Global business involves the world. Many businesses have offices in the US and UK, with other headquarters, warehouses, factories, etc. in other countries. This has driven English to the forefront as the language of global businesses. There are also numerous countries that were under the British empire that retained English as one of their national languages or their only national language. There are over 6,000 languages in the world! Some of these are also becoming more prevalent.
As the world evolves, more and more businesses are implementing policies to use English to make business communications easier and efficient. One can imagine there were many issues in the past and quite possibly even now, where clients or leaders within a business can’t communicate with each other because of language barriers.
Language: A Deal-Maker and Deal-Breaker
According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, there are different reasons driving English to become the standard language in the corporate world. As an example, Rakuten’s CEO heard of an incident where two French companies couldn’t close a deal due to communication barriers. One company did not realize there would be employees from elsewhere that did not speak French. After this, in March 2010, Rakuten, a Japanese company, implemented a policy that English would become their language of the business.
why English as the global language?
English is the most spoken language in the world! Over 1.4 billion people speak it. It makes sense then that this would be the chosen language of the corporate world.
However, there are some other languages we should be aware of that are becoming popular as well. These include:
- French
- Spanish
- Arabic
- Mandarin
- Portuguese
If you are in the business industry whether as a client or business owner, it might be beneficial to know one or more other languages. French is spoken by over 300 million people in the world with 97.6 million of them speaking it as their native language. French is also one of the official languages of the Olympics. So, if you ever want to attend an Olympic game, knowing French would be beneficial and help in understanding what is going on without needing to wait for a translation. At Cudoo we offer over 160 languages to choose from. Enrolling is easy and you can start learning a new language today.
Leonie Ramkaran
Latest posts by Leonie Ramkaran (see all)
- BE YOUR OWN BOSS - August 25, 2023
- WHY YOU SHOULD LEARN PORTUGUESE - July 28, 2023
- RELAXATION TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR ALL STUDENTS - July 21, 2023