Learning English for professional purposes

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Thomas90
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Learning English for professional purposes

Postby Thomas90 » Sat May 14, 2022 11:54 pm

Roughly speaking, a Frenchman or a Spaniard or an Italian who starts learning English from scratch for professional purposes only, more or less, after how many hundreds of hours will he or she be able to understand most oral discussions?
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby Cavesa » Sun May 15, 2022 11:40 am

Welcome to the forum!

The answer depends primarily on one thing: What professional purposes? Is the learner a waiter, a business person, a nurse?

Other things to consider: Do they need to understand any natives, or the usual broken international English? How do they plan to learn?
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Thomas90
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby Thomas90 » Sun May 15, 2022 12:29 pm

At a philosophy conference, I met scholars who spoke philosophical English fluently but were unable to order a coffee at the bar.
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby Le Baron » Mon May 16, 2022 2:36 pm

Thomas90 wrote:At a philosophy conference, I met scholars who spoke philosophical English fluently but were unable to order a coffee at the bar.

I find this hard to believe. The vocabulary and grammar necessary to form sentences for 'philosophical English' will easily contain elements such as 'I want/I would like/can I?...' and the words for 'coffee, please, thanks and hello' will not be a challenge if a person has enough vocabulary to extemporise on a difficult topic. I doubt they would have missed these en route to learning to speak.

Maybe the 'order coffee' bit was hyperbole, meant to express that people learn academic speech and less everyday speech? Could you clarify?
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon May 16, 2022 4:15 pm

Or maybe the bar didn't have coffee on the menu?

Wait a second... is this a riddle?

A scholar with fluent philosophical English walks into a bar but is unable to order coffee. Why?
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby tungemål » Mon May 16, 2022 4:39 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Or maybe the bar didn't have coffee on the menu?

Wait a second... is this a riddle?

A scholar with fluent philosophical English walks into a bar but is unable to order coffee. Why?

Because, according to Heraclitus, "everything flows".?
Or because at the philosophy conference, the official language was old greek?
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby einzelne » Mon May 16, 2022 7:05 pm

Or may be, since he wanted to order it at the bar (and not at the coffee house), he was already too drunk to do that...
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby Cainntear » Mon May 16, 2022 8:53 pm

einzelne wrote:Or may be, since he wanted to order it at the bar (and not at the coffee house), he was already too drunk to do that...

Convenient excuse, innit?

"You came home from the philosophy conference looking like you'd been on a 3-day bender!"
"Shorry, baby... bud I dinnt know how to buy a coffee, so all I could shay wozh "dosh sherveshas, paw favaw...."
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby einzelne » Tue May 17, 2022 1:34 am

How to order coffee if you learnt English from philosophy books:
— Garçon! Give me the substance that would transubstantiate me into an Übermensch!
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Re: Learning English for professional purposes

Postby Cainntear » Tue May 17, 2022 10:57 am

einzelne wrote:How to order coffee if you learnt English from philosophy books:
— Garçon! Give me the substance that would transubstantiate me into an Übermensch!

Do they generally serve Panzerschokolade in convention centre bars...?
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