English is becoming a bigger and more prominent language in the Netherlands and business that only communicate in Dutch are missing out big time. Think about the influx of possible talent when you are also targeting English students to come work or do their internship at your company, you can see so many new and fresh ideas from viewpoints you might have never even considered. But also, on a personal level you will be able to achieve more with other companies and give off a professional feel while doing so.
First off, why should you learn business English?
If you are already having a large amount of success in Dutch, why should you switch over to English you might think to yourself, but there are very good reasons to up your English level. Think About doing business with companies outside of the Netherlands, it might be that you are expending your business or brand and that another business from a different country might have interest working together with you. Knowing business English will greatly lower the entrance barrier and make it way easier to communicate with those international businesses. Knowing better English also lets you get a better understanding in a conversation with an English speaker and make you look more confident and surer of yourself, which can help a great deal in the business world.
Also knowing better English than your peers shows that you are a person who, when he sets his mind to it will achieve great feats. From being new to the English language to, by sheer will, go to the next level of English.
Also, if you are working at an international company which is becoming more common in the Netherlands every year it is also great to know good English. This way you won’t be cut out of conversations if people are speaking English and you are able to start conversations on your own with different coworkers.
Speeches and presentations to international businesses.
Have you’ve ever been afraid during speeches or presentations that your English might not be up to the task and this makes you even more nervous, don’t worry we have all been there. Giving speeches can always be a bit scary and also a nervous experience, especially when you have to give it before a board meeting to people who are critical of your every word. It can be that through this nervousness you might struggle over your words and you might forget some English words and you might feel bad after the meeting hoping that next time it will be better. The only way you for sure will know that it will be better next time is by practicing, not only your English pronunciation but also your grammar. Knowing a lot more “difficult” words can make you look smarter and more educated on the subject than other peers, this might be the deciding factor if another company trusts you to go work for them. But the main thing is that everything fits together, it’s not only the grammar that will help but also the pronunciation and vice versa.
Here are already 3 handy tips that can help you be more at ease when giving presentations:
- Start early
You’ve ever had a presentation in high school or primary school where you only made the slides the day before the deadline. Because you can’t really recall the slides you made you become even more nervous because what if you forgot a slide or you wrote something wrong. These thoughts can greatly increase the chance of you becoming even more nervous than if you were to make the slides earlier and truly study them. Once you truly have the feeling that you know what you are saying you can lessen the results of stress and be more sure of yourself!
- Know the topic
If you are speaking about something you’ve studied and actually put the effort into you will be able to talk for a long time. If you forget the topic you’re talking about you can easily start with another topic and start talking about that to fill in the time. But if you haven’t studied the topic and know little about it just one hitch in your presentation can have you falling silent, there is no subject you can really talk about because you don’t know it. This is why it is a good idea to always study the subject you are going to talk about and never to rely only on your presentation.
- Practice, practice and practice some more
If you truly know your presentation inside out and there is no doubt in your mind that what you’re going to say is correct then there is no reason to be nervous, You got this!
Easier to discover the world.
English is one of the most spoken languages across the globe and it doesn’t matter if you’re in Asia, Europe or South American, nearly everyone knows some English. Knowing English well makes it easier to go to these continents and enjoying the cities more. Even if the population doesn’t speak much English there are nearly always information boots for tourists who speak a lot of different languages. But especially if you speak a language that is not spoken that much like Dutch, Danish or other languages they might not know your native language at these information boots, so it might be better to know English because this is a language they will nearly always know and speak. If you greatly want to increase your English and your presenting skills Una Paloma Blanca is a great place to start!
