I’ve just come back from a holiday in Japan. It’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit and I found it fascinating. There were some wonderful things to see – especially as the trees are currently taking on their vibrant autumn colours.
The people are friendly and polite, and everything seems so well organised. But I was rather surprised that few of the young people were confident in speaking English, despite it being a compulsory subject at school. Our guide explained that although many people can read and write English well and use the internet, they don’t do ‘conversational’ English in schools. So, they lack confidence in their ability to speak it and struggle with the pronunciation.
But when you’re learning a language, being able to speak it and pronounce the words with confidence is essential and that’s why we added the Spoken English element to our Business English with Spoken English Diploma course.
Obviously, it’s important that you understand grammar, that you can spell words correctly and that you can punctuate your sentences sensibly if you are to write good business letters and emails or prepare reports and minutes that impress people. And we teach you these skills too. But if English is to be useful to you in a business environment, you also need to be able to talk to people confidently and understand what they are saying to you. That’s why we provide CDs where you listen to characters talking to each other and then have lots and lots of exercises where you can practise your own pronunciation and also make sure you understand what is being said.
If you’re keen on improving your English – whether written or spoken – we currently have a special offer on the course giving you a saving of £25. But you need to hurry as it ends on 29th November.
And finally, returning to Japan, I suspect I’m being very unfair commenting on their lack of English skills. Theirs is such a complex language that I wouldn’t know where to start learning it! After nearly two weeks I could still say little more than ‘Good morning’ and ‘Thank you’. But for now, I’ll end with one you may know from all the films you seen – ‘Sayonara’!
Author: Diana Nadin
