spoken English proficiency. Some companies, such as the Japanese
company Rakuten, are making English their official language.
Rakuten’s founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani created an English-only
policy for the web commerce company. Mr. Mikitani said “one of the things
holding back Japanese firms from competing globally is a language barrier
that prevents them from fully grasping overseas competition.” He also said
that lack of English proficiency limits Japanese companies from pursuing
global talent and retaining non-Japanese staff.
With the new policy, all employees are required to use English for
company communications, including meetings, presentations, emails,
proposals, and other documents. The company expects employees to be
proactive about learning English independently.
While this is a developing trend for Japan, many international companies
are increasing their requirements for English. Many, like Rakuten, are
instituting English-only policies. As this trend grows, the demand for
business English grows with it.
Increasingly, in the business world there is simply no escape from
English.
It’s Still English
Business English opens economic opportunities. Because of this, a large
variety of business English classes, schools, textbooks and lessons have
arrived to fill the need. Not surprisingly, most of these use the same old
methods to teach business English as they used to teach general English.
Business English, however, is not a separate type of English. The happy
truth is that most of the English used in business situations is the same
English used commonly in other situations. In business, you’ll find the
same common vocabulary, the same common idioms, and the same
grammar.
The main addition to business English is simply vocabulary related to
specific business topics. This vocabulary falls into two categories: general
