Currently, English is the most essential language for business and especially when travelling around the world for work, you will normally end up in an urban city where English is the universal language. This means that becoming familiar with business English speaking is pretty important to become a successful businessperson.
However, business English is quite different to the normal English way of speaking and you will use different vocabulary than when you are speaking with friends and family. Therefore, it can be quite confusing for non-native speakers. Nevertheless, if you can speak good business English, people will take you more seriously and it will get you noticed.
In this article, there are several really useful tips to become more familiar with the business English way of speaking. Try to incorporate these into your daily schedule and you will notice an improvement in no time.
Listen to business English
Listening is one of the simplest but most effective ways to learn new vocabulary. Try watching business or financial news in English for 15 minutes every day to pick up useful phrases and understand how and when to use them. Similarly, you can listen to business podcasts or find some business English videos on FluentU. Also, watching TV shows or films is an excellent way to completely immerse yourself, but make sure to stick to ones that have a business or financial theme, such as The Wolf of Wall Street.
Read
Similar to listening but instead of watching the news, try reading English language newspapers and business websites. The other benefit of this is that you will learn what is going on in the world at the same, so you’ll be killing two birds with one stone! A good source for reading business English is Uptick from Forbes as the language is very current, but this is for more advanced business English learners, so when you feel like you need a challenge, give this a go.
Speak out loud
This might sound a bit silly and you will most likely feel a bit stupid doing it, however it is important to get used to saying words and phrases aloud so that it doesn’t feel strange. This means that when you are speaking in a group of people, it will feel much easier and more natural than if it was the first time.
Build vocabulary
When you are reading and listening to business English, it’s a good idea to write down words and phrases that you think are useful. Then you have something to refer to and can read over to become more familiar. Also, it’s better to write down phrases and not just words as words on their own will hardly ever be used.
Put yourself in real life situations
Ultimately, this is the only way that you will become completely confident with speaking business English because you will be able to put your practice to the test and engage in proper conversation. Also, you will be able to listen to the people you work with and see what language they use and how they use it, so you can pick up some more tips!
Hopefully, those tips are useful and will help you with your learning journey. Finally, here are some very common examples of phrases used in the business world.
The bottom line: the essential point
Play hardball: this means that things are getting tough
Getting your foot in the door: make the first step by gaining entry into an organisation
Touch base: talk to someone and keeping up to date
Cut corners: complete a task in a careless way
Back to the drawing board: start again with a completely new idea
Cut to the chase: get to the point without wasting time
Get the ball rolling: make progress on something
Stay ahead of the curve: maintain advantage over competition
Go the extra mile: put more effort into a task
Down the line: friendly way of saying at some point in the future
Micromanage: watch the details of someone’s work very closely