Colleagues Good at English, How Long Will You Just Envy Them... The Secret Is 'Work Emails'

Studying English is arguably the number one New Year's resolution for office workers. Having worked in foreign companies, I often receive many questions about studying English. I get asked a lot about which methods are best, such as TOEIC academies, YouTube, or phone English lessons. If the goal is to obtain language test scores for promotion, attending a suitable academy would be efficient, but to truly improve English skills for work or daily life, I usually advise focusing on 'context.'

Manager A has been steadily attending English academies for several years and has been studying English 'diligently,' but conversations with overseas clients always felt daunting. Especially, although Manager A was excellent at work, he would often be at a loss for words when speaking in front of overseas clients, so opportunities to showcase his work performance in important presentations were usually given to other employees who spoke English well. However, English, which was his biggest concern, has improved significantly over the past few years. When asked about his secret, he said it was the emails exchanged with employees from English-speaking countries. He would note down expressions related to company issues from these emails and memorize them whenever he had time to use them in the next meeting. He also read foreign news for 10 to 15 minutes every day.

Usually, when studying English, many people turn to TOEIC or English academies. But as in A’s case, you can see that conversations can proceed with simple expressions related to company issues rather than perfect sentences. Reading various news articles as well as work emails greatly helps conversations. Even if you know the words, if you don’t understand the context, the conversation won’t progress. Looking back, the most effective methods for me when I first started working in English-speaking countries were attending local company communities and watching various local TV programs. This method was also quite effective in Chinese-speaking countries.

One unfortunate case is when too much time is spent on 'pronunciation.' Of course, if you already have enough English skills to communicate without difficulty and only need to refine your pronunciation, then it is naturally something to do. But if you focus on pronunciation first without that foundation, it becomes even harder to start speaking. Looking at past UN Secretaries-General, there are not many cases of speeches delivered with perfect English pronunciation. Speeches were given with various accents and pronunciations depending on the country of origin, such as African, French, or German accents.

For those preparing to change jobs, English interviews are likely a big concern. English interviews are not very different in structure from Korean interviews. The basics to prepare are a 1 to 1.5-minute self-introduction, your strengths and weaknesses, and your work experience so far. However, recently, 'situational problem-solving interviews' that provide scenario-based questions are becoming more common. In this case, preparing Q&A based on your own experiences in addition to basic questions is helpful. This kind of 'presentation-style English' can greatly improve your skills in a short time through repeated practice. / Seunghee Han, CEO of Asia Talent Development Consulting, asksunghee@gmail.com

When Should You Resign?

How should you manage your career to move to a better job? How should you behave at work to receive good evaluations? Seunghee Han, CEO of Asia Talent Development Institute, shares tips for better workplace life. Ms. Han has 16 years of marketing experience at Samsung Electronics, Coca-Cola, and British American Tobacco, and is a coaching expert who completed a career development coaching course at Sogang University Graduate School of International Studies. 

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.