Black English leaves out the "does" and the "is;" these are the kinds of irregular verb forms adult learners of a language tend to pass over, since they're hard to learn in any language. Daily news from Germany written in English by native English-speaking journalists. An entertaining blend of Germany's latest news headlines, politics, sport, business, and features. Vikings changed the English language. Because of the immigration from Scandinavia, the language the newcomers spoke had a big influence on the English language. It is difficult to say if it was the Danes or Norwegians who affected the English language the most because the two languages are so similar. And of course, either the Danes or the Two-thirds of the world's science writing is in English, and English is the main language of technology, advertising, media, international airports, and air traffic controllers. Today there are more than 700 million English users in the world, and over half of these are non-native speakers, constituting the largest number of non-native users than any other language in the world. Starting from Charlamagne (and one may argue prior) it was the center of much that happened in Europe. When Normans conquered England in 1066 they spoke French, therefore French became the court language in England. In addition French owned Pope for pretty long while (most of 14th Century), which meant that clergy needed to learn Latin and France. [the five views of English] acknowledge the utilitarian functions of English teaching, and yet place these in a wider cultural and imaginative framework' (ibid, p.22). He notes that English might encompass: 'Language use, language study, literature, drama and media education' and that it 'ranges from the AKLsi7. English as a global languagePeople often talk about English as a global language or lingua franca. With more than 350 million people around the world speaking English as a first language and more than 430 million speaking it as a second language, there are English speakers in most countries around the world. Why is English so popular, though? And why has it become a global language?People often call English the international language of business, and it’s increasingly true as international trade expands every year, bringing new countries into contact. Many of the best MBA programs are taught in English, so speaking it well can put you in a position to get the best training and credentials. Most multinational companies require a certain degree of English proficiency from potential employees so in order to get a position with a top company, more and people are learning your ambitions lie in science or medicine, you can’t neglect English either. Much of the technical terminology is based on English words, and if you want to learn about the latest developments and discoveries from around the world, you’ll read about them in journals and research reports published in English, no matter whether the scientists who wrote them are from China or Norway. And, of course, with good conversational English, you’ll be able to network and make important contacts at conferences and also opens doors in the academic world. Of course, if the best program in your field is in an English-speaking country, English will give you the opportunity to study with the top scholars. Western universities are attracting more and more visiting scholars, students and professors from all around the world, and their common working language is English. As well as studying and teaching, attending international conferences and publishing in foreign journals are some of the key steps to success in academia. In order to speak at these conferences or publish in these journals, excellent English is essential. Improve your English grammar, vocabulary and more with EF English Live Journalists and writers around the world are finding a good command of English to be an increasingly useful skill. Even if you’re writing your articles and doing interviews in your own language, with good English you can get background material from international wire services and papers and magazines from around the world. You can interview foreign businessmen, diplomats and maybe even get sent to cover overseas stories. Good English skills mean that you are not reliant on translators and can work faster and more accurately with English information you want a career in travel, English is absolutely essential. As the international language of aviation, pilots and cabin crew all need to speak English. Even if you’re not up in the air, speaking English accurately will ensure you are able to communicate with clients and suppliers all over the what’s stopping you from learning this global language? With all the English resources available on the internet and so many other English speakers around the world to practice with, there’s never been a better time to start learning English. Pick up a book, learn a few words, or even start a course today and take your first steps towards becoming one of nearly 800 million English speakers in the related How to maximize your English learning WilWil is a writer, teacher, learning technologist and keen language learner. He’s taught English in classrooms and online for nearly 10 years, trained teachers in using classroom and web technology, and written e-learning materials for several major websites. He speaks four languages and is currently looking for another one to start learning. The English language in education today is all-pervasive. “Hear more English, speak more English and become more successful” has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Some say it’s already a universal language, ahead of other mother tongues such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish or French. In reality, of course, this has been centuries in the making. Colonial conquest and global trade routes won the hearts and minds of foreign education systems. These days, the power of English or the versions of English spoken in different countries has become accepted wisdom, used to justify the globalisation of education at the cost of existing systems in non-English-speaking countries. The British Council exemplifies this, with its global presence and approving references to the “English effect” on educational and employment prospects. English as a passport to success In non-English countries the packaging of English and its promise of success takes many forms. Instead of being integrated into or added to national teaching curricula, English language learning institutes, language courses and international education standards can dominate whole systems. Among the most visible examples are Cambridge Assessment International Education and the International Baccalaureate which is truly international and, to be fair, also offered in French and Spanish. Read more Beyond the black hole of global university rankings rediscovering the true value of knowledge and ideas Schools in non-English-speaking countries attract globally ambitious parents and their children with a mix of national and international curricula, such as the courses offered by the Singapore Intercultural School across South-East Asia. Language and the class divide The love of all things English begins at a young age in non-English-speaking countries, promoted by pop culture, Hollywood movies, fast-food brands, sports events and TV shows. Later, with English skills and international education qualifications from high school, the path is laid to prestigious international universities in the English-speaking world and employment opportunities at home and abroad. But those opportunities aren’t distributed equally across socioeconomic groups. Global education in English is largely reserved for middle-class students. This is creating a divide between those inside the global English proficiency ecosystem and those relegated to parts of the education system where such opportunities don’t exist. For the latter there is only the national education curriculum and the lesson that social mobility is a largely unattainable goal. Schoolgirls in Sulawesi, Indonesia is the language divide also a class divide? Shutterstock The Indonesian experience Indonesia presents a good case study. With a population of 268 million, access to English language curricula has mostly been limited to urban areas and middle-class parents who can afford to pay for private schools. At the turn of this century, all Indonesian districts were mandated to have at least one public school offering a globally recognised curriculum in English to an international standard. But in 2013 this was deemed unconstitutional because equal educational opportunity should exist across all public schools. Read more Lessons taught in English are reshaping the global classroom Nevertheless, today there are 219 private schools offering at least some part of the curriculum through Cambridge International, and 38 that identify as Muslim private schools. Western international curricula remain influential in setting the standard for what constitutes quality education. In Muslim schools that have adopted globally recognised curricula in English, there is a tendency to over-focus on academic performance. Consequently, the important Muslim value of تَرْبِيَة Tarbiya is downplayed. Encompassing the flourishing of the whole child and the realisation of their potential, Tarbiya is a central pillar in Muslim education. Viewed like this, schooling that concentrates solely on academic performance fails in terms of both culture and faith. Learning is about more than academic performance Academic performance measured by knowledge and skill is, of course, still important and a source of personal fulfilment. But without that cultural balance and the nurturing of positive character traits, we argue it lacks deeper meaning. Read more The top ranking education systems in the world aren't there by accident. Here's how Australia can climb up A regulation issued by the Indonesian minister of education in 2018 underlined this. It listed a set of values and virtues that school education should foster faith, honesty, tolerance, discipline, hard work, creativity, independence, democracy, curiosity, nationalism, patriotism, appreciation, communication, peace, a love of reading, environmental awareness, social awareness and responsibility. These have been simplified to five basic elements of character education religion, nationalism, Gotong Royong collective voluntary work, independence and integrity. These are not necessarily measurable by conventional, Western, English-speaking and empirical means. Is it time, then, to reconsider the internationalising of education and not just in South-East Asia? Has it gone too far, at least in its English form? Isn’t it time to look closely at other forms of education in societies where English is not the mother tongue? These education systems are based on different values and they understand success in different ways. It’s unfortunate so many schools view an English-speaking model as the gold standard and overlook their own local or regional wisdoms. We need to remember that encouraging young people to join a privileged English-speaking élite educated in foreign universities is only one of many possible educational options. If you are learning English right now, chances are it’s probably something to do with getting your degree, advancing in your career, or maybe for personal reasons like having an English-speaking partner. Nowadays it seems like everyone is learning English, and it is becoming the world’s most widely spoken language. It is used in business and trade all over the world, and in places like Europe, it is spoken widely outside of business. But why? What makes English the magic catch-all language that everyone wants to speak fluently? How did it become so important and widespread? The answer lies not just in the history of the language, but politics, culture and technology! Here are 5 Reasons Why English Has Become Today’s Global Language 1 The British Empire. The first, and most obvious reason that English became widespread in the first place is because of the British Empire. Before colonizing around a quarter of the planet !, Britons were the only ones speaking English, and the language was confined to the British Isles. But once they started doing trade with places like Asia and Africa, colonizing and settling around the globe, the language naturally spread. However, it was mainly used in administration and business dealings—locals were still speaking their native languages for the most part. But when it came to getting an education, that was done in English. So English then became an elitist language of sorts, spoken by those who were educated in literature, philosophy and poetry, much like French was back when it was the most widely spoken language. So how did English take over French as the most spoken language? Well there’s more to the story than the Brits. 2 Post-war USA. The world after the first two world wars was a vulnerable and changing one. American businesses were booming and started doing trade all over the world, much like Great Britain had done in the previous century. This bolstered the use of English as the language of global trade. But at the same time, American culture was being exported heavily through music and film. The advent of jazz, rock n’ roll and other popular music from both the USA and UK infiltrated the culture of people everywhere, making English more than just the language of business, but the language of entertainment for the masses. Hollywood was also booming with popular films exported worldwide, and then in the 1960’s the counter-culture movement arrived with social change and the hippie movement sweeping across the USA and Europe. Which brings us to the next point 3 The coolness factor. English is used across the world to signify a certain lifestyle or culture linked to American-style success or entertainment, or sometimes to signify a certain British quality. Advertisers use it all over the world in multi-national markets to sell their products in this way. But, it is also the most common language used in the film and music industry. Big-budget movies and everyone’s favorite classic films are mostly produced in English. In music, if a band wants to become popular or famous, they will produce their work in English as well. Maybe it’s because English will reach a wider audience, or maybe because English is taken more seriously as an element of good pop music. And then there are sports—American-invented sports today like BMX and skateboarding, and even basketball, have an entire vocabulary in English, and many of the best athletes in those fields are English-speaking—even if they have been recruited from abroad! 4 Technology. At the same time that the USA was becoming the world’s business superpower, the internet was also invented in the USA. This created an entire lexicon for computers and technology that was invented in English. Computer keyboards are suited for writing languages using the Latin alphabet, and the hardware for all our smart technology uses English words that have become commonly used around the world, as there was no other alternative in place when the technology spread like fire to the corners of the Earth. The world of science is also dominated by English for much the same reason historically, universities publishing important research were doing so in English, and as a scientist today, any serious publication must be done in English. With science and technology playing such a big role in our lives today, English won’t be going anywhere soon. 5 The snowball effect. Now that English is so widespread across the internet, on the radio, in schools and in the business world, it is hard to escape. It is well known that in order to get a good job in today’s global market, speaking English is becoming a requirement more often than not. That’s why students and more adults than ever are taking private lessons, taking language immersion holidays and studying English to become as fluent as they can. It is not a guarantee of success, but it certainly does help! Some people cite other reasons for the popularity of the English language, such as that it is “easy to learn” or that is evolves with our changing times. Some people long for the days when every country spoke their own language, and English was an eccentricity for language experts. But one thing is fairly certain English will continue to grow as the world’s dominant language. But for how long? ***** Are you learning English for work or pleasure? Have you noticed an increase in the use of English in your country? We love to hear your comments! *much of the information in this article originally appeared here, in the ESL Languages Blog. Reprint R1205H Like it or not, English is the global language of business. Today billion people speak English at a useful level—that’s one in four of us. Multinational companies such as Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, SAP, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, and Microsoft in Beijing have mandated English as the corporate language. And any company with a global presence or global aspirations would be wise to do the same, says HBS professor Tsedal Neeley, to ensure good communication and collaboration with customers, suppliers, business partners, and other stakeholders. But while moving toward a single language at work is necessary and inevitable, Neeley’s research shows that implementing such a policy is fraught with complications. English-only policies can create job insecurity and dissatisfaction and generate strife between native and nonnative English speakers in cross-national teams. Companies can anticipate and plan for inevitable challenges and resistance when adopting an English-only policy. Using Japanese internet services firm Rakuten as a case example, this article outlines guidelines for proper implementation. Tweet Post Share Annotate Save Get PDF Buy Copies Print Ready or not, English is now the global language of business. More and more multinational companies are mandating English as the common corporate language—Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor, and Microsoft in Beijing, to name a few—in an attempt to facilitate communication and performance across geographically diverse functions and business endeavors. Adopting a common mode of speech isn’t just a good idea; it’s a must, even for an American company with operations overseas, for instance, or a French company focused on domestic customers. Imagine that a group of salespeople from a company’s Paris headquarters get together for a meeting. Why would you care whether they all could speak English? Now consider that the same group goes on a sales call to a company also based in Paris, not realizing that the potential customer would be bringing in employees from other locations who didn’t speak French. This happened at one company I worked with. Sitting together in Paris, employees of those two French companies couldn’t close a deal because the people in the room couldn’t communicate. It was a shocking wake-up call, and the company soon adopted an English corporate language strategy. Similar concerns drove Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of Rakuten—Japan’s largest online marketplace—to mandate in March 2010 that English would be the company’s official language of business. The company’s goal was to become the number one internet services company in the world, and Mikitani believed that the new policy—which would affect some 7,100 Japanese employees—was vital to achieving that end, especially as expansion plans were concentrated outside Japan. He also felt responsible for contributing to an expanded worldview for his country, a conservative island nation. The multibillion-dollar company—a cross between and eBay—was on a growth spree It had acquired in France, and FreeCause in the in the UK, Tradoria in Germany, Kobo eBooks in Canada, and established joint ventures with major companies in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Brazil. Serious about the language change, Mikitani announced the plan to employees not in Japanese but in English. Overnight, the Japanese language cafeteria menus were replaced, as were elevator directories. And he stated that employees would have to demonstrate competence on an international English scoring system within two years—or risk demotion or even dismissal. The media instantly picked up the story, and corporate Japan reacted with fascination and disdain. Honda’s CEO, Takanobu Ito, publicly asserted, “It’s stupid for a Japanese company to only use English in Japan when the workforce is mainly Japanese.” But Mikitani was confident that it was the right move, and the policy is bearing fruit. The English mandate has allowed Mikitani to create a remarkably diverse and powerful organization. Today, three out of six senior executives in his engineering organization aren’t Japanese; they don’t even speak Japanese. The company continues to aggressively seek the best talent from around the globe. Half of Rakuten’s Japanese employees now can adequately engage in internal communication in English, and 25% communicate in English with partners and coworkers in foreign subsidiaries on a regular basis. Adopting a global language policy is not easy, and companies invariably stumble along the way. It’s radical, and it’s almost certain to meet with staunch resistance from employees. Many may feel at a disadvantage if their English isn’t as good as others’, team dynamics and performance can suffer, and national pride can get in the way. But to survive and thrive in a global economy, companies must overcome language barriers—and English will almost always be the common ground, at least for now. The fastest-spreading language in human history, English is spoken at a useful level by some billion people worldwide—that’s one in every four of us. There are close to 385 million native speakers in countries like the and Australia, about a billion fluent speakers in formerly colonized nations such as India and Nigeria, and millions of people around the world who’ve studied it as a second language. An estimated 565 million people use it on the internet. The benefits of “Englishnization,” as Mikitani calls it, are significant; however, relatively few companies have systematically implemented an English-language policy with sustained results. Through my research and work over the past decade with companies, I’ve developed an adoption framework to guide companies in their language efforts. There’s still a lot to learn, but success stories do exist. Adopters will find significant advantages. Why English Only? There’s no question that unrestricted multilingualism is inefficient and can prevent important interactions from taking place and get in the way of achieving key goals. The need to tightly coordinate tasks and work with customers and partners worldwide has accelerated the move toward English as the official language of business no matter where companies are headquartered. Three primary reasons are driving the move toward English as a corporate standard. Competitive pressure. If you want to buy or sell, you have to be able to communicate with a diverse range of customers, suppliers, and other business partners. If you’re lucky, they’ll share your native language—but you can’t count on it. Companies that fail to devise a language strategy are essentially limiting their growth opportunities to the markets where their language is spoken, clearly putting themselves at a disadvantage to competitors that have adopted English-only policies. Globalization of tasks and resources. Language differences can cause a bottleneck—a Tower of Babel, as it were—when geographically dispersed employees have to work together to meet corporate goals. An employee from Belgium may need input from an enterprise in Beirut or Mexico. Without common ground, communication will suffer. Better language comprehension gives employees more firsthand information, which is vital to good decision making. Swiss food giant Nestlé saw great efficiency improvements in purchasing and hiring thanks to its enforcement of English as a company standard. M&A integration across national boundaries. Negotiations regarding a merger or acquisition are complicated enough when everybody speaks the same language. But when they don’t, nuances are easily lost, even in simple e-mail exchanges. Also, cross-cultural integration is notoriously tricky; that’s why when Germany’s Hoechst and France’s Rhône-Poulenc merged in 1998 to create Aventis, the fifth largest worldwide pharmaceutical company, the new firm chose English as its operating language over French or German to avoid playing favorites. A branding element can also come into play. In the 1990s, a relatively unknown, midsize Italian appliance maker, Merloni, adopted English to further its international image, which gave it an edge when acquiring Russian and British companies. The fastest-spreading language in human history, English is spoken at a useful level by some billion people worldwide—that’s one in every four of us. Obstacles to Successful English-Language Policies To be sure, one-language policies can have repercussions that decrease efficiency. Evidence from my research at Rakuten—along with a study I conducted with Pamela Hinds of Stanford University and Catherine Cramton of George Mason University at a company I’ll call GlobalTech and a study I conducted at a firm I’ll call FrenchCo—reveals costs that global English-language rules can create. Proper rollout mitigates the risks, but even well-considered plans can encounter pitfalls. Here are some of the most common. Change always comes as a shock. No amount of warning and preparation can entirely prevent the psychological blow to employees when proposed change becomes reality. When Marie all names in this article are disguised, with the exception of Mikitani and Ito first learned of FrenchCo’s English-only policy, she was excited. She had been communicating in English with non-French partners for some time, and she saw the proposed policy as a positive sign that the company was becoming more international. That is, until she attended a routine meeting that was normally held in French. “I didn’t realize that the very first meeting after the rule came out was really going to be in English. It was a shock,” Marie says. She recalls walking into the meeting with a lot of energy—until she noticed the translator headsets. “They’re humiliating,” she says. “I felt like an observer rather than a participant at my own company.” Given the size and growth of the Chinese economy, why move to an English-only policy? Isn’t it possible that Mandarin could overtake English as the global language of business? It’s possible, but unlikely. There are two reasons for this. First, English has a giant head start. China can’t replicate Britain’s colonial history. The British Empire began embedding the English language in many parts of the world as early as the 16th century. Philanthropic work by American and British organizations further spread English, long before corporations began to adopt it at the workplace. Second, for much of the world, Mandarin is extremely difficult to learn. It’s easier to pick up “broken English” than “broken Mandarin.” Knowing Mandarin—or any language spoken by huge numbers of people—is an advantage, clearly. But for now, Mandarin is not a realistic option for a one-language policy. Compliance is spotty. An English mandate created a different problem for a service representative at GlobalTech. Based in Germany, the technology firm had subsidiaries worldwide. Hans, a service representative, received a frantic call from his boss when a key customer’s multimillion-dollar financial services operation ground to a halt as a result of a software glitch. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were at stake for both the customer and GlobalTech. Hans quickly placed a call to the technical department in India, but the software team was unable to jump on the problem because all communications about it were in German—despite the English-only policy instituted two years earlier requiring that all internal communications meetings, e-mails, documents, and phone calls be carried out in English. As Hans waited for documents to be translated, the crisis continued to escalate. Two years into the implementation, adoption was dragging. Self-confidence erodes. When nonnative speakers are forced to communicate in English, they can feel that their worth to the company has been diminished, regardless of their fluency level. “The most difficult thing is to have to admit that one’s value as an English speaker overshadows one’s real value,” a FrenchCo employee says. “For the past 30 years the company did not ask us to develop our foreign-language skills or offer us the opportunity to do so,” he points out. “Now, it is difficult to accept the fact that we are disqualified.” Employees facing one-language policies often worry that the best jobs will be offered only to those with strong English skills, regardless of content expertise. When my colleagues and I interviewed 164 employees at GlobalTech two years after the company’s English-only policy had been implemented, we found that nearly 70% of employees continued to experience frustration with it. At FrenchCo, 56% of medium-fluency English speakers and 42% of low-fluency speakers reported worrying about job advancement because of their relatively limited English skills. Such feelings are common when companies merely announce the new policy and offer language classes rather than implement the shift in a systematic way. It’s worth noting that employees often underestimate their own abilities or overestimate the challenge of developing sufficient fluency. See the sidebar “Gauging Fluency.” Progressing from beginner level to advanced—which greatly improves an employee’s ability to communicate—involves mastering around 3,500 words. That’s a far less daunting task than adding the 10,000 words necessary to move from advanced to native speaker, for which the payoff may be lower. Job security falters. Even though achieving sufficient fluency is possible for most, the reality is that with adoption of an English-only policy, employees’ job requirements change—sometimes overnight. That can be a bitter pill to swallow, especially among top performers. Rakuten’s Mikitani didn’t mince words with his employees He was clear that he would demote people who didn’t develop their English proficiency. Employees resist. It’s not unusual to hear nonnative speakers revert to their own language at the expense of their English-speaking colleagues, often because it’s faster and easier to conduct meetings in their mother tongue. Others may take more aggressive measures to avoid speaking English, such as holding meetings at inopportune times. Employees in Asia might schedule a global meeting that falls during the middle of the night in England, for instance. In doing so, nonnative speakers shift their anxiety and loss of power to native speakers. Many FrenchCo employees said that when they felt that their relatively poor language skills could become conspicuous and have career-related consequences, they simply stopped contributing to common discourse. “They’re afraid to make mistakes,” an HR manager at the firm explains, “so they will just not speak at all.” In other cases, documents that are supposed to be composed in English may be written in the mother tongue—as experienced by Hans at GlobalTech—or not written at all. “It’s too hard to write in English, so I don’t do it!” one GlobalTech employee notes. “And then there’s no documentation at all.” Performance suffers. The bottom line takes a hit when employees stop participating in group settings. Once participation ebbs, processes fall apart. Companies miss out on new ideas that might have been generated in meetings. People don’t report costly errors or offer observations about mistakes or questionable decisions. One of the engineers at GlobalTech’s Indian office explained that when meetings reverted into German his ability to contribute was cut off. He lost important information—particularly in side exchanges—despite receiving meeting notes afterward. Often those quick asides contained important contextual information, background analyses, or hypotheses about the root cause of a particular problem. He neither participated in the meetings nor learned from the problem-solving discussions. An Adoption Framework Converting the primary language of a business is no small task. In my work I’ve developed a framework for assessing readiness and guidelines for adopting the shift. Adoption depends on two key factors employee buy-in and belief in capacity. Buy-in is the degree to which employees believe that a single language will produce benefits for them or the organization. Belief in their own capacity is the extent to which they are confident that they can gain enough fluency to pass muster. Even when language mandates are implemented with care and forethought, negative emotional and organizational dynamics can still arise. But their power to derail careers and company work can be significantly mitigated by adequately preparing people and systems for the change. Here are steps that companies can take to manage English-only policies. Involve all employees. Before a company introduces a global English policy, leaders should make a persuasive case for why it matters to employees and the organization. Employees must be assured that they will be supported in building their language skills. Companywide cultural-awareness training will help nonnative speakers feel heard and valued. Leaders should rally workers behind using English to accomplish goals, rather than learn it to meet proficiency standards. Managers are referees and enforcers. Managers must take responsibility for ensuring compliance, and they’ll need training in how to productively address sensitive issues arising from the radical change. Groups should set norms prescribing how members will interact, and managers should monitor behavior accordingly. For instance, managers should correct employees who switch into their mother tongue. Native speakers must level the playing field. Native speakers can learn to speak more slowly and simplify their vocabularies. They should refrain from dominating conversations and encourage nonnative speakers to contribute. Native speakers may need coaching on how to bring along less proficient colleagues who are working at a disadvantage. Nonnative speakers must comply. Nonnative speakers have a responsibility to comply with the global English policy and to refrain from reverting to their mother tongue, even in informal meetings or communications. More-aggressive actions that exclude or ostracize native speakers, such as scheduling meetings at inopportune times, should be strongly discouraged. The two dimensions combine to produce four categories of response to the change, as shown in the matrix “Four Types of Employee Response.” Ideally, employees would fall in what I call the “inspired” category—those who are excited about the move and confident that they can make the shift. They’re optimistic and likely to embrace the challenge. But undoubtedly, some employees will feel “oppressed.” Those people don’t think the change is a good idea, and they don’t think they’ll cut it. The reality is that without buy-in, employees won’t bother to brush up their language; without belief, they’ll lose hope. I’ve identified some guidelines managers can follow to help people along. Rakuten’s Mikitani has successfully implemented a version of this framework. Leaders and managers can help employees move from one box to another more easily than you might expect. There are fairly simple strategies that aid the shift, typically involving some combination of a strong psychological boost and practical training. To shift employees from “frustrated” to “inspired,” for instance, managers must offer constant encouragement and an array of language-development opportunities. To shift employees from “indifferent” to “inspired,” managers must work on improving buy-in—once these employees feel invested in the change, their skills will follow. Improving belief in capacity. Managers can use four strategies to help people boost their belief in their ability to develop language proficiency. Offer opportunities to gain experience with language. Whether through education, employment, or living abroad, experience tends to give people the confidence they need to succeed in this task. You can’t change past experience, but you can provide opportunities, such as overseas language training and job rotations, that open new doors and allow employees to stretch their skills. Rakuten has sent senior executives to English-speaking countries like the UK and the for full language immersion training. Employees have also been offered weeks-long language-training programs in the Philippines. Although not easily scalable to 7,100 Japanese employees, the programs successfully produced individuals with functional English skills. Rakuten also plans to send more than 1,000 engineers to technology conferences outside Japan. Foster positive attitudes. Attitudes are contagious People’s faith in their own capabilities grows when they see others around them—peers, managers, friends—having positive experiences with the radical change. The reverse is also true, unfortunately. Managers can model good risk-taking behaviors by showing that they too are trying new things, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes. Mikitani focused his personal attention on middle managers because he knew that collectively they could influence thousands of employees. He encouraged them to constantly improve their own language skills and even offered to teach them English himself if need be. Nobody took him up on the offer. He also encouraged managers to support their subordinates in their efforts to develop their language proficiency. Use verbal persuasion. Encouragement and positive reinforcement from managers and executives—simple statements like “You can do it” or “I believe in you”—make all the difference. To mitigate turnover threats at Rakuten, managers identified talent that the company wanted to retain and tailored special programs for them, all the while cheering them on. Also, Mikitani repeatedly assured his entire workforce that he would do everything in his power to help every employee meet his or her English-proficiency goals. He made it clear that he believes that with effort everyone can adequately learn the language of business and that he did not want to see anyone leave the company because of the English-only policy. Encourage good study habits. Companies need to contract with language vendors who specialize in helping employees at various levels of proficiency. The vendors need to be intimately familiar with the company context so that they can guide employees’ learning, from how best to allocate their time in improving skills to strategies for composing e-mails in English. Rakuten considers language development to be part of every job and grants people time during the workday to devote to it. Every morning, employees can be seen flipping through their study books in the company’s cafeteria or navigating their e-learning portals. Improving employee buy-in. Shifts in buy-in call for different measures. But they don’t operate in isolation Buy-in and belief go together. Strategies that can help people feel more confident include Messaging, messaging, and more messaging. Continual communication from the CEO, executives, and managers is critical. Leaders should stress the importance of globalization in achieving the company’s mission and strategy and demonstrate how language supports that. At Rakuten, Mikitani signaled the importance of the English-language policy to his entire organization relentlessly. For instance, each week some 120 managers would submit their business reports, and he would reply to each of them pushing them to develop their language skills. I surveyed employees before and after Rakuten implemented the adoption framework. Results indicated a dramatic increase in buy-in after Mikitani showed his employees that he was “obsessed and committed to Englishnization,” as he put it. The vast majority of the employees surveyed said that the policy was a “necessary” move. Encouragement from managers and executives—simple statements like “You can do it” or “I believe in you”—make all the difference. Internal marketing. Because a language transformation is a multiyear process whose complexity far exceeds most other change efforts, it is crucial to maintain employee buy-in over time. At Rakuten, the now-English intranet regularly features employee success stories with emphasis on best practices for increasing language competence. Companywide meetings are also held monthly to discuss the English-language policy. Branding. Managers should encourage people to self-identify as global rather than local employees. It’s difficult to develop a global identity with limited exposure to an international environment, of course. Rakuten tackled this challenge by instituting an enterprisewide social network to promote cross-national interactions. Employees now interact and engage with colleagues worldwide through the company’s social networking a universal English policy is not the end of leadership challenges posed by global communication. Using English as a business language can damage employee morale, create unhealthy divides between native and nonnative speakers, and decrease the overall productivity of team members. Leaders must avoid and soften these potential pitfalls by building an environment in which employees can embrace a global English policy with relative ease. In this way, companies can improve communication and collaboration. When I asked Mikitani what advice he’d give other CEOs when it comes to enforcing a one-language mandate, he was emphatic about discipline. CEOs need to be role models If they don’t stick to the program, nobody else will. Mikitani even holds one-on-one performance reviews with his top Japanese executives in English. “If you forgive a little,” he says, “you’ll give up everything.” Many global employees fear that an English-only policy will strip them of their cultural heritage. I propose an alternative point of view. The more people you can communicate with, the better positioned you are to spread your culture and your message. If people can’t understand what you’re saying, they can’t engage with your company or your brand. Mikitani doesn’t fear resistance. He believes, as I do, that you can counteract it—and ultimately bring about significant transformation in employees’ beliefs and buy-in. A global language change takes perseverance and time, but if you want to surpass your rivals, it’s no longer a matter of choice. A version of this article appeared in the May 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review. The benefit of a universal language English hasn’t always been the main language of science. Egyptian philosophers and stargazers told stories in hieroglyphs. Aristotle and Plato wrote books in Greek, which were then translated into Arabic by their followers. Then came the Romans – Pliny the Elder and Galen – writing in Latin. As the centuries passed, language evolved people were speaking and writing in Latin less often generally, favoring their native languages, like Italian and French. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Galileo published prolifically in Italian, translating his work into Latin to take it to a wider audience. According to Dr. Michael Gordin, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Princeton University, it was never a given that English would dominate science. He said in a radio interview “If you look around the world in 1900, and someone told you, Guess what the universal language of science will be in the year 2000?’ You would first of all laugh at them because it was obvious that no one language would be the language of science, but a mixture of French, German and English would be the right answer.” In his 2015 book Scientific Babel, in which Dr. Gordin explores the history of language and science, he says German was the dominant language in 1900. “So the story of the 20th century is not so much the rise of English as the serial collapse of German as the up-and-coming language of scientific communication,” he explained. So it wasn’t until the 20th century – and World War I in particular – that English really started to dominate; the strong US influence on science had a big part to play in this rise, according to Dr. Gordin. The benefit of a universal language Before English became dominant, scientific publications were roughly equally split between French, German and English. This posed something of a problem if scientists weren’t multilingual, they would miss out on others’ discoveries. With a universal language, researchers know what to expect, and how to find information. They know what language to publish in and how to search for other people’s articles that support their own work. Beyond published research, a universal language also helps make sure everyone has access to information in presentations, guidelines, and standards. But it also gives millions of researchers a challenge if they’re not native English speakers, they need to learn a new language alongside their scientific studies. English speaking countries no longer dominate science Brazil, Russia, India, and China are fastest growing in terms of the number of research publications they produce, according to Elsevier’s book World of Research. For thousands of researchers in these countries, writing in English is difficult. With tough acceptance criteria, journal editors and reviewers look at submissions critically, so the language needs to be good. This is a stumbling block for some, but with professional translation and editing support, researchers from anywhere in the world can have an equal chance of getting published in English. Will the language of science be the same in 100 years? We don’t know that yet. China is outpacing the world in its published research output and, just like the rise in US science did a century ago, this could have a big impact on how we communicate about science.

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