The English Language as The Language for International Business

With the continuing globalisation of markets and internationalisation of Trade, professionals from wide range of organisations from large multinational corporations to small to medium sized enterprises are increasingly coming together to do business in the international workplace particularly in meetings. Such international events usually bring together people from different semantic and socio-cultural backgrounds with the result that a common language of communication is commonly embraced. While English for International Business has an essential function as a common language in multilingual settings, it can also present challenges between speakers whose first language is not english

English is perceived as a universal language by many people around the globe mostly by the citizens of other English-speaking countries as well as Americans, before English became the language of business/trade French was considered the language of the educated due to which the controversy still remains. Many languages have been used around the world as contact languages for international trade and communication. Within Europe itself there have been many multi languages since Roman times, including Greek, Latin, German, French, and English. The latter three are currently widely used all around Europe as till today which are referred as “Big Languages” Nevertheless they are not the only languages used as communication in Europe for example Russian is used in the newer eastern European nation and the Pidgin, or hybrid blend of several Scandinavians languages, “Skandinaviska”, used in several northern European countries

The Chinese Government is promoting the language Mandarin as an international language through the Confucius Institute but due to its unique pattern and difficulty in writing the Chinese characters it could not have been possible even after 1.2 billion native speakers, with spanish being the second most common language leaving english with only 1.75 billion speakers thats one out of four of us. Multinational businesses such as Nokia, Microsoft, Apple etc promote and consider english language as an international language. The ability to speak a second or third language is important in becoming a global leader, English is an easier language to adapt as well as to write and speak in the trade world as mostly communication barriers can take place when there is a language barrier or jargons are being used that are not known or spoken widely, European countries tend to speak great english while Asians are good speakers, and everyone else lags

British Colonialism spread the English Language around the globe as it was administratively imposed on the non-English speakers in these colonies. English started to become increasingly influential on the world-scene at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The US’s powerful political, military and economic position in the second half of the Twentieth Century meant that English became the main language of communication in organisations such as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the International Monetary Fund

One way or another, I personally feel that English is a relatively simple language and I believe that this factor definitely contributes to its world wide popularity. I’m sure other big languages might also possess this characteristics but the fact of the matter is that English has the larger vocabulary of all other languages on the planet thus proving that English should remain the International Language of Trade.