Business English Tips: Lessons, Courses and More!

We mentioned in our previous article that one of the indispensable conditions for climbing the career ladder quickly is knowing a language and the other is specializing in software-coding. In this context, it is time to talk about the details. Business English tips are very important in this concept. In this period when the world is experiencing a great technological transformation and companies such as Open AI are entering every area of ​​life with productive artificial intelligence, developing our foreign language and being a part of these revolutions has become more important than ever.

In other words, we will either develop our coding and foreign language knowledge and be a part of this revolution or we will look at these magnificent developments and inventions from afar and sigh. At this point, we will seek an answer to the question of whether general English or Business English will be our preference when learning a language. Before touching on this subject, we would like to state at the beginning what we will say at the end, as we always do. In other words, Business English, also referred to as Business English, is a sub-branch of General English and an area of ​​expertise.

At this point, our basic suggestions and business English tips are as follows:

• As a first step, we should understand the importance of Business English.
• First, learn general English very well,
• Then, learn the terms related to your job in your native language,
• After you have done this, note the English equivalents of these terms,
• If necessary, prepare an excel file for yourself regarding this field.
• Be sure to learn the patterns used in e-mail and correspondence language.

Importance of Professional English

We recommend that you compare the words and sentences you use in your native language in your daily life with those you use at work. When you do this, for example, if you work in a financial institution, you will see how different the words and sentences you use at work during the week are from those you use in your daily life in the evenings or on weekends.

In order to make things easier, it is possible to divide the subject into two from here on.

1. It is appropriate for people whose general English is intermediate or above to work directly on business terms and professional English.
2. If your normal foreign language level is below intermediate or at the beginner stage, we recommend that you first research grammar, speaking, reading and listening methods.

If you are in the second group, the rest of this stage becomes more important for you. As you know, most of the meetings have started to be held online via the Zoom application after the pandemic. In this context, some unique patterns of online business meetings have emerged. Moreover, it is necessary to learn such meeting patterns while learning business terms. If you want, let’s use our empathy again and put ourselves in the shoes of someone working as an expert in the marketing department of an international company. This person’s daily foreign language skills are also very good. On the other hand, let’s assume that the same person does not know the business terms in marketing.

Professional Terms

Let’s consider the possibility of this marketing expert fully understanding what is said in an international online meeting and applying it to his work. If terms such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Target Audience or Branding seem foreign to him, rest assured that no matter how good his normal language skills are, he will have difficulty and probably fail at the workplace and in such meetings. At this point, we would like to emphasize the importance of this issue again.

Global companies now ask people whether they know professional terms rather than foreign language skills when hiring. In such a highly competitive environment, constantly improving ourselves in this regard will provide us with a highly competitive advantage.

Basic Business English Tips

If you are an economist, you know the concepts of economic growth or inflation better than other people. Just like that, you also need to master the English versions of these concepts. This requires a certain and special vocabulary. In this context, word memorization tactics will come in handy. Remember that quickly memorizing these words is just one step. What is more important is to use the new words you learn in your daily life and ensure that they are well-established in your mind.

In this context, here are some basic business English tips:

• First, write your business terms on a small piece of paper in your native language.
• Write the English versions of the relevant terms on the back of the paper and spend at least half an hour every day playing word guessing games with the papers.
• Stick the words containing these terms on the edge of your desk or on your computer with different labels every day.
• While talking about ways to learn business English, we cannot help but mention foreign language courses. We recommend that you do a good internet research on this subject, read the comments and, if possible, join an online course.
• Take advantage of technology. At this point, many mobile phone applications will allow you to practice and support your development. Online learning is a great tool!
• Using professional foreign language books and YouTube online lessons will accelerate your learning.
• Podcasts and listening resources will make a significant contribution to you if you listen regularly every day.
• Translate and rewrite work-related e-mails or reports you write at work into a foreign language from your native language and add new words and terms you use to them. In this way, you will reinforce what you have learned. Learning by yourself is easy now!

Social Media and English

Join social media or clubs to practice and network and take the opportunity to speak business English. Remember, your language learning process will become a habit as you speak.

In addition to such recommendations, we also recommend that you watch foreign series and movies with subtitles for professional foreign language development. At this step, series such as The Office or Suits will be useful in learning professional and office terms. In a time when the power of the internet is so widespread, we should not underestimate the power of social media. After all, social media is widely used not only in language learning, but also in marketing and sales. Those who use it effectively gain a serious advantage over others.

Business English Examples

In order to be useful to you in this regard, we present you some professional foreign terms by categorizing them below. However, please remember that we are only presenting you a small framework here and the main task is to elaborate on these terms and extend the list. In other words, if you are studying in medical school or working in the health sector, you need to make and enrich your own professional English terms list. In this way, for example, by making an Excel list and repeating it constantly, you will learn medical terms in a short time.

General Business Terms: Agenda, Deadline, Feedback, Proposal, Target, Task.

Marketing and Sales Terms: Campaign, Market Research, ROI (Return on Investment).

Finance Terms: Revenue, Budget, Profit Margin, Expense, Balance Sheet.

Human Resources Terms: Recruitment, Onboarding, Performance Review, Payroll.

Terms related to meetings: Scope, Consensus, Risk Assessment, Stakeholders, Shipping, Supply Chain.

Correspondence terms: Best regards, please find attached, as per our conversation, to whom it may concern.

Remember that the concept of professional foreign language includes many words and expressions specific to certain business areas and professional situations. In this context, the sample terms above will form the basis for you to memorize terms in ways to learn business English. You can also extend and diversify this list according to the sector you work in.