An English person, a Spanish person and a German person are all in a meeting together. This sounds like the start of a bad racist joke but it is, in fact, a scenario that happens all over the world many times each day of every year. Only the German speaks German and only the Spaniard speaks Spanish but they all speak English to some degree so that is the language of the meeting. The English person thinks and speaks in English. The German and the Spaniard both have a good ‘level’ of English but they have a tendency to get stuck on some vocabulary and make some grammatical errors. When they get stuck for a word they both think of the word they want in their own respective languages and then come up with their best translation which may be a word that sounds similar or even a made-up word that they feel should exist.

The German and the Spaniard understand each other quite well because they have a similar ‘level’ of English. The English person also understands quite well but sometimes gets confused when the others use the wrong word or verb tense. Nobody understands the English person very well because he speaks too quickly, has an accent that they are not accustomed to hearing and he uses phrasal verbs and expressions that are not familiar to the others.

After the meeting, the German and the Spaniard go for a coffee together to discuss what they understood from what the English person said. The English person goes back to his office smiling to himself about ‘these funny guys and their funny English’.

Each person prepared for the meeting by bringing along the material that they wanted to show and share with the others. However, nobody prepared what they wanted to say, in English, so that the others would understand. The German and the Spaniard didn’t think about and check the vocabulary and the correct tenses that they needed and the English person didn’t think about speaking clearly and slowly enough for the others to understand and about the phrases he should use. The meeting went ok, but it could have been much better.

 

 

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The last week of August 2018 is the final opportunity this summer to immerse yourself in a week of personalised Business English Coaching in Palma de Mallorca. There are only 6 places available.
Details: https://www.davies-business-english.com/en/component/jevents/eventdetail/11/45/business-english-week.html?Itemid=1
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