Business Communications / Business Language Courses

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Speakeasy
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Business Communications / Business Language Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Oct 30, 2019 1:30 am

1. INTRODUCTION
Okay, what is it this time?
During the past year, as part of my endless roaming of the internet in search of vintage language-learning materials, I have been adding copies of “business language courses” to my embarrassingly-large collection. More recently, my thoughts have turned towards opening (yet another absolutely spell-binding) thread, one devoted to this genre of materials. Aware that you were all waiting for just such a presentation, I finally decided to launch one.

Before the Flood
Since at least the middle of the 19th century, there has existed in the United Kingdom a genre of publications dealing with matters such as commercial correspondence and the maintenance of sound relationships with continental business partners. Some of these manuals were small, soft-bound guides published by Hugo Languages and their competitors, whereas others were more comprehensive hardbound textbooks on international commerce and economics for use in colleges, business schools, and the like. It is clear that similar publications were available from French, German, Italian, and Italian publishers. Furthermore, I would imagine that a search of the world’s great libraries would reveal works in this vein predating the Renaissance, the Roman and Venetian Empires, and far back into Antiquity. That is, there is nothing really new about the genre: Business is business!

A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats
Despite the general presence of the genre, there seems to have been a sudden surge of “business language courses” (accompanied by audio recordings) from U.K. publishers in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. While one might conclude that this flood of new titles was in response to a striking increase in demand associated with the U.K.’s developing commercial relationships with the European Community, as the ascension of the U.K. to the E.C. had taken place almost two decades earlier, I cannot see how the two events are connected. Would anyone like to speculate on what happened here?

Ebb Tide
Most, if not all, of the self-instructional business language courses (accompanied by audio recordings) which appeared during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s have simply disappeared. That is, for all practical purposes, there are no longer any such courses for the independent language-learner. What remains are mainly guides to business correspondence, or to sales and marketing operations in foreign lands, or bilingual business dictionaries, and the like.

2. BUSINESS LANGUAGE COURSES (self-instructional)

That was then, This is now
To reiterate, the vast majority of the strictly “business language courses” of the 1980’s and 1990’s have simply disappeared. They are out-of-print. Although searches of the websites of the major online booksellers may yield copies of the course manuals, finding copies of the audio recordings represents quite a challenge. While the audio cassettes may have been included in the original packages, far too often, offers of complete packages turn out to contain the course manual only. Regrettably, one cannot rely on the listings, or on the customer service departments, of the major “warehouse” booksellers whose online catalogues include several million items (caveat emptor!).

No Longer Worth Mentioning
Although my own collection of Business Courses for Students of German extends across one bookshelf, as the chances of anyone else being able to track them down are slim, I will not bother listing the titles in this thread. Nevertheless, I will make mention of five of the most notable:

Assimil Business
In the late 1980’s and through the 1990’s, Assimil marketed as series of self-instructional business courses, supported by audio recordings. While I could be wrong, I believe that the languages covered in the series included: Dutch, English, French, German, and possibly Spanish. The approach to teaching was similar to, but not exactly the same as, that of this publisher’s entry-level language courses. My impression, from having worked with the German course, is that a prerequisite of a level of CEFR A2 would have been necessary for the more-or-less comfortable study of these materials. The vocabulary used in these courses was most definitely drawn from the business/commercial world, although not exclusively so. In a sense, these were the “business versions” of the Second Stage Assimil courses. Typical Assimil: solidly-conceived, well-written, the inclusion of some very light humour, actually some pretty good notes this time around, one could hardly ask for more! Regrettably, these courses have been out-of-print for going on three decades. Whereas physical copies can still be found on the internet at reasonable prices, tracking down the audio cassettes is a quest worthy of the search for the Holy Grail. Adding to a collector’s misery (for reasons which elude me), Assimil has not kept copies of these works in their archives: neither physical, nor digitized (I’ve already asked, several times). Even the internet pirates don’t have copies. Argh! Double argh!! So then, regrettably, given the absence of the audio recordings, I would look elsewhere.

Hugo for Business
The Hugo “Business” series was available for the self-instruction of French, German, Japanese, and Spanish in a business context. The materials included: (a) a 5” x 8-1/2” course manual of approximately 230 pages, and (b) four audio cassettes having about 3-3/4 hours total duration, packaged in (c) a hard shell plastic case. These courses, which assumed no previous knowledge of the L2 on the part of the user, covered every major element of the language’s structure up to and including the lower-intermediate level. The presentation was quite conventional: dialogues supported by notes on grammar along with brief examples of common usage.

The initial dialogues introduce vocabulary which is common to many other introductory language courses. However, from about one-third of the way into the course up to the final lesson unit, the emphasis shifts considerably to vocabulary encountered almost exclusively in a business context. This emphasis is so pronounced that I would wager that anyone having already completed a standard CEFR A1-A2 course would experience difficulties in following many of the dialogues. The pace at which new grammatical concepts and new vocabulary are introduced is quite intense, so much so that I came to the conclusion that, with a view to easing the strain on the student, either (a) one should complete, at a minimum, a CEFR A1 course prior to using these materials, or (b) the publisher would have been better advised to separate it two separate courses and include additional exercises in support of the dialogues. While, grammatically speaking, these courses cover all of the major elements of the L2 up to the CEFR B1 level, I suspect that the actual level upon completion would not exceed CEFR A2.

I have not come across any comments concerning the “Hugo for Business” series on the HTLAL, the LLORG, or on Amazon, a matter which suggests to me a lack of awareness of these materials as well as a possible lack of interest. I would not hesitate to recommend these courses even to students who have no particular interest in business communications: (a) as a very solid review of the structural aspects of the L2, and (b) for exposure to a level of vocabulary in which many professionals, whether they want to or not, should become conversant. Despite what they might otherwise think, their time would not be lost in studying the relevant Hugo Business course.

Just Listen ‘n Learn Business / Breakthrough Business
In the late 1980’s through the 1990’s, two separately-titled, but essentially identical, series of introductory courses was introduced under the names of a group of publishers (NTC Publishing Group, Pas Books, MacMillan Press Limited, and McGraw-Hill Publishers). One course in each of the two series was conceived to meet the language requirements of business people. Although the business courses appeared subsequent to the introductory and intermediate courses, these were entry-level courses designed to take the novice from A0 through A1. Whereas the dialogues and exercises focused on the vocabulary that is common to business situations and while they were complete up to the CEFR A1 level in every sense, in my opinion, resorting to a Business Phrase Book or Business Language Guide would be just as effective, particularly in the case of students who have already covered an elementary course.

Linguaphone for Business
In the late 1960’s through the middle 1980’s, Linguaphone published a series of self-instructional “business” courses for the study of French, German, Spanish (and possibly English, although I am not sure). The course materials included three instructional manuals and 10 x C60 audio cassettes, often packaged in a brief case and accompanied by a portable cassette recorder-player with head-phones. Some packages included two languages. A very nice feature of these courses was the deft employment of the audio-lingual method; deft in that the editors included just enough sentence-pattern drills sufficient to reinforcing the L2’s structure but not so much as to attempt the DLI/FSI over-learning approach.

Users should be aware that the appellation “business” in the title was a marketing ploy only. The dialogues were presented in a “supposed” business context. Yes, business people attend meetings, they travel to Europe, they reserve hotel accommodations, they eat in restaurants, they order taxis and rent cars, they go sightseeing, they make unscheduled visits to the doctor for minor complaints; but so do tourists, students, your parents, your pet cat, and everyone else you know. That is, the “vocabulary” deployed in these courses was NOT, or only incidentally, related to the business/commercial world. These were typical (but well-conceived) introductory level A1 through B1 language courses.

These materials have been out-of-print for over three decades. Regrettably, although Linguaphone recently began offering interested buyers the opportunity of purchasing their vintage courses from the 1950’s and 1960’s, presumably in digitized form, the Linguaphone for Business courses do not form part of this offer (I checked). Well, in a way, given that these courses do NOT fall within the “business” genre, I suppose that no harm has been done.

Made Simple Business
In the early 1990’s, the U.K. publisher, Made Simple Books (an imprint of Butterworth-Heineman Ltd.), renowned for the popular “Made Simple” series of self-instructional language course books, began offering a set of courses designed to meet the foreign language communication needs of business people from the clerical through the managerial levels. Although the editors made a clear association between these courses and the more widely-known Made Simple series, the course titles themselves indicated no such link, being titled simply as: Business French, Business German, Business Italian, and Business Spanish, respectively. Materials comprised: (a) a course manual measuring approximately 5-inches x 8-1/2 inches, of some 750 pages, and (b) three audio cassettes. The components were available for separate purchase or as packages containing the book and the cassettes.

Somewhat unusual for the genre, these courses assumed that the user possessed, at a minimum, the equivalent of a CEFR A2 level of knowledge of the target language; that is, a solid command of common vocabulary, a good understanding of the L2’s basic grammar, and a level of comfort with the language’s sentence structure. The courses presented the student with a broad range of business situations wherein vocabulary specific to the commercial sector was introduced through dialogues. Rather surprisingly, although very basic lesson glossaries accompanied the dialogues, there were no translations and the accompanying notes were quite skeletal. The lessons did not progress in difficulty; rather, the editors chose to maintain a level of approximately CEFR A2-B1 in all of the lessons, inviting the user to study them in any sequence that he/she might choose. While copies of the course manuals are still available via the major online booksellers’ websites, regrettably, locating the audio recordings is now virtually impossible. What a shame, these were great courses!

3. BUSINESS LANGUAGE COURSES (classroom-oriented)

Yawing of the Market?
Although the self-instructional business language courses have disappeared, there seems to have been an increase in the offerings from publishers of classroom-oriented, business-related course manuals, which are often accompanied by two audio compact discs and occasionally by one DVD. Many of the titles (in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish) appear to be conceived as specialist language courses for business people, somewhat similar to those which exist for medical professionals, engineers, IT developers, and the like. Often, the courses begin at the CEFR B1 level and go no further than CEFR B2. However, a small number of publishers offer complete business-language, classroom-oriented programmes beginning at CEFR A1 progressing in steps through to CEFR C1. Courses of this type can be easily located via the websites of the major publishers of educational materials as well as those of the multi-national booksellers.

Money Isn’t Everything
In addition to the purely “business language” course materials, many publishers offer a broad range of business-related materials (in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish) placing emphasis on topics such as: Cultural Differences in Business Life, Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility, Customer Relationship Management, Labour Relations and Labour Legislation, Labour Contracts and Negotiations, Sales and Marketing, Import and Export Regulations, Accounting Practices and Reporting Requirements, Statistical Analysis and Measuring Performance, Bilingual Business Dictionaries, as well as many others. These are NOT language courses; however, reading through a few of them would definitely enhance one's knowledge of the L2 as used in a business context. These course manuals are most often unilingual and are conceived for use by native speakers or by very advanced students (they are seldom accompanied by audio recordings). Although course manuals of this type can be found on the websites of the major publishers of educational materials, as well as on those of the multi-national booksellers, tracking them down as an independent-learner can require different combinations of search criteria as well as a fair amount of time.

4. BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS (“Real” Business Communications)

First, Don’t Panic!
The “good news / bad news” story is that the “business language courses”, whether these be the vintage self-instructional variety or the hottest-off-the-press classroom variety, will provide the student with the “background vocabulary” of the business/commercial world. This is good news! The bad news is that, as almost everywhere else in life, the bar in the real world is a lot higher .

In other words, students wishing to prepare themselves for “real business communications” should learn to accept the fact that a great deal of the “real vocabulary” is acquired “on the job” and that this vocabulary varies from industry-to-industry, from company-to-company, and from department-to-department. Furthermore, it evolves with changes in technologies, in markets, in suppliers, in customers, and in whatever your colleagues and your bosses decide are important business terms, terms which they may invent themselves or common terms to which they will assign new meanings. Finally, it be will be quite important, although distressingly-so, to acquire the latest, most fashionable “buzzwords” in vogue. Your career just might depend on your ability to BS your way through an important meeting: synergy, paradigms, data-mining, quality circles, J-I-T, the list is endless!.

We’ve Discussed this Before
Here are a few previous comments on the subject:

A. From: Business conversations in French - LLORG - July 2018
Speakeasy wrote:
kamiel wrote: ... I prefer real conversations to French audio courses, as I think the former are more authentic ...
As an addendum to my first response, I would say that "real conversations" may be (or may seem to be) "more authentic" than French Business Courses, but it all depends on what is being discussed, by whom, and in what context. To elaborate at little, ...

I worked for over 25 years, in Quebec, for a multi-national company having operations in over 60 countries. I began my career with this company in the Finance department of a production plant, I transferred to the Production department, and I finished by career at the company's Head Office in a production/technical/financial capacity in the Sales & Marketing department. With the exception of the occasional telephone discussion in English with someone from either the United States or Europe, the overwhelming portion of my "business discussions", or any other discussions for that matter, took place in French only.

Now then, it would be reasonable to assume that my "business discussions" in the various capacities in which I served would have been heavily-laden with "business jargon" and, to a limited extent, I would have to admit that they were. However, I would adjust the "business jargon assumption" by saying that much of my "business discussions" involved the use of vocabulary which was very specific to the industry in which my employer operated. Yes, there existed a common vocabulary related to the notions of customer orders and invoicing, production, pricing, profit analysis, and so forth. However, these concepts tended to be taken-for-granted and existed as a "backdrop" whereas the "business discussions" (and I was involved in them on a daily basis at the company's Head Office) were very heavily-laden with terminology which was unique to the industry.

I make mention of my own experience in "French-language Business Discussions" both in support of your assertion that they are "more authentic" and as a reminder that participants in such discussions may use vocabulary which is unique to their industry and which is useful in their own particular context, but which may not be of any use in another context. For this reason, with a view to familiarising yourself with the "common business jargon", I would encourage you to study a French Business Course and I would suggest that you seek out videos wherein the "business discussions" take place in a context that you are likely to encounter (I say this in full knowledge that locating such videos will not be easy).
rdearman wrote:French like English in business is almost overwhelmingly industry specific. For example in Retail your going to have things like WSSI (Weekly Sales & Stock Intake), Forwarders, Replen, anchor tenant, EPOS, ASN's, EDI, POS, EAN, SKU's, Gondolas, GMROII, LP (Loss Prevention), ERP, CRM, and many many more!

So realistically other than basic stuff like meetings, agenda, and other things you'll probably need to look to your own industry for specific terms. Your colleagues might be your best source of information.
Edan3 wrote:Hello! Last week I've found an interesting article on the topic "How to ace a job interview in French" which goes: "Job interviews in French tend to be more formal than what you might be used to, especially if you come from an Anglophone country. They tend to be straight to the point, focused on the job being discussed, without any chit-chat from the get-go." If you're interested, then here is full version: https://www.talkinfrench.com/french-b-interview/

B. Learning French in a business context - LLORG - September 2018
Lawyer&Mom wrote:My experience with a Business German course in 2003 is that I gained the vocabulary to work in an import/export firm that wrote an extraordinary amount of formal letters. Which would probably be perfect for someone...

Given the resources we have in 2018, I’d focus on French websites, podcasts, blogs, social media, MOOCs etc. focused on *your* industry. You’ll pick up the vocabulary in a much more natural context.
arthaey wrote:What coincidental timing, I was just today offered a work project in Spain (that VERY SADLY I have to pass up for Reasons), which made me realize I should up my professional-vocab game.

Searching YouTube for the word "conference" in your target language + a word for your work industry should turn up some content to practice listening to and shadowing. At least that's my plan.
Deinonysus wrote:I use Salesforce at work and they offer probably thousands of hours worth of free training online in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Japanese at trailhead.salesforce.com. I've only done a few lessons in French, but I think I picked up a good amount of business jargon from it.

A good place to start would be "CRM for Salesforce Classic", which translates into the much more wordy "Apprentissage des concepts de base de la relation client (CRM) pour Salesforce Classic".
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/fr/tra ... crm_basics

This should be useful from a business vocabulary standpoint even if you have no intention of ever using Salesforce. It's all text based, so no listening practice unfortunately.
C. Business English and English proficiency exams - LLORG - February 2019
Skynet wrote:

Legend:
* = currently watch/read daily
** = currently read weekly
~ = formerly watched/read

You must watch the following:

Terrestrial Stations: Bloomberg*, CNBC*, Fox Business*, SkyNews Business~ and Business News Network~
Web: Reuters Business*, Business Insider~, Forbes~ and Barron's~
Warning: Functional human beings do not talk/act the way Jim Cramer does on CNBC's Mad Money.

You must read the following:

Harvard Business Review**, Bloomberg Businessweek**, The Economist**, Bloomberg Pursuits**, The Financial Times*, Barron's~ and The Wall Street Journal*

Mount Everest wrote:Are there any TV series that could help me to learn, study or review Business English in a not very traditional (text)book-ish way?!


Sorry, the list is short because I have not watched a single episode of any TV show since 2017:

Mad Men (is the best show that I have ever watched!)
Billions (missed s3 in 2018)
Million Dollar Listing (haven't watched it since Dec 2017)


Mount Everest wrote: I have no idea what is the definition of business level. Perhaps it is somewhere between B2/C1?

I do not think that one can reach 'business level' even at C2 competency because the vocabulary required is sector-specific. Immersing yourself in the aforementioned content will give you more than ample business-related vocabulary.

I cannot comment on any of the Cambridge and ETS exams that you inquired on.


AND YOU?
Comments are welcome.

EDITED:
Typos, tinkering.
More typos, additional tinkering.
Insertion of "Made Simple Business" courses.
Last edited by Speakeasy on Fri Nov 08, 2019 9:29 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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DaveAgain
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Re: Business Communications / Business Language Courses

Postby DaveAgain » Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:07 am

Speakeasy wrote:A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats
Despite the general presence of the genre, there seems to have been a sudden surge of “business language courses” (accompanied by audio recordings) from U.K. publishers in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. While one might conclude that this flood of new titles was in response to a striking increase in demand associated with the U.K.’s developing commercial relationships with the European Community, as the ascension of the U.K. to the E.C. had taken place almost two decades earlier, I cannot see how the two events are connected. Would anyone like to speculate on what happened here?
1. The EU is not a static thing. The treaties change regularly, new countries join, areas covered by EU relgulation increase etc. The stated goal is 'ever closer union'.
2. GATT/WTO changes in the 80s/90s could have contributed to an increase in international trade > perceived need for language skills. I think India, China and the USSR opened their economies to the international market during this period.
3. Rising population and wealth in export markets beyond Western Europe would also drive change.
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