International Meetings In English

Intercultural & Business Language Course

What you'll learn

Navigate cultural differences during first meetings

Strategies for staying on track when you don't understand

Become more present and more assertive at the international conference table

Build more successful relationships with your international partners

Requirements

This course is for participants who already have intermediate English ability

Description

This course is intended primarily for non-native speakers of English who are starting to work internationally particularly with native speakers of English. It is also aimed at professionals who have recently moved into international roles but are struggling to perform as successfully as they have always done in their own culture and language.It is a business language and intercultural awareness course combined. It covers not only the actual communication skills needed inside the international meeting but also the key interpersonal skills required around the meeting to introduce yourself and build rapport with new colleagues from other countries.Each of the lectures is followed by a set of questions which check the topics explored in the videos but also help to explore some of them in more depth.The author and instructor has been advising and training professionals working on an international level for quite a number of years mostly in western Europe and the lessons are based on his own experience and feedback from colleagues and clients.The content aims to prepare you to be successful both as the leader and the participant of a meeting covering all of the most vulnerable issues of communication that may arise when teams of professionals from different cultures sit around the conference table with a common task.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 About this Course

Section 2: Before the meeting starts

Lecture 2 Introducing yourself and others

Section 3: What to do when you don't understand

Lecture 3 When you don't understand

Section 4: Building Rapport

Lecture 4 Chatting & building rapport

Section 5: Leading the Meeting

Lecture 5 Getting the meeting started

Lecture 6 Delegating tasks

Section 6: Getting into the Discussion

Lecture 7 Active listening & getting your say

Lecture 8 Expressing your opinion

Section 7: Interruption

Lecture 9 Interruption

Section 8: Disagreement & feedback

Lecture 10 Feedback & Diagreement

Section 9: Concluding

Lecture 11 Concluding

Section 10: Summary

Lecture 12 Summary

If you as a business person have never lived/worked in an English-speaking country and therefore feel a little insecure and less assertive at your international meetings, this mini-course is designed to help you. It goes from intercultural and linguistic problems professionals typically encounter all the way through to getting your say at the conference table and interrupting and disagreeing politely. The course is a combination of business-English skills and crucially important cultural knowledge. While the course focuses mostly on the language and communication culture of Britain/Ireland, it aims to enable professionals to communicate more successfully in business on a global level. The trainer for this course has been coaching senior managers in global companies for the past twenty years.