Reading 阅读练习 1. Read the article blew which is about using English for international business. Think of a title for each paragraph. 2. Answer these questions about the article. 1 Why does Ericsson use English as its official language? 2 What can native English speakers do to communicate more effectively? 3 Why are native English speakers unaware of the difficulties of listening to foreign languages? 4 How does Ericsson make its employees more aware of these difficulties? Is YOUR ENGLISH TOO ENGLISH? English may be the language of international business but, as Alison Thomas reports, it s not only non-native speakers who need to learn how to use it effectively. 1 Ask a Swedish Ericsson executive Talardu Svenska? and he may well reply Yes. But only at home. At work I speak English. Ericsson is one of a growing number of European companies that use English as their official corporate language. These companies recognise and, at the same time, increase the dominance of English as the language of international communication. Soon the number of speakers of English as a second language will exceed that of native English speakers. 2 Although a company might use English as its official language, its employees are unlikely to be bilingual. Language trainer Jacquie Reid thinks we consistently over-estimate the fluency of non-native speakers. We always assume that because their language skills are better than ours, they understand everything we say. 3 So how should we adapt our use of language and what are the common problems? Simplify it, is Reid s advice. Don t over-complicate the message. Reduce what you re saying to manageable chunks. Reid always tells people to limit themselves to one idea per sentence. It s also important to slow down and not raise your voice. 4 Dr Jasmine Patel, a language consultant at Europhone, says different languages also have their own approach to dialogue. The British start with idiomatic expressions such as So, should we get down to it? and understate important issues with phrases such as There could be a slight problem. They also say That s a good idea, but ...when they mean No and they repeatedly use the word ,get with different meanings. And worst of all, they insist on using humor which is so culture-specific that no-one understands it. 5 The majority of English native 5 speakers are insensitive to the stress of trying to understand a foreign language in a work environment because they rely on the business world speaking their language. At Ericsson, however, this is not the case. At the UK subsidiary, Ericsson Telecommunications, management training courses include seminars on both language and cross-cultural issues. A frequent comment made in follow-up evaluations is that increased awareness has improved communication and, more importantly, given participants a better understanding of their own language and how others might interpret it. Suggested answer:参考答案 1. 1 Communicating internationally 2 Assuming too much 3 Keeping it simple 4 Understanding cultural differences 5 Raising awareness 2. 1 Because English is the dominant language of international communication. 2 Make their message simple, use shorter chunks, keep one idea per sentence, speak more slowly, not raise their voice. 3 As English is spoken in their work environment, they do not have to understand other languages themselves. 4 Through language and cultural awareness seminars.