To Russia with love!

When Sara and Andrew learned that the Foreign Office was to post them to the Ukraine, they were quick to seek the language training they knew would be vital to their roles. Sara was due to take up her role in Kiev as First Secretary (Trade and Investment) and partner Andrew was to be a Senior Management Officer. Both had an impressive language history with French and Hungarian already established in their linguistic repertoire, but learning Russian with its cyrillic alphabet would pose new challenges.

Jason Scagell, Director Europe eon decided to take up German lessons when the opportunity arose within Powergen.  

He sums up his experiences: “I have really enjoyed learning German and would recommend language training for any aspiring international business people or anyone generally seeking to broaden their horizons.”

John’s Company supplies tractor parts and he had been actively exporting to South America for some time before he came to the Language Centre.

“I have travelled extensively in Latin America for many years, usually relying on the customer to speak English. I had employed interpreters or used anyone I could, even taxi drivers and hotel employees, to assist me in meetings. Eventually, as my main customers spoke little or no English, I decided to make some effort to improve my ability in Spanish.”

John ‘phoned the Centre and arranged to discuss the possiblity of training with the Business Language Development Officer. He completed a Profile Questionnaire and a training needs analysis was carried out with an experienced tutor from South America. The results were clear. Here was a good communicator who already had acquired some effective techniques and a reasonable level of conversational Spanish. A proposal was compiled outlining the areas for development in order to build upon his competence.

“I had previously tried one-to one lessons with a colleague who was a French teacher but progress was slow and I decided to look for a solution better suited to my needs. After a chat with the Business Language Development Officer I was instantly on track.”

The training needs analysis carried out by a professional language teacher identified specific teaching objectives. A suitable tutor who could support Scott’s needs and progress was put on the case!