Anyone who speaks to international audiences in English faces a particular set of challenges that can affect their confidence, and their competence. Native English speakers are often the worst presenters to international audiences in English because they assume that their English is the only version of English and go from there. This lack of empathy…
Mario Balatelli is the 20-year old soccer player who won ‘man of the match’ in the UK’s FA Cup Final in 2011. He plays for the resurgent Manchester City and he’s an Italian hot-shot, hot-head who brings pace, athleticism and danger to every team that he plays for. He brings the same to their Public…
Fabio Capello is the Italian Manager of the English international football team. He’s very Italian. And when he started the job there was no doubt that his English wasn’t up to the job. Now he’s been doing the job for four years, he’s a little better, but caused a furore this week by suggesting that…
You’re an experienced presenter in your own language, you have a working vocabulary of over 20,000 words, you can improvise, answer questions, use metaphor, jokes and the vernacular, what do you do when you’re faced with an audience of native English speakers? That little voice in your head can start you thinking all of those…
I’ve spent 15 years or so travelling the world and talking to thousands of people in the course of my work and I’ve learned some interesting and painful lessons about English as the lingua franca of international business. It’s also a real niche area of work for me now as there are hundreds of companies…