Languages for Business

[mirab3lla]

Planning to combine a log with a (hopefully) useful list for resources for learning business vocabulary for specific languages! Long story short - I was a relatively frequent contributor to the old forum back in the days when I was younger and time was not an issue. Back then, I used to focus most of my efforts on German, with the odd wandering down the road of French of English with tasters of Russian and Hungarian... I then went on to study languages at university and, despite the expectations (!!!) this actually slowed my down in my study and kept me away from the forum... I did however started studying Arabic and Russian and took them up to a relatively good intermediate level as part of my degree and also got the opportunity to pick up Polish and Chinese on the way. I am now working in a large company doing a professional qualification in accounting which takes up most of my time as I have to study for 15 tough exams with no previous experience in the area, as well as starting a second degree. However, with my job related study taking up most of my spare time, I feel the need more than ever to go back to the passion with which I tackled languages five years ago when they were truly my hobby - and with this forum having been a big part of this then, it cannot have had a better time to come back!

So, this time having a specific focus when it comes to my languages, I am planning to spend most of my time learning business related vocabulary and skills as well as the usual grammar&vocab&culture. I will try to document what I use for the languages I am interested in as much as possible and continuously update the list I will outline below whenever I find new resources, but please feel free to add anything to it - I am looking for resources for intermediate level and above which I also think is the level when you can branch out and follow your interests in a language:

Arabic

Still need to brush up on my grammar skills but mostly the odd 15 mins spent listening to BBC Arabia on my way to work and the odd read of an Arabian Business article
Did a module in Arabic for business at uni where our teacher selected materials from the only Arabic for business textbooks on the market, still well in command of the vocabulary learned back then with which I also created a memrise course

Chinese

Have plenty of paperback textbooks (including NPCR 2 and 3) and a lot of intermediate level textbooks from Chinese publishing houses but they all focus on the general language - will document the exact ones once I go back home to pick them up
Should definitely spend some more time on the language but all I am doing currently is spend a lot of time watching "Pretty Li Hui Zhen" on Viki...

French
Shamefully, next to nothing! Odd glance at Le Monde whenever I feel in the mood for French or switch of subtitles on Netflix...

German
The odd listening to the news in German and getting a Handelsblatt/FAZ Woche whenever I fly through a German airport

Spanish
Not much - Spanish is a language that i miraculously learned by watching TV when I was very young and has stuck to my brain ever since as I discovered during recent trips to Hispanic speaking countries! The odd conversation whenever I get the chance, but not much in terms of business vocab

Russian

I have proper textbooks that I bought during my year abroad in Russia specifically focusing on Russian for business as well as materials from my Business Russian module at uni - I will document the exact books later. I also keep on watching films/shows in Russian courtesy of VK for my general language.

Another really good resource would be the business related courses in Russian that the HSE or other reputable Russian universities are offering for free on Coursera and also the Russian version of the international MOOC providers, http://www.openedu.ru.

Polish
Still have the Hurra! and Krok po Kroku textbooks that I used during my time at uni but I am not aware of any specific Polish for business resources. Realpolish.pl also has some good resources.


As promised, I will continue updating the list and add links to it but wanted to kick off this log once for the extra motivation! Hope we'll all manage to reach a list of good resources for the forum's reference!

PS: Fun fact! Whenever I go to a new country, I try to buy "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in the language of that country, unless I already have it. My most exotic is the Latin version that I bought at Bath Roman Baths' Souvenir Store... Tempted to add this to the language nerds topic!

[Maiwenn]

PS: Fun fact! Whenever I go to a new country, I try to buy "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in the language of that country, unless I already have it. My most exotic is the Latin version that I bought at Bath Roman Baths' Souvenir Store... Tempted to add this to the language nerds topic!

That's a great idea!

I'll be reading your log with great interest. Good luck for the qualification in accounting!

[mirab3lla]

I have updated the above with one resource I have been using (and possibly abusing) over the past few days. I happen to be not only a language wanderluster, but also a MOOC wanderluster, signing up for a lot, taking a look around and then finishing just a select few...

To a MOOC newbie, I will try to explain - MOOCs are online courses, offered either free or for a modic price, that very well known universities (think even Ivy League standard in some cases) offer on online platforms. One of the most well-known platforms for this and also my favourite is Coursera, however I feel it's been going down lately since it doesn't even let you take progress tests for some courses unless you pay for the certificate. One of my favourite parts of Coursera is that it started to offer language courses as well. Although these are mostly introductory lever (alhough there are some really nice intermediate+ ones there for Russian), they are still a full online course that you can audit for free. Try going on the website and then click on the Language learning tab of the catalogue for a start:https://www.coursera.org/browse/language-learning?languages=en. I would like to warn you however that this does not show all the courses available (and I also have to admit I really do not know how to effectively search on coursera anymore since the change) so a search by the language you're learning might also be effective.

The beauty of Coursera however, is not the fact that it offers language courses, but the fact that it offers academic courses IN the language you might be learning. I have spent the past few days doing an introductory course to corporate finance in Russian, provided by the Higher School of Economics, which is a really reputable Russian business school: https://www.coursera.org/learn/osnovy-korporativnykh-finansov. You can find plenty more like this not only business related in Russian, but also in Spanish, German, engineering, etc, just have a play around with the filters (or have a pot of luck handy) - native level subject-specific material for free!

I have also found the Russian equivalent of the MOOC providers: https://openedu.ru, which is again free but a lot more restricted than Coursera in terms of when you can sign for courses and what you can do. Still a wealth of knowledge to keep me busy during the holidays!

Merry Christmas everyone!

[mirab3lla]

I have now returned home in Romania for the holidays so had a look around the house to find my old language textbooks which I will base my goals for 2018 around. I have always been a fan of glossy colourful textbooks on paper unfortunately and even though they are incredibly expensive, they seem to really bump my language learning. I always joke and blame my failure in Arabic on the lack of nicely coloured resources on the market... (we used the second version of Al-kitab for my university classes). I was able to get these textbooks for a relatively ok-ish price in Romania from a distributor (Centrul de Carte Straina Sitka http://www.cartestraina.ro) but I seem to be unable to find a UK website that sells books from foreign language publishers such as Langenscheidt or Cle for decent prices. I checked Amazon prices and they are a lot higher than the Romanian ones! I will update the above post to include the textbooks I will use and my 2018 goals.

While browsing for ideas for new, more specific textbooks, I came across the DFP, Diplôme de français professionnel , which has a website with plenty of activities divided by levels and even a mobile app! The website is https://www.lefrancaisdesaffaires.fr and the resources can be found by clicking on "Ressources". There is quite a bit available on medical, legal, tourism and business French, all for free! The mobile app is called FRANÇAIS 3.0, I gave it a brief try on my iphone and it was a bit slow but maybe it works better with different theme/levels. One cannot really complain about free really specific resources...

Regarding the new textbooks I was planning to use, I was thinking about maybe Affaires.com for French (https://www.cle-international.com/affairescom-niveau-avance-livre-de-l-eleve-dvd-rom-2eme-edition-9782090380415.html) and Expertos for Spanish (https://www.difusion.com/catalogo/metodos/profesional/expertos/expertos-libro-del-alumno). This of course supplemented by news articles and other native-level material but as mentioned in the first paragraph, a nicely-coloured textbook always seems to motivate me and give me a defined structure to guide my studies. I guess this ties in with my inclination towards taking language exams... I like working towards a specific, palpable goal and adapt my trajectory on the way there. Has anybody used any of the above-mentioned textbooks as a primary method?

[mirab3lla]

I have used these past few days of holiday being very "productive"... As productive as watching 13 Reasons Why in French and one season of Suits in Portuguese (which I am not even studying?!) - I love the Netflix option of changing the dubbing language. French, Spanish and Br Portuguese are available on most of the series I am watching, more so than German. Polish is also very popular, but most of the time it's just one man doing it as a voice over while you can still hear the original - not very entertaining...

I have also managed to dig out my previous log - can you tell the difference? http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=20439&PN=13&TPN=1 This has reminded me that I need to get my thoughts together and come up with a more specific plan for 2018. Level testing and exam planning - here i come!