Can you communicate in business English?
Just how fabulous a product or service is can sound ten times better or even a hundred times better depending on the words people use to explain them. In the international market, it is crucial that one exerts every possible effort to communicate with others, and unreservedly pours passion into the act of communication.
Introduction
Even when interacting with overseas clients of different business customs and culture, depending on the way you communicate, your product could be either merely basis for comparison with other companies’ quotes, or an absolute must-have.
You don’t need flawless English on par with a native speaker, however if you continue using broken English for too long, it won’t help you to build a trustworthy image. So, what should you do?
First, try becoming able to speak about these three themes.
How can I become good at business English?
First, we recommend becoming able to converse in English about
- Your company
- Your product
- Yourself
Even when you do business domestically, you are almost certainly always discussing these three topics with your customers. Let’s take a piece of paper and (in Japanese) write down these three subjects, (1) FAQ from customers, (2) things that you get a good reaction from people when you tell them, and (3) interesting things to say for making small talk or lightening up the mood.
Here are some examples of what you should write down, translate into English, then fully memorize.
First, about your company;
- The unique traits of your company president
- Original corporate philosophy
- Appealing points of your factory/employees
- What surprised you when you began working for your company
- Industry trends
- Outstanding aspects of your competition as well as the not-so-outstanding aspects
- Comparison of Japan’s specific market condition with overseas markets (prediction)
- Progress of international expansion
- Reputation amongst media and third parties
Secondly, about your product,
- When it was launched and what it’s winning factors are
- What kind of customers are repeaters and the reason why they keep buying your product
- What kind of problems arose in the past and the solutions thereof (to the extent you can talk about it)
- Secrets about developments of new products/service (to the extent you can reveal)
- Future plans for expansion and outlook
Thirdly, about yourself,
- What got you into your current line of work
- What you enjoy about your job/what you find difficult
- How you are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and how you feel
- Do you have renewed feelings about certain aspects
- Which aspects of Japan are you proud/fond of
- Your future dream
- Your life-work balance
- How you spend your time off
- Your family makeup
- Your social contribution, such as volunteering (if any)
Rather than relying on free translation, it is imperative that you have your translation overseen by a professional translator. Even if you put in the time and effort to fully memorize the above content, if the translation is poor and sounds unreliable, it may have an adverse effect by causing people to lose trust in you, and preventing you from building a good relationship of trust.
Your language-based communication is an extremely important factor that either raises or lowers your company’s value in overseas markets and serves as a tool for which you can expect high cost performance over the long run. As such, investing a considerable amount of your budget into ensuring quality translation will not be money spent in vain.
Please be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to create a powerful PR tool for your company and PR manuscript for yourself that effectively communicates your personal strong points.
In early negotiations and business settings, it is not often the case that topics other than the above three are brought up in depth during talks, however if you are asked about a completely separate topic, be sure never to get flustered, but rather continue smiling, and casually bring the conversation back to the topic of your company, products, or yourself.
Is there a knack to improving business English?
Keeping a conversation going with an overseas customer relies largely on showing your reaction at every opportunity.
The person you are speaking with will be reassured if you nod and react to their words with rich expression. By reacting quickly, the pace and flow of your conversation will be natural and it will be easier to speak with the person.
However, you must never pretend that you still understand what a person is talking about when, in fact, you no longer do. You may find it painful to admit you can’t keep up with the conversation because your English is beginner-level, or having to ask the same question over and over again, but that is precisely when you can utilize the content you have fully memorized on the three, abovementioned points.
Even a person with experience may find it difficult to listen and respond in a foreign language regarding topics they lack background knowledge on, therefore a good strategy is to be the instigator of the conversation, stick to the topics you are familiar with, and not give the other person an opportunity to steer the conversation elsewhere.
Even if the conversation veers off-course, you must take control and return it to the topics you have memorized. Once you are able to have a complete conversation with your memorized content, challenge yourself to predict what the other person may say as the conversation progresses.
In many cases, the people producing results on overseas business trips are the business professionals from SMEs who have no experience as an exchange student or expatriate, but rather acquired a foreign language somehow through independent learning at their own expense when required for work purposes to do so.
You won’t have the time to start learning English again from scratch as you will be constantly busy with your daily work tasks. Even still, you must go to the target region and carry on with your work.
As you struggle on, you will begin to notice that, at a certain point in time, communication that was difficult for you gradually becomes easier.
To put simply, this is because you have “gotten used to it,” however to elaborate a little, it is mainly due to the fact that you have become able to predict what the other person will say after they have said the first two or three things, and have prepared what you are going to say to keep the conversation going before they have finished talking.
You may be dubious that a beginner at overseas business can become capable of holding their own in English communication that fast.
In fact, the amount of English you require for business is limited and, ultimately, you can keep a conversation within the bounds of the abovementioned three topics no matter which country the person you are interacting with is from.
Much faster than you think, you will become capable of sensing a situation where you are asked the same thing as always and know how to respond convincingly.
Even if the other person speaks quickly, as long as you can guess the way the conversation will go relatively early on, you will be able to adjust your powers of concentration, such as by skimming over the parts of the conversation you have predicated and focus on vocabulary you are encountering for the first time.
As the time you spend on tenterhooks decreases, the greater peace of mind you will have. This in turn allows you to understand discussions even better.
Unlike the beginning when you couldn’t visualize the scene at all, once you are able to see the entire conversation from a bird’s eye perspective, you can pay better attention to the other person’s facial expressions and surrounding situation, which creates a positive cycle.
One point to be aware of is that, overseas businesspersons sometimes continue talking as they feel inclined, without logical connection and regardless of whether the topic is relevant (to the Japanese company) or not.
If you try to catch everything, your burden will be greater.
As such, the more of a beginner you are, the more you should avoid leaving your reaction and reply until the other person has finished talking. Instead, please aim for the following type of situation.
- As soon as the other person begins talking, try to predict where the conversation will lead (this will be difficult at first, but gradually gets easier)
- As the other person is talking, show a reaction two or three times more abundant than normal; namely, nodding, surprise, joy, wonder, and saying things like “Is that so?!” “I see!”
- As you listen to the person talk, adjust error in your prediction in your head
- Concisely state your opinion when the person finishes a segment of what they’re saying
- In a concise manner, confirm or ask questions regarding portions of the person’s speech you didn’t understand AND that seem important
However, in the beginning, you may repeatedly encounter situations where you can’t keep up with the conversation despite fully memorizing the three, abovementioned topics and despite making predictions. There’s no need to worry at times like these, either.
Be sure to jot down the vocabulary that seems important but you couldn’t fully catch, stop reacting, and instead freeze on the spot.
You may feel like doing what Japanese people tend to do and show a pleasant reaction in order to avoid the other person discovering you aren’t comprehending what they are saying, but you must resist this temptation (because if you continue reacting with a smile when you don’t understand what’s being said, the situation could get complicated.)
Although you were reacting enthusiastically to the conversation up to that point, if you suddenly freeze on the spot, the other party will no doubt realize you are having trouble and express their concern with words such as “Oh dear, perhaps you don’t understand me?”
This will actually benefit you, because then they will start talking slower, or you can reset the conversation when they stop talking. It will be an opportunity to correct course.
At this time, you should first say the words you have properly heard, or words that seem relevant. Say these words slowly with a troubled expression.
Let’s say, for example, you heard the word “Turkey.”
You may find it strange that the person suddenly said “Turkey” (as in “the country,” in the middle of a business discussion huddled around design drawings.)
In such a case, you should freeze, then, when the person stops talking, slowly say with a troubled expression…
“Turkey”? As in the capital is Ankara? Or “Turkey” as in bird?
Perhaps then the other person will give you a supplementary explanation that they were in fact talking about a “Turnkey Contract,” by saying something like,
“No、No、Turn-key Contract.”
If that happens, you should be able to get back on track and continue with the conversation.
“Yes, We can do that, if you need…”
However, if you simply say “Sorry, I don’t understand,” when you can’t comprehend the words being said, the other person may instantly rewind the conversation back a little and provide an even more in-depth explanation at the same speed using the same unfamiliar vocabulary. If this happens, you will most likely still not be able to understand that particular term and once again find yourself in a pinch. Hence, you MUST give the other person hints as to which parts of their explanation you did understand and which parts you didn’t.
Never have wishful thinking that even if you couldn’t catch something, you might be able to understand it if you simply keep on listening (because that will never happen). Instead, the most important thing is to remember you are a beginner and raise a white flag immediately so that you can correct course.
In time, you’ll gradually find the points of the conversation begin to connect, and trigger a desire to improve your pronunciation, intonation, and vocabulary to the point that steady effort is no longer a struggle.
You will start anticipating that you might actually become able to speak English, that you’re actually pretty amazing, and can achieve your goal!
If that happens, international expansion itself will start heading in a very good direction.
Therefore, to summarize, if you are a beginner, please focus all your concentration on using the memorization tactic, stopping and asking the moment you don’t understand something, correcting course, and somehow keeping the conversation flowing.
Is there any business English I should avoid?
No matter how stilted your English is, the overseas trading partner or client is sure to listen if the words come from you – the operator or contact person for the company that designs, makes, and sells the product or service.
However, if you never advance beyond simple, broken English, the topics you can discuss will remain limited, and you won’t be able to deepen the relationship of trust beyond a certain extent.
Also, you must prepare yourself for the possibility that new customers and overseas companies you are yet to build a solid relationship with won’t patiently listen to your poor English.
Please do your best to reach the level of English all Japanese people are taught in compulsory education (STEP Level 2, TOIEC score of 700) within one or two years from beginning international expansion.
Also, sometimes businesspersons attempt to sound more like a native speaker by injecting words such as “Well, um, uh, er, ah, you know, I mean, actually, Let’s see” in a conversation.
These are known as “filler words.”
Use of such words is cause for point deduction in speech contests and speech sounds much better without them. Naturally, you don’t need such words to connect sentences.
Sometimes, there are even businesspersons who try to engage in business talks using the casual English of students they learned while on exchange.
Even in Japan, both the language and clothing of students differs to that of working professionals. It would seem very odd if a person appeared and behaved like the perfect business professional, yet spoke like a student.
For example, it is easy to imagine that a Japanese person would be taken aback if a fellow Japanese person seemed like a reliable business professional but, when they actually spoke with them, said unnecessary words such as “Yeah, but ya know” “No way!” “For real?” or “Way cool,” and become hesitant to do business with them.
Hence, it is probably best to avoid filler words and student-like language in English-speaking business settings.
Okay! First off, I’ll do my best to communicate things about the company, product, and myself in English!
I can do it!
Great ! I’m so excited about it. I cannot wait.
If you can speak English, then it is safe to say you have a little over half of what you need for intercultural adaptation.
Intercultural adaptation?
Only a little over half?
(And I was starting to get motivated…but there’s still a fair way to go…)
Yes, you’re just a little over half way to your goal.
This is because “normal” in Japan is considered “abnormal” in the rest of the world.
