My professional career, spanning four countries and more than twenty years, has permitted me to follow the transition of the modern world from that of division, during the Cold War, to that of the emergence of the global village. As this process gathered momentum and as I travelled more widely to experience it, I observed that a deep-rooted cultural knowledge of other societies and how they tick has become the definitive power tool in today’s modern business world. Further reflection and experience uncovered that the incorrect use of language, no matter how fluent one may appear to be, can blunt this tool.

Sweden, presented me with quite a challenge as many Swedes are eerily fluent in English. The question I asked though was what kind of English do they actually know? And are they aware of their true level? Undoubtedly, the Swede has a solid oral capacity which has resulted from large exposure to English at a young age via films, music and the like. However, if we dig a little deeper it becomes apparent that professional business English is not so widely used owing to a tendency towards ‘translating’ from Swedish – the directness of the plain-speaking Swede who says exactly what he or she means does not translate well into English. Secondly, important grammar points for business English are often overlooked e.g. what is the difference, if any, between: We will meet you at our office at 4pm; we are meeting you at our office at 4pm; we are going to meet you at our office at 4pm; we shall meet you at our office at 4pm.

We will discussthis in an ensuing article but it is interesting to note that a seemingly fluent English-speaking Swede uses on average 25% of the possible verb tenses available in English thus reducing further his/her power of English communication for meetings, presentations, negotiations etc.

Unfortunately, Sweden hasbeen bombarded with the KISS approach to learning professional English – where KISS stands for ‘Keep it Short and Simple’. This is frankly, on one hand, an easy route for lazy teachers. Additionally, it is cool-sounding and therefore sellable in company courses, but that does not imply quality and, furthermore, I’ve seen cases where it detracts from a company’s corporate image and professionalism. I do not believe that KILL – Keep it Long and Laborious – is the answer either but somewhere in the middle between a KISS and a KILL the truth must dwell when it comes to a professional use of business English in the modern world. It is this dwelling place which I will be examining together with the language codes of English and the cross-cultural aspects associated with it.

© Andrew Davies, Communicoach 2010