Learning a language can oil the wheels of industry

COMMUNICATION: Money talks, and its first language is definitely English. More people may speak Mandarin Chinese and the world's fastest-growing language may be Spanish, but the corporate world still revolves around English.

In the Republic, the teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) industry is worth an estimated €380 million to the economy annually and the Minister of State with responsibility for international trade, Mr Tom Kitt, announced last year that the industry had the potential to grow to €590 million by 2006.

The Irish TEFL industry is capitalising on overseas willingness to communicate in the language of big business, with many of the year-round language schools offering specifically tailored "business English" courses to companies. Clients are taught vocabulary and skills that are relevant to highly specialised sectors like software, banking or pharmaceuticals.

"Some schools focus specifically on business English, while others combine study of business English with relevant jobs," says Ms Gillian Nother, manager of the industry body MEI-RELSA (Marketing English in Ireland and the Recognised English Language Schools Association). "There would be a mixture of locally based companies, such as call centres, requesting training for foreign employees prior to and during their work, and then companies like Telefónica in Spain and Alcatel in France, who send over their employees for two- or three-week stays."

But there is little reverse flow, according to Mr Mark Baker, managing director of International House Icon, which offers tailor-made courses in English for corporate groups. "Our organisation runs more than 120 language schools worldwide. We have run French courses in France for German people coming over to work there but Irish people don't go over there to learn French.

"Companies in Ireland and Britain are very slow to provide that kind of training. They would rather recruit somebody who already speaks French than somebody who has the skills that are specific to their company but would need extra language training."

North European countries like the Netherlands have a reputation for high percentages of fluent English speakers, while the trend in other countries as far afield as China is to place even greater priority on English in their schools.

So what company in an English-speaking country needs to search frantically in desk drawers for phrase books, when clients on the other end of the telephone line are clear and concise about what they want and understand every word?

"Anyone who wants to keep their overseas clients happy," says Ms Christine Weld, company liaison manager at Alliance Française in Dublin, which offers French classes to corporate clients.

"In France, we have a good level of English but if we see that an Irish person can use a few French phrases, we're delighted," she says. "It can make a big difference to businesses who want to have good links in the European market."

Ms Weld agrees that some companies may prefer to recruit people who are already able to speak French, rather than spend money on language training. But finding bilingual workers who also happen to be highly skilled in science, technology or finance is becoming "more and more difficult", even in France, she says. Big companies in the banking, insurance and telecommunications sectors have little option but to provide training if they want multilingual staff.

Ms Ulrike Führer, language training director at Context, a Galway-based company providing training in European languages to executives, has seen an increase in the number of people requesting training in English over the past 15 years, reflecting the more multicultural make-up of the Irish workforce.

But Ms Führer believes that native English-speakers, who assume (often correctly) that overseas contacts will communicate in English, usually miss out on the finer details of business networking.

"English-speaking business people should never underestimate the importance of language training as a gesture of goodwill," she says.

"A lot of business is done in social situations, so being able to hold light conversations and be versatile in these situations is vital."

Ms Führer thinks some Irish executives are reluctant to take courses because their experience of languages at school predates the introduction of oral skills onto the curriculum.

Many, put-off by the focus on grammar, are surprised by how much difference the newer teaching methods can make.

A third of companies responding to an IBEC survey on languages in business, published in September 2001, said they provided language training for employees over the previous 12 months, with 11 per cent also providing English language training for their staff. Half of the companies surveyed said being able to conduct business in a foreign language would benefit the company.

The global position of English in business means that, for companies managed and staffed by native English-speakers, language training is a matter of politeness and courtesy, designed to maximise customer satisfaction. For speakers of less-dominant tongues, notes Ms Nother, "it's survival, really, isn't it?"