The daily grind

You’ve probably heard it before and you will likely hear it again: English is the language of international business. Some people love the fact and others hate it, but it remains true—in order to advance in the business world, you will likely have to be fluent in English.

A prime example is a good friend of mine. As a South American, her first language is Spanish. She went to a German school there and then studied in Germany. Her first professional job in Germany was working with a German/Dutch company where the company language was German. However, everyone spoke English in her office as there were people from many other countries there, as well. Additionally, they worked in a business whose clients had business dealings all around the world and the language they corresponded in was … English. In my work as a Project Manager at a German company, our official language was English (luckily for me!) as we had business dealings and interests across Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe and the United States of America, so this was the fastest, easiest, and most efficient way of working.