Vocational language courses - recommendations wanted

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Chung
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Vocational language courses - recommendations wanted

Postby Chung » Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:01 pm

This forum is full of posts on courses meant for those learning on their own for the hell of it or even making do with books meant for classrooms but we never get around to stuff meant for those needing to learn a new language ASAP because of citizenship or employment requirements.

While resurrecting my German, I rediscovered those resources meant to teach foreigners for vocational purposes. I was able to take one class in business German long ago and remember it being one of my more enjoyable classes because of its applied subject matter compared to what I was going through in my regular German classes which entailed translation of literary extracts, vocabulary drills and occasionally awkward conversational hours where the TA would try to make us talk about God knows what.

I recently picked up some material in the series Menschen im Beruf published by Hueber after having seen that quite a lot of it is adaptable for self-study by coming with answer keys and audio. Even though my passive ability in German is B2 on a very good day, I certainly look forward to doing tasks and exercises in these courses which have business and service (i.e. hospitality, and medical) situations that I can relate to even when a course is designed also for those who haven't even reached A2 such as this course. I've also seen material meant for newcomers and refugees although these interest me a little less since they're meant for learners already living in a German-speaking area and/or attending crash courses or citizenship classes (Integrationskurs); they're not quite as a suitable for those learning independently.

Finland offers something similar for its newcomers, and I've come across some relevant material online and in bookstores. I'm strongly considering working through a course or two in basic Finnish for the workplace after finishing "Suomen Mestari", if I can find them again.

In any case, I'm interested in others' suggestions for or comments about such learning material in Korean, Finnish, Polish, French or even Spanish. As examples, I know about Assimil Business French and Introduction to Spanish for Health Care Workers.

As much as I want to find out about this kind of stuff for Hungarian and Slovak also, I'm not holding my breath given the low demand for such material because of Hungary's and Slovakia's respective unpopularity for newcomers. :(
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Re: Vocational language courses - recommendations wanted

Postby Arnaud » Wed Apr 19, 2017 5:01 am

In french, there is:
Le français des infirmiers : B1-B2,
Le Français des médecins : 40 vidéos pour communiquer à l'hôpital (1DVD)
Soigner en français - Méthode d'apprentissage pour les infirmiers non francophones (B1/B2)
Several books from the CLE publisher: X progressive du français des affaires (where X is communication, grammaire, vocabulaire, etc)
There are also books giving english-french vocabulary for catering, hostel, etc : google "français hôtellerie" in amazon.fr
Assimil L'Espagnol des Affaires (type "espagnol des affaires" to find other titles in Amazon.fr)
Edit: typo corrected
Last edited by Arnaud on Wed Apr 19, 2017 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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smallwhite
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Re: Vocational language courses - recommendations wanted

Postby smallwhite » Wed Apr 19, 2017 6:33 am

I'm not sure I understand what you're after. If you type "spanish engineers" into Amazon you get "Spanish for Engineers". If you type "spanish construction" you get "Spanish for the Construction Trade". If you type "spanish business" you get "Spanish for Business". So you just have to type your keywords into Amazon or Google.
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Chung
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Re: Vocational language courses - recommendations wanted

Postby Chung » Wed Apr 19, 2017 2:41 pm

smallwhite wrote:I'm not sure I understand what you're after. If you type "spanish engineers" into Amazon you get "Spanish for Engineers". If you type "spanish construction" you get "Spanish for the Construction Trade". If you type "spanish business" you get "Spanish for Business". So you just have to type your keywords into Amazon or Google.


But you do understand what I'm after. The Germans have their şћïт together with the stuff that's meant for foreign workers or newcomers/refugees/migrants. Even better would be if someone who's used these kinds of courses in my target languages and can recommend a couple.
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Re: Vocational language courses - recommendations wanted

Postby Snow » Wed Apr 19, 2017 3:13 pm

Spanish

We used Entorno Empresarial (B2) by Edelsa in school. It was okay. It was like a normal textbook with usual B2 grammar points but with business/office-related vocabulary like account, investment, cash, credit, invoice, etc.

There's a book for A1/B1 called Entorno Laboral by the same publisher.

You can try to Google (name of Spanish publisher) + fines específicos for such books. Some publishers: Edelsa, Edinumen, Difusión, SM-ELE, Anaya, etc or check this list http://www.todoele.net/editoriales/Editoriale_list.asp

Edit: Once upon a time, I also went searching for such books to tutor a friend from scratch (because she likes to travel). I found this one: Cinco Estrellas by SGL ELE http://ele.sgel.es/ficha_producto.asp?Id=428 (sample chapter available) Tourism-based textbook. Kinda similar to your German example. ^^ Btw, your book makes me want to learn German just because the textbook looks pretty lol.

Korean

Found a book for migrants. I know you said you don't like books like that, but hey, where else can you find one with vocab such as hammer, nails, street signs. It also teaches money, hospital and sickness, culture, house-related vocab. The title is 이주 노동자를 위한 아자아자 한국어 1.
Last edited by Snow on Wed Apr 19, 2017 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Vocational language courses - recommendations wanted

Postby smallwhite » Wed Apr 19, 2017 3:50 pm

I see. I liked Teach Yourself Business French (1990) but I don't remember why.
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