The world is changing at a faster pace than ever before.  As a business person, it’s important to recognize these trends and take advantage of them.   Like it or not, the wealth gap will be very large for a long time and there will be a lot of winners and a lot of losers.   Why not learn what you can to be one of the winners?

Here are some important trends to take advantage of:

1.  Technology will continue to change and evolve rapidly.  There is no reason why this should stop.  New Energy and communications like the internet and other wireless stuff will continue to dominate.  The health care sector should also see large changes and innovation because there will be a wealthy aging population in need of solutions to their health issues.

2.  Learning English and thinking globally in terms of business is a very important thing to do.  All the big companies in the world are moving around the globe and opening up new markets.  They all communicate in English and you need to learn it well and quickly to survive and make a lot of money.  It doesn’t take long to learn English if you have the right method.  Here is an excellent program that a lot of smart business people use:  Learn English Fast

3.  Think flexibly.  The days are gone where you can get a job in a company and just wait 35 years till retirement.  Industries change all the time and it’s very important to embrace that change instead of trying to resist it.  Don’t be afraid to change jobs a few times and build up a bunch of knowledge in different industries.  It will make you very unique and valuable.  Do the things that most other people aren’t doing.  You will have many more options that way and can get a much better paying job if you have many unique experiences you can bring together.

Teaching business English is pretty much the top of the line in terms of ESL teaching. If you get a good position, the class can be quite fun and interesting. The money is usually the best in the business too.

The question is what to teach them? I’ve got years of experience teaching business English and making lesson plans for my students. Sometimes the lessons were great, other times they were a total failure. Through trial and error, I realized that most of these students really just want to know how to talk with foreigners and understand the culture. A lot of business terms are international and they are easy to learn from a dictionary. It’s the lack of knowledge about culture and the slang that makes these adults shy and nervous in business settings. Vocabulary is less of a concern than many students think.

I’ve made a bunch of cultural lesson plans (Over 100) about several different topics. Some are about business and some just about life in general in the western world. They are all designed to get the students thinking and talking in English. You can cater these lessons to your own style of teaching and you will save a lot of time and energy. These lessons are fun to talk about and make the class time fly by. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Adult ESL Lesson Plans

If you want to succeed in international business, understanding western culture is at least as important as understanding English.

I have a lot of friends who have high positions at multinational companies.  They often tell me how it is doing business in different countries.

They tell me that the people who understand western culture do better at work than those with better English skills.

A lot of business is about building trust and good relationships with many new people.  If a lot of people like you and trust you, they are much more likely to do business with you.  Of course, you still need to understand English and business very well, but this cultural understanding is often overlooked.

Things like going golfing or meeting the guys out for a beer after work can be as important as what happens at the office.  It’s necessary to learn how to have fun and be active in these international groups.  English is the international language of business.

Hang out with these westerners more and learn how to have fun in a new culture.  Don’t be fake, but challenge yourself to look at the world in different ways.  You will be well rewarded in many ways if you do this.  Of course, you will still have a deep cultural influence from your own culture, but it’s quite possible to learn a new one and be flexible when dealing with different kinds of people.

If you want to learn real international business culture, you need to learn the slang and sense of humor.  Learn the way that culture views the world.  you don’t have to agree with everything, just try to understand it.

Here is a great program for that:  Real American English

Networking is unbelievably important for doing business or getting a job.

Basically, networking just means building relationships with other people.  These are kind of like business friendships.   People who are smart in school but poor socially often have a really difficult time in the “real world” when it comes to finding a good job.

These people often complain that “life isn’t fair”.  They feel that they deserve a good job but don’t know how to get it.  The fact is that people are much more likely to give the good jobs and business positions to people they already know and trust.  This is even true for large companies and government organizations.

If you are learning English, it’s important to learn western culture as well.  This cultural understanding will help you make friends and connect with business people.  Even if you aren’t the “best person for the job” you will have a much higher chance of getting a good job than the people who just sit around and hope that something good will happen to them.
It sounds funny, but this is what most people do.  They sit around complaining instead of spending their time and energy meeting people.

If you want to learn the culture, you need to learn modern slang

That link is a really good program for learning culture and the way that native speakers talk together.  If you follow it, you will understand western culture at a very deep level and have much more business success as a result.