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A good business vocabulary is a very important asset for anyone in professional life. A good business vocabulary can help you convey your ideas and opinions clearly and effectively, even forcefully, without sacrificing your dignified composure.

With a good business vocabulary, you can avoid potentially awkward and embarrassing situations — such as fumbling for the right word, or using a wrong or irrelevant word, in the middle of an important presentation: ‘As markets become increasingly global, the demand for managers with language skills and cultural sensitivity will grow. One way for the language teaching community to respond to this challenge is by redefining the goals of English for business purposes’ (Boyd, F 1991, p. 729).

Will improving your English vocabulary and English language in general, by itself, improve your corporate vocabulary and corporate English skills? Well, only to a certain extent. There is always a gap between the language we use in our everyday conversation and the language we use on business occasions. A business vocabulary is more formal and more cultured, and you should learn to use your business vocabulary more efficiently and powerfully.

A good business vocabulary can help you emphasise your desirable qualities such as politeness, intelligence, confidence, and so on. These qualities all enhance your credibility. A good business vocabulary can help you to present your ideas distinctly and convincingly. Competently using your business vocabulary can make your speech more powerful, and create a rapport with your listeners. By skillfully using words, you can even give direct criticism, disapproval, or rejection, without giving offence to the other person.

How do you improve your vocabulary to what is ideal for your professional affairs? The same way as you improve your vocabulary in general, except that the learning should be more focused on the business environment.

In fact, many accomplished people are of the view that “business English” is so varied and important, that it should be taught to interested candidates as a separate subject rather than combine it, often inseparably, with regular English courses: ‘English for business is a real and living language so I use authentic and current material’ (Baron, L 1998).

You will naturally develop a slight improvement in your business language automatically by just being at your place of work. You can supplement this incidental learning with other traditional methods such as reading more books, magazines, newspapers, and so on. Or you can use more direct learning, such as special tools and techniques, old-fashioned or modern, designed specifically for the purpose.

For example, there are computer software, websites, and other resources, created especially to meet the challenging vocabulary needs of today’s professional men and women. One of these resources is the success edition of the highly popular Ultimate Vocabulary program. In the corporate world, any effort taken toward increasing your business vocabulary is a good investment for enhancing your career.

REFERENCES

Baron, L 1998, 'My Philosophy for Teaching English for Business' The Internet TESL Journal, vol. 4, no. 11.

Boyd, F A 1991, 'Business English and the Case Method: A Reassessment' TESOL Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 729-734.