About half of my work at the moment involves training and coaching in Business English. My initial career was in teaching EFL, so this is something I’m familiar with and trained in, but technology has enabled me to do this now from the comfort of my own home and on a much wider scale.
The focus is on using English for business purposes. Multinational companies are increasingly requiring their employees to work across borders and see that their employees need to communicate on a daily basis with colleagues and customers in other countries. English is usually the common language, so companies are investing in raising the levels of English in their workforce.
These employees are located around the world, and are working in a variety of companies, departments and specialisms. I’ve got learners in sales, HR, IT, engineering, marketing, legal etc. They are also at all levels in the hierarchy: directors, managers, and individual contributors.
The sessions are mainly one-to-one, with some in small groups. The classroom is ‘flipped’ and I’m not teaching the language as such – this means I get to use my facilitating, coaching and mentoring skills more. Sessions often involve discussions and practise around current business topics, such as leadership and management skills, culture, engagement, AI, time management, stress and self-care, and so on, and learners get to discuss business issues while at the same time using and developing their English skills.
This makes for some fascinating conversations and a real insight into the current state of work around the world. For example, one learner is a HR Director for a Chinese company that has been bought by an international company with headquarters in the Netherlands. She now regularly visits the Netherlands and has weekly virtual meetings, in English, with the Senior Management team dotted around the world.
I have another learner in Germany, who not only has to manage his own team in Germany, but also has to coordinate a team in Pakistan and Taiwan. We talk a lot about cross-cultural management! It’s also interesting to see and contrast the Chinese employee in an American company (P&G) based in America, and the Chinese employee in an American firm (IBM) based in China. I talked recently to an employee in the legal department of a Spanish company, which is in the process of setting up another company with colleagues in Ireland and the Netherlands, and the frustrations that was bringing her.
I’ve talked with a multitude of employees, some going through layoffs and cutbacks, one going into her first management role, another who’s just decided to quit, another who’s got a side hustle and is about to go solo. I’ve had learners taking sessions while in the car, in hotels on wi-fi, on mobile phones while walking, and today from an old folks’ home – basically anywhere and everywhere.
The world is shrinking. Technology allows us to talk with people globally at little cost. The only difficulty is the time-zone difference. And despite the conversations about cultural differences, it’s surprising how similar and human the employee experiences are.