English: the Currency of International Business

English - like the Euro - has facilitated the flow of business throughout the Euro-Zone and the world at large

Like the Euro, English has become the currency of international business. The members of the German real estate and financial community need to speak the language that their foreign investors speak. But there are different information needs in the various real estate industry segments and also different levels within the organizations to be considered.

The Center for Financial English, supported by Bernd Heuer Dialog, offers a series of topic specific seminars to coach German real estate and financial organizations with real work experience and the appropriate levels of real estate Business English.

The Euro has been hailed for easing the flow of goods and services across borders in the Euro-Zone as well as throughout the world. Thanks to the Euro, prices have been harmonized; and consumers and businesses are now able to compare prices for similar goods and services across the Euro-Zone. Business travelers and tourists have not only been rescued from the tyranny of exchange rates, but also relieved of the burden of pockets bulging with useless small change and currency from the various Euro-Zone countries.

Like the Euro, English has become the currency of international business. English is no longer primarily spoken in native-English speaking countries. With the notable exception of France – whose populace would never consider uttering a word in a language, which was not their own – English has become the ‘lingua franca’ of international business.

Because English is relatively easy to use, many of our own fellow countrymen, here in Germany, have tried their hand at creating English-sounding words. But does this desire to create one’s own English words show German’s love for the English language; or, that Germans can be trend-setters, too; or, is there a more deeply, rooted problem?

In the German financial and real estate community, we know that this love of English is driven by the bottom line. On the one hand, German companies need to speak the language that their foreign investors speak. On the other hand, in order for most German companies to survive they must look outside their own national border; and, they must find a common language in which they can communicate with their targets, which are located all over the globe.

Several years ago, Business Week reported that German companies spend more per employee on English language training than any other country in the EU. Yet, arguably, most German business people still cannot speak English well enough to effectively conduct their day-to-day business activities in that language. Why – you might well ask?

We - at The Center for Financial English – believe that just as the various Euro-Zone countries each have their own Euro currency, which reflects their national identities; English – the currency of business - must reflect its cultural identities (i.e. industry and business segments) as well. We believe that a single, monolithic form of Business English cannot hope to address the needs of all of its constituents. The evolution of Business English must be driven by the information needs of the specific industry segments, not by need to teach perfect grammar with some general Business English thrown-in.

Just as ‘all real estate is local’, the language of real estate must be local, as well; not geographically, of course, but in terms of the various real estate industry segments. Whether it be in German or in English, quite obviously the dialect (i.e. vocabulary and issues) of residential, is different than that of retail or commercial, real estate. The guys in facility management speak a different real estate ‘dialect’ then those in open- or closed-end fund management.

Even though the need for this segmentation and differentiation is only beginning to be realized, most language schools are now, and will continue to be, ill-equipped to address the problem. They simply do not have qualified staff which is conversant with the industry segment or job-specific vocabulary; nor are they able to discuss the various real estate topics at the level which would be useful to practitioners in a specific area of real estate/finance.

So how do we solve this problem? To whom do we turn? Quite obviously, we must turn to our own home-grown experts here in Germany: the specialists. We must utilize the services of the consultants, lawyers, accountants, senior business managers in the top international firms. They know the vocabulary, they can discuss the issues in-depth and many of them speak very good English (not native-speaker English, but English which is quite good enough!!).

Moreover, these specialists… these experts… are all ready fluent in ‘the language of… non-performing loans, REITs, facility management - the language and dialect of their own individual fields. And more importantly, they understand the information needs of the various levels of management within the organizations. They understand that there is quite a difference in the vocabulary required and the issues discussed at the Vorstand level, compared to that of the department head, or even at the desk of the lowly practitioner who toils over his day-to-day tasks.

How do we deliver this service to each and every level of German real estate and financial organizations? Simple, we use our own home-grown information delivery system: seminar companies – such as Bernd Heuer Dialog.

How do we ensure that the right information gets to the appropriate level of the real estate and financial organizations? Once again, the answer is quite simple. Utilize the expertise of language service firms - such as the Center for Financial English - to document the appropriate vocabulary and text used by the experts, codify that information and disseminate it - using coaches with real work experience in that field - to the appropriate levels within German real estate and financial organizations.

Working together, specialists (such as the lawyers, consultants, accountants, senior business managers, seminar companies and language service providers) can effectively provide members of the real estate and financial community with the level of language proficiency they need to conduct business as effectively in English as they do in German.

Ms. Mahler is the Editor of the ‘Real Estate Round-Up’ a weekly Real Estate English newsletter published by the Center for Financial English

Bernd Heuer Dialog and The Center for Financial English (CFE) are developing a series of topic specific Language of Real Estate seminars. Each seminar topic is designed to be offered at three levels within the organization: executive, department head and departmental practitioner.

If you would like to learn more about the Language of Real Estate Seminar program, please contact Ms. Mahler, Tel: 069-75-93-84-84, email: info@real-estate-english.com.