Is the future of international business multilingual

It seems counter intuitive, but many large global businesses are imposing English only work environments on international employees.

As old trade and economic power bases shift and the rise of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the MISTs (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey) continues, you would think it safe to assume that the language and culture of international business will also shift.

Then it isn't a great leap to think if Russian, Mandarin, Brasil-Portuguese and others are emerging as the languages international business then surely those with multi-language skills will thrive?

Business English versus the rest of the world

Research shows this is not necessarily the case, English is not only hanging on as the choice of global businesses but it is growing, and growing in an aggressive manner. 

According to Tsedal Neeley, assistant professor in the Organisational Behavior unit at the Harvard Business School, companies that don't adopt English as a standard for their entire organisation will, at some point, "experience some form of bottleneck."

"It depends on what the company does, but if you'll have members in different countries needing to collaborate -- whether it's to integrate technology platforms or cater to customers worldwide -- it will become more important that even middle managers and employees with international assignments will need a common language in order to interface with others."

Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Nokia, Renault, Samsung and Microsoft Beijing have all mandated English as their corporate language. In 2010, Japanese internet services company Rakuten made headlines when it announced it would become an English-only organisation, with all communication, verbal and email, in English.

Language influences to way we act

As well as impacting on business processes there have also been claims that the use of English in business promotes different types of behaviour. Anne-Wil Harzing,Professor in International Management at Melbourne University, has conducted extensive research into international business language. 

Following a series of experiments with MBA students her team found that when students worked together in English, as apposed to Dutch, their behaviour was more aggressive and more competitive. 

Harzing does not conclude that English is a better language for international business. She stresses that companies operating globally should be aware and embrace cultural and behavioural difference – and language difference plays a major part in this strategy.

Think globally, speak locally

In short, Harzing’s research highlights the harm done by the short-term and reductive approach to doing business internationally as practiced by those forcing English only policies on employees. She concludes that a more beneficial approach would be to encourage bi or multilingual practice at all levels within global organisations.

When people learn another language, they also learn a new way of looking at the world. So, when bilingual people switch from one language to another, they start thinking differently, too. Knowing different languages opens doors to different cultures, other people and other points of view.

Bilingualism has many more benefits than just knowing 2 languages. The mental gymnastics needed to constantly manage two or more linguistic systems increases cognitive flexibility and makes learning of all kinds easier.

Because the structures and ideas of two or more languages are quite different, bilinguals have to think in more complicated ways and therefore develop a more sophisticated view not only of language, but also the culture that comes from that. 

Bilinguals have also been shown to have better memories, better concentration, better non-verbal reasoning and be better at multi-tasking.

This is a powerful toolbox, and exactly what one needs to succeed in a fast-changing, increasingly internationalised world.

As the American psycholinguist Frank Smith said, ‘One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.’

In-company language and cultural training for international businesses

International House London provides tailor-made language and cultural training, delivered in your company at times to suit you.

Our native-speaking trainers can deliver lessons in your office or at our executive training centre in Covent Garden, central London. We can work with you to provide your perfect language and cultural training solution.

Book a course online or talk to our team about international business language and cultural training

London – Making the global local since 55 BC

Over the centuries, immigrant communities in one famous London neighbourhood have produced things that are now considered as British as fish ‘n’ chips or a pint of beer – such as fish ‘n’ chips and a pint of beer…

A tasty reminder of Brick Lane's Jewish history

Britain has forever been a country shaped by ‘foreign’ influences.

From the Romans to the Vikings, the Saxons to the Normans and through the centuries that followed, our language, our dialects and our culture have always adapted, adopted and absorbed influences from near and far.

Major cities in the UK in particular have been shaped by immigration and migration, non-more so than the capital itself.

It’s often said that London is a city made up of ‘villages’, different neighbourhoods with distinctive characteristics. Many of these ‘city villages’ were formed by people who came to London from distant places before making specific areas their own.

"Consider yourself one of us..."

The East End of London - Spitalfields, Hoxton, Whitechapel and Bethnal Green, with Brick Lane at the centre - embodies for many what it means to be a Londoner. Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used the area as the backdrop for their most celebrated novels with East End residents providing the very definition of a local  Londoner - a cockney.

Historically, these neighbourhoods have experienced the largest influx of migrants and immigrants in the whole of London.

The first big wave of immigration to the area was the Huguenots during the 17^th century, fleeing persecution in France. The Huguenots were master silk weavers but most of the new arrivals found employment in the Black Eagle Brewery, now the Truman building that still dominates Brick Lane.

These refugees from France transformed the whole of the British beer industry, introducing techniques and flavours that still characterise a traditional British pint today.

The Huguenot community eventually left the grand houses they’d built in the area and were replaced by a surge of immigration from Ireland in the eighteenth century. The majority of these new arrivals were weavers from the west of Ireland who continued the artisan traditions of the area begun by the Huguenots.

A second wave of Irish immigrants in the 19^th century chose to settle in the north of the city, Camden Town and its surrounding suburbs, the East End Irish community slowly followed.

Those that remained in the cramped, overcrowded area were bolstered by a surge of immigration from the south of Italy and Sicily. The Italians settled mostly around Clerkenwell and Farringdon throughout the 19^th century as Brick Lane and Spitalfields became home to Askenazi Jews escaping pogroms in Russia and the east.

From the late 19^th century right up until the mid-1960s the streets of Shoreditch and Spitalfields were filled with Jewish bakeries, theatres, synagogues haberdasheries, butchers and textile workshops where Yiddish was the most commonly spoken language.

Many Yiddish words and phrases became part of commonly used English - glitch, nosh, schmooze and tush - to name but a few. And traditions such as fish ‘n’ chips originated in this neighbourhood – the very first combined fish 'n' chip shop was opened by a Jewish immigrant, Joseph Malin, near Bethnal Green around 1860.

 

From Kosher town to Bangla town

Eventually, the Jewish community slowly moved to the north of the city (as the Irish had before them) and a new community of immigrants moved in, carrying on many of the customs and trades started by previous generations of immigrants to the  area.

In the 1970s kosher butchers turned into halal butchers, bakeries became curry houses, haberdasheries became sari shops and synagogues became mosques. Bangladeshis had arrived in the East End and were making Brick Lane their own.

Today in Brick Lane, fashionable bars, shops and art galleries compete for space with the older more established Bangladeshi curry houses and sweet shops.

The very first curry house opened in Brick Lane in the middle of the 1960s, set up by a navy chief from Bangladesh who jumped ship in the East London docks.

It became the model for other restaurants on and around Brick Lane. These curry houses quickly became popular with diners from all communities in the area, and in the 1970s and 1980s Indian restaurants throughout the UK modelled themselves on the Brick Lane curry houses.

Now, curry, specifically chicken tikka masala (an ‘Indian’ dish invented in Britain), has replaced fish ‘n’ chips and roast beef as Britain’s national dish.

Welcome home, wherever you’re from

Since the birth of the city, the people that live in London have come not only from all parts of Britain and Ireland; they’ve come from every corner of the globe.

Those that choose to make London their home don’t just become Londoners; they define what it means to be a Londoner.

More about life in London

Our guide to London provides information about London’s varied neighbourhoods and links to useful services around the city.

A Horrific History of Halloween

 Halloween is celebrated in a number of countries on the night of October 31. 

The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows’ Eve, it's an occasion that is thought to be a "Christianised" version of Celtic harvest festivals and pagan festivals of the dead.

Celtic and Gaelic people believed it was a time when the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped. On this date the deceased would return and cause havoc for the living - the destruction of crops was thought to be a particularly popular activity of the living dead.

The Christian appropriation of Halloween dates from about 1745. It became a day dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers.

In the 1800s people in Scotland, Wales and Ireland celebrated Halloween by going from house-to-house in costume reciting songs in exchange for food and drink, this was called "mumming" or "guising."

Migrants from Scotland, Wales and Ireland carried versions of the tradition around the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until the middle of the twentieth century  only Scottish and Irish communities celebrated Halloween in the United States. 

Trick or treat

 

Today, Halloween is associated the world over with trick-or-treat, a phenomenon that began in North America in the1950s. 

Trick-or-treating is popular with children on or around Halloween, it's an activity in which they proceed from house to house in costumes, asking for treats, such as sweets, with the question: "Trick or treat?" The "trick" part of trick-or-treat is a threat to play a trick on the homeowner or their property if no treat is given. 

Until recently trick-or-treating was unknown in the UK, British children would dress in costumes and knock on doors in their neighbourhood asking for "a penny for Halloween." Now, trick-or-treating is as popular here as it is in the US and it is expected that if you live in a neighbourhood with lots of children you should buy treats to avoid those tricks.

Ghastly goings on at IH London for Halloween

Our social programme has organised some fittingly frightful activities for Halloween this year:

• Wednesday 30 Oct – A Jack the Ripper tour of the Victorian streets of old East London
• Thursday 31 Oct – Ghost Bus tour of the haunted streets of London
• Friday 01 Nov – Enter the London Dungeons, but make sure you know you’re way out.

To book a place, stop by the Social Programme desk on the ground floor.

A handful of foreign phrases are all most British holidaymakers know

Brits love the sun, the beaches and the food of other countries but are reluctant to learn the basics of other languages, a new survey finds.

A poll carried out by the British Council reveals that this can cause problems for many British people when they take their annual holidays.

Many prefer to point at a menu when ordering food to avoid trying to pronounce words in another language. Unsurprisingly, this means Brits abroad often have no idea what they ate after ordering something from a menu they could not understand.

Words and phrases British holiday makers do know

The most popular holiday destinations for British tourists have remained consistent for almost fifty years. Spain remains the top holiday choice and is closely followed by France, Italy and Portugal.

But still, the language knowledge most British holidaymakers have is limited to a handful of basic phrases.

The typical British tourist knows only ten French words or phrases, seven Spanish and just three Italian:

FRENCH 

 

Hello (Bonjour)
Goodbye (Au revoir)
Yes (Oui)
Thank you (Merci)
My name is... (Je m'appelle...)
Do you speak English? (Parlez-vous Anglais?)
Good evening (Bon soir)
Wine (Vin)
What time is it? (Quelle heure est-il?)

SPANISH

Hello (Hola)
Yes (Si)
Thank you (Gracias)
Goodbye (Adios)
Good morning (Buenos dias)
Good evening (Buenas noches)

Beer (Cerveza)

ITALIAN

Hello (Salve)
Goodbye (Arrivederci)
Yes (Si)

Never too late to learn a new language

At IH London we know that this is only part of the picture, as every year thousands of British people take evening and weekend language courses at our central London language school.

Most recently we launched a popular package of practice lessons in French, Italian and Spanish. These courses are designed to give people enough language knowledge to get by on holiday and provide a foundation on which to build language learning.

Our practice lessons cost only £25 and can be taken as a two week intensive course or 5 week semi-intensive. All taught in the evening at our Covent Garden language school.

The next scheduled practice lessons in French, Italian and Spanish begin in early November and can be booked online.

Gap year students train to teach English

This year an estimated 24,000 students plan to take a gap year before starting university and many gap year students are training to teach English as a foreign language to fund their travels and improve their CVs.

The arrival of A-level results means hundreds of thousands of students are starting to plan for life at university - or what to do during their gap year.

Recent research by ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) shows students are becoming savvier about how they spend their gap year. 

Many gap year students are looking not only at ways to earn money as they travel, they are also thinking about improving future employment prospects by adding something significant to their CVs.

ABTA’s research finds that applications for TEFL training courses have doubled in the past twelve months as more students plan trips to non- English speaking countries.

Whilst the USA and Australia are still amongst the most popular destinations for gap year travellers, Peru, Vietnam, Brazil and Thailand have made it in to top ten of countries gap year students intend to visit in 2013.

For gap year students thinking of teaching overseas it may be advisable to look at where there is more demand for native English speaking teachers. In China, for example, there is an ever growing need for English teachers.

There are a number of dedicated jobs TEFL boards:

• Just TEFL Jobs
• TEFL Job Centre
• UK TEFL
• Guardian Jobs - TEFL Jobs

Before applying for jobs, it's probably a good idea to find the most relevant and best TEFL training courses.

Qualifications and training to teach English abroad

CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching toAdults) is the most popular English language teaching qualification as it is also the most recognised English teaching qualification around the world. 

No previous English language teaching experience is required to study for  CELTA which makes it a popular choice for gap year students.

The CELTA is awarded upon passing the course, which includes six hours of assessed teaching practice to real EFL classes of at least two different ability levels. 

The course grade is determined primarily by the performance of the candidates in this teaching practice, but there are also four written assignments due throughout the course, which are graded on a pass/fail basis only. 

CELTA courses at International House London can be taken on a full-time basis over four weeks with classes running Monday to Friday, 09.00 - 16.00 or 11.30 - 18.30.

There is also the option of taking a part-time CELTA over 12 weeks (120 hours) in the evening or at weekends depending on the course start date.

Findout more about training to teach English as a foreign language and apply online