Learn to say the right things with Business English

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): That mastery of the English language is important is no secret. English is the de facto lingua franca. The reason why students of English at leading Indonesian universities usually take quite a long time to complete their studies is because they most probably have started teaching at various schools and English courses -- and have started earning a handsome amount of money -- before they get to the last stage of their undergraduate program. I know this very well, because I've been there and done that myself.

However, as the world becomes smaller and people become global, we realize that there is more than one version of English. No, not in the sense that the world has American English, British English, Australian English, New Zealand English, Singlish and even Franclais. It is the fact that we have colloquial English, business English, scientific English, literary English and so on.

Personally, learning business English has been on my list of "wish I could do" for some time. Large bookstores such as Borders and Kinokuniya have shelves of books that teach both non-native and native speakers what to say and what not to say in business settings, but I find most of them not really interesting.

A language would be more effectively taught in real life situations, rather than through books. So, as CD ROM-based self- learning multimedia materials became increasingly available, I started searching and collecting all the CD-ROMs on business English that I could lay my hands on. As you can guess, some of them are useful, some are less so.

Among the better ones I have come across is the Business English (Immersion) series from Syracuse Language, a company under Havas Interactive. Havas also owns Knowledge Adventure, a leading maker of CD ROM-based learning materials, including Math Blaster and Reading Blaster.

The Business English (Immersion) series consists of three CD- ROMs. Each of the CD-ROMs costs US$79.95, making the program quite expensive. The first CD-ROM covers the expressions and terms that you might need to understand and use in formal meetings, impromptu discussions and financial transactions. The second deals with telephone contacts, appointments, e-mails, memos and letters. The third CD-ROM focuses on the language used in resumes and interviews, in teamwork and problem solving meetings, as well as in your assignments in the U.K. or U.S

Features

There are actually some fairly good reasons why this language series is rather expensive, however. The lessons are based on a series of continuing situations that are professionally played out in a series of videos. The acting is perfectly natural -- a far cry from what we normally see on Indonesian TV dramas. On the right of the video panel we can read the dialog scripts. The audio recording is crisp and clear. We can listen through the speakers attached to the sound card or through a headphone set, which I strongly recommend.

Although the situations are full of business-oriented expressions such as "You're going to have to do a lot more to convince me" -- rather than "Your idea stinks", these expressions are hardly forced into the dialogs. I have found no conversation that is awkwardly laden with such expressions. Evidently a lot of thought and effort have been devoted to the preparation of the materials, and to a large extent it justifies the steep price.

If you want to expand your vocabulary of business terms and expressions, the program also includes a 50,000-word Random House Webster's Dictionary of American English. The dictionary panel is on the bottom left corner of the accompanying picture.

Perhaps another reason why this program is quite expensive is that it also incorporates ViaVoice, the voice recognition software from IBM. If you intend to use this feature, it would be better if you use the headset that normally comes with a voice recognition program. ViaVoice is most useful in conjunction with the vocabulary.

When you learn to pronounce a particular word or phrase, ViaVoice will keep telling you that it does not recognize what you say until you pronounce it properly. Its feedback is very quick. Frankly speaking, I was shocked to find that it did not recognize the simple sentence "It will work", which I said repeatedly into my microphone. Boy, do I have a long way to go!

An extremely useful feature of this program is its Cultural Tips, which I have placed on the top right hand corner of the sample screen. We all know that different cultures have different ways of interacting with one another. Learning to speak another language is not complete until we also master the etiquette that the users are accustomed to. Cultural Tips, for example, explains how Americans are very protective of their personal space.

Therefore it suggests that we keep a distance of about two feet when we shake hands after we are first introduced. Another good example is the explanation of the distinction between the ordinary "Excuse me" and the sarcastic "Excuse me" spoken in different tones.

To benefit more from the program, we can also use the Role Play section. We can choose one of the characters in the story and we fill in for him or her by speaking into the microphone. The conversation can be recorded and we can judge how much we have progressed.

The program is flexible enough so that we can stop in the middle of a section and jump to another section without any problem. Multiple users can use the same program, with each being required to log in first before using it.

A Few drawbacks

Navigation takes some time to get used to, unfortunately. I think navigation tools can be made simpler, for instance, by adding more balloon hints. I also wish that the video panel was much larger. On my 20" Sony monitor with 1024 x 768 resolution, the video is as small as you can see in the accompanying picture. However, I do understand that displaying a larger video may require a lot of computing power and memory, and not everyone has a Pentium III PC.

All in all, if you want to start mastering business English according to Hoyle, these three CD-ROMs will help you. They cover the English expressions that you will need in describing concepts, discussing problems, expressing opinions, convincing the other members of your team and even discussing the results of market research. They are surely a very good starting point. Be forewarned, though, that the style is very American. (zatni@cbn.net.id)