How to Improve Your English and…Why?!

It is our great advantage today that we have a common tool for communication with people from other countries – English language!  English is an “official” language for international contacts! At least a basic level of English becomes an essential need for working in nearly any professional field. And if you are considering high-level international career just a basic level definitely won’t be sufficient! You need to be fluent and moreover you need to be able to communicate in a professional way! You limit yourself a lot if your English is not good enough. Did you send CVs to international jobs, had fully relevant profile and still got rejected? A reason for such rejections is often insufficient level of English. Did you apply for scholarships for studies abroad, had all documents in order and even a good grade from IELTS or TOEFL and still did not get a scholarship? Often it can be caused by the lack of knowledge of professional English demonstrated in your application.

You might not realize but insufficient level of English might lead to the following negative consequences:

  • Close doors of international organization – if you consider the career in transnational, at UN or at any other international organization – most probably bad English will limit your career opportunities in those type of organizations.
  • Wrong perception about you – people tend to relate the level of English with the intelligence level and might get wrong perception of you if you do not demonstrate the sufficient level of English and the correct use of words.
  • Failing job interviews – if you have a job interview in English insufficient level of language skills might lead to negative outcomes of the interview for you.
  • Regular misunderstandings – bad English might lead to the fact that people do not understand correctly what you say and as well – you might not understand correctly what people say. No problem if you realize that and ask the exact meaning, however, the problems can appear when due to wrong use of words people do not understand you but do not realize you meant something different! Such misunderstandings might block the communication.

Though in Europe today you can hear all kinds of “variations” of English language, in a professional field the knowledge of “pure” English is still highly valued! And if you want to fully realize your potential in an international filed – the knowledge of English at a professional level is essential.

It is clear that if you think big and consider international career you need to speak good professional English. But how to reach that level of proficiency? Not everyone studied English at school at the sufficient level. There are ways how you can improve your English and be able to communicate in a professional way! Among those ways are:

  • Reading professional literature – it is definitely a good way to increase your vocabulary and start understanding professional English. Reading professional literature – especially – literature from your field of studies – can help you to learn professional terminology from your field of studies. Moreover, a lot of research now is happening in English language and by not reading professional literature in English you are excluding yourself from the most recent developments in the field of your professional interest. The disadvantage of this method is that reading helps you to learn new words and ways of constructing the sentences but without language practice it is difficult to keep this knowledge active.
  • Watching professional videos – watching videos on professional topics can be as effective as the method above – reading the professional literature but in addition to that – you will learn to understand the spoken language. It is recommended to look for videos with subtitles which will allow you to understand the whole text (in case of subtitles if you do not know the word – you still can look for it in a dictionary). The best way to maximize the effectiveness of watching professional videos would be to watch the video first without subtitles trying to understand as much as possible. And then – watch it with subtitles and check the parts where you did not get the video.
  • Specialized course on professional English – probably, the most effective way! Such course can provide you knowledge and tools that you can use to improve your English. It can share tricks&tips on how to speak professional English. However, it is difficult to find good courses that can within short period provide you all the necessary tools.
    This one seems to be a right one especially because it’s conducted in Amsterdam – one of the cities with the best English language skills among the capitals of the non-native English speaking countries.  Moreover, they promise to teach you to write CV and motivation letter for applying for jobs in the Netherlands so the course could be also useful for those who’s considering international career.

Speaking and writing in a professional English opens new doors for you! It widens your business opportunities! And if you – just as the author of this article – were not lucky enough to learn English at the needed level at school – there are good news for you – we still can do it today! No need to wait for tomorrow! The more you wait – the more you postpone your career! Improve your English and unlock your potential!

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