Tag: business english

The type of vocabulary important for you is the vocabulary that is important for you. No one can tell you, because only you know what vocabulary you need for your everyday life. At the same time, you probably don’t know it yourself, because you tend not to pre-plan vocabulary for the day. In contrast, vocabulary is created and so different needs for vocabulary and phrases themselves accompany us every day.

There tends to be not “the” vocabulary to master a foreign language, but the vocabulary in which you master your own language in a foreign language. At the same time, you need vocabulary you don’t know you need. Here, “the” vocabulary is a reference to language situations that cannot be planned and that often cause insecurities or the well-known language anxiety in everyday language situations.

In order to learn vocabulary specifically, it is important that the vocabulary has personal meaning. Unfortunately, in secondary language learning, this meaning is often taken away. This is done by students learning phrases and vocabulary that often fit ideal situations or situations where conversations can be kept short or are not really meant to take place. Such an example is a PowerPoint presentation, where you can learn the language by heart, similar to a poem.

The problem with finding and learning “the” vocabulary is often that it is idealistic and secondly that it offers little room for deviation. This arises from becoming fixated on the vocabulary that has been learned. If I have learned to say “Please have a seat and Would you like a cup of tea?” I have not learned not to say it but to say what fits for the moment “I am tired today. I went to karaoke last night!” as an example.

Pre-learned phrases can snag us a bit of authenticity and therefore the possibilities that could arise from our vocabulary. “Oh you went to karaoke? I love this! I did karaoke months ago and had such a great time. How about having our business chat over karaoke instead of coffee downstairs?” “Oh, really? Sounds great to me. What song are you into?” or depending on your personality ” I’d like a karaoke session with you too, but I prefer having the meeting at the office, because I can focus better. Would you be up for both?” “Yes sure.”

What vocabulary is important for you? Find out with me. My English lessons are integrated into everyday life as much as possible, so that we can find out vocabulary and phrases that suit you and, above all, are important. Because I do not actively provide curricular and vocabulary lists, we work out both passively. The advantage of this is learning with conversational insecurities and confidently approaching individual vocabulary and phrases – with my help. The result is an authentic appearance in the foreign language, which often makes it easier to maintain relationships and individual (business) needs in the other language.