learning by using specialized books offered by most publishing houses, not forgetting e-learning resources and the many online multilingual dictionaries.
Nevertheless, the ideal remains a significant experience abroad (of at least 6 months) as part of an internship, for example, or by accepting an international assignment via a VIE.
Let us recall in passing that if many candidates use the validation offered by a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or a TOEIC (Test of English in International Communication), Cambridge diplomas have an international reputation that earns them recognition by universities and companies.
Posted online July 22, 2008
targetcarrieres.fr
"Essential English", "fluency in English is an asset" and many other variations are recurring phrases in job offers. They show that English occupies first place among business languages.
Because of the internationalization of business, English has become a minimum requirement to access certain positions and evolve professionally. The goal you should therefore pursue is to quickly become operational in English.
How to do it
Methods vary depending on the learner's language level, motivations, and work methods. Thus, one can immediately contrast the self-taught learner who will have the sufficient will and discipline to learn alone from a generally interactive method, with the student who will prefer the supervision and program offered by an individual or group course.
It is important above all to realistically assess your level: "beginner", to become familiar with the language, "intermediate", to acquire a solid foundation, "specialist", to acquire English for finance, insurance, for example.
It is clear: it would be unrealistic to want to specialize in business English while your mastery of everyday English is still hesitant. It is therefore essential to acquire the fundamentals, in other words, a solid grammatical foundation and a varied vocabulary.
In addition to this systematic learning, listening to the radio (whether news or music programs) will undoubtedly improve your understanding of everyday words and expressions and get you used to the "music" of this language. Many programs such as those from the BBC are easily accessible online; get in the habit of putting them on in the "background" while you do another activity. Certainly, at first you won't understand everything, but gradually, your ear will get used to it and you will see that from one word in seven you will soon distinguish two then three, etc. You can also read the Anglo-Saxon press.
Choosing trips to English-speaking countries or conversing with a pen pal, exchanging, for example, French conversation for English, will help you progress.
This direct confrontation with the foreign language can be reinforced by systematic learning through more classic training that will allow you to acquire the grammatical basics. Depending on your availability and budget, you can follow "à la carte" programs, a crash course for a short period full-time, or for a semester, or even a year.
Specializing in Business English
It is true that some companies have set up specific English training programs according to their field of activity that can be validated as part of continuing education. However, if you do not wish to wait for this opportunity and if you have sufficient linguistic bases, you can embark on this specific learning by using specialized books offered by most publishing houses, not forgetting e-learning resources and the many online multilingual dictionaries.
Nevertheless, the ideal remains a significant experience abroad (of at least 6 months) as part of an internship, for example, or by accepting an international assignment via a VIE.
Let us recall in passing that if many candidates use the validation offered by a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or a TOEIC (Test of English in International Communication), Cambridge diplomas have an international reputation that earns them recognition by universities and companies.
Posted online July 22, 2008
targetcarrieres.fr
