English Standard For Foreign Trade Personnel

I see a lot of friends who do foreign trade or will do foreign trade, there are such doubts -- what kind of English level should foreign trade personnel have?

If someone answers a level Four, six or eight, I will immediately say that this person is definitely not a good business.

First of all, his judgment is problematic. Secondly, his cognitive ability is problematic.

How can careless judgement and superficial one-sided cognition be a good foreign trade personnel?

As we all know, the four, six or eight levels are mainly tested in written English, though they also involve listening tests, but their standards are too low.

It can be said that through the eight level of hearing tests, CCTV-9 news may not even understand or do not fully understand.

Of course, this is a long story, in the final analysis, related to China's rigid educational system.

Moreover, English is a language, not just a written language. Since it is a language, it must be heard by ear, mouth and communication.

If these two points fail to be realized, we will lose judgement and cognition.

For a foreign trade personnel, its work attributes are: communicating with foreign customers, communicating with the internal parties, dealing with various aspects of market development or order management, to a large extent, having more opportunities for written communication, but absolutely communicating with customers in telephone, video conferences or face-to-face talks.

In different companies and different levels of business, the proportion of written and oral English used by salesmen varies.

What standards should be written in writing?

First of all, grammar must be solid.

However, what I am lamenting is that if I have interviewed many of the foreign trade workers who have worked with me, my suppliers and other channels in the past six years, if I get a full score of 100, I can score 70 points without more than 5 people.

In addition to these 5, many of them still have confidence in taking the eight certificate to deal with my interview. There are also several masters, as well as several years of English Teaching in the Foreign Language Institute.

It is a pity that I can make them stumped by a simple sentence.

I remember every time I wrote a plation question at the recruitment meeting in Shanghai and Suzhou, I would like to write here: I am honored to be an oral plator of your company.

Applicants are required to be plated into English and written to me on paper.

There are many ways to plate this sentence, but I dare say that 70% of the people can not guarantee that their plation grammar is completely correct.

Just now, there are eight certificates, master's degree and College English lecturers. They will blush when they see that their plation is written out by mistake.

I am not saying that I am great, I am not fierce, but my grammar is very solid. I am saying that this phenomenon is so common that I feel very uncomfortable.

Someone wants to say: learning English well, grammar is not important!

I think this friend must be influenced by some slogans of some oral training schools in recent years.

But what I want to say is that you have understood these slogans unilaterally. Actually, these slogans have only one intention: it is to encourage you to open your mouth.

What is grammar?

Grammar is the rule of language.

English grammar, small to morphology, to syntax, is the criterion for organizing words and phrases.

If there is no grammar, or can play it by themselves, everyone can learn written English well, but oral English is simpler, but they are actually not English.

I think English is the only creative place. There are two points: first, you can replace words in words, for example, when you are not familiar with a word, you can use synonyms or synonyms; in other words, you can choose long and short sentences according to the context requirements, and choose various kinds of mood, voice, sentence patterns, clauses, etc.

Besides, English is dead!

If others can "live", then English will be even more difficult to learn. 100 people will learn 100 kinds of English, they can not read or understand.

So, learning English must speak grammar.

Everyone has different degrees of English learning, and the degree of grammar mastery is of course different.

What kind of written level should we have for foreign trade personnel?

My view is that writing must be good, very good.

The reason is very simple. As mentioned before, for most foreign trade personnel, there are more opportunities for written communication with foreign customers, including e-mail, fax and MSN.

Do not neglect the quotations, PI and other documents you made, all of which reflect your written English level.

Think of it from a customer's point of view. No matter which country's customers, if you see a salesman in a Chinese company, there is an English grammar error in the mail or file, will you be cool?

Don't you have any doubt about the ability or other aspects of this company or salesperson?

But the extent of doubt depends on the number of errors.

On the contrary, if he can not see a mistake, grammar clear, beautiful, or even some authentic, do not there is more reason to feel reliable?

Speaking of oral English, for a foreign trade personnel, I think that we must not be forced to speak fluent, authentic and beautiful. That is the oral expression requirement for professional interpreters and even simultaneous interpreters, but at least:

If you can understand foreign customers, you can understand or understand most of the accents of some accent non English speaking countries. Two, you can make others understand your pronunciation, so pronunciation must be standard or near standard.

I have seen one of the worst salesmen in English, but he is an excellent salesman. His written language is poor and his spoken language is poor.

When making phone calls to clients, his own spoken sentences were read by his colleagues in the office as "quotes". Every time, they could cause laughter and laughter for a long time.

At the Canton Fair, the customer sat down with him and talked for more than 2 hours. In the end, he told me that almost half of the customers said he didn't understand.

But at the key point, he can grasp it, 2 hours later, a few cabinet orders can be signed.

Others are also diligent, and do not understand where they go back. They also have written confirmation with their clients. Moreover, he is still very conscientious, conscientious and responsible in his work.

Of course, I give a real but also the worst example of oral English. I want to see my friends' oral English should be better than him.

Therefore, for most of the foreign trade friends, oral communication can be done, but if there are defects, if we can assist sign language, facial expression, written demonstration and confirmation, we can make up to a large extent, so that it will not affect your business, because a good salesman depends on careful handling of affairs, positive communication attitude, good customer service consciousness and excellent foreign trade knowledge, which are much more important than spoken English.

Of course, if spoken language is good, it will increase the weight of your business success, and let the customers look up to you, and increase your confidence and the pleasure of foreign trade work.

There are many people who say, "don't speak grammar," I want to say: oral grammar is wrong, more grammatical errors than written language, because mistakes in written language are blasphemous to each other's eyes; oral mistakes are blasphemous, blasphemous ears, and blasphemy in face.

No matter in written English or oral English, grammar is string of beads, to some extent, beads are words.

Of course, what I am talking about here is syntax, which is very necessary for professional plators.

What is the standard of good spoken language?

In order: one grammar is in place, two pronunciation is accurate, three language speed is natural, four sentence patterns are fluent and not miscellaneous and colloquial as far as possible. Five will have some daily slang or idiomatic sentences. Six can have a round American accent or orthodox London.

Speaking of the sixth point, I prefer American English. If you pronounce the standard correctly, but if you don't speak English well, I ask you a little bit: do you have a backward sense of pronunciation?

If you want to hear it, rely on it.

Many friends in my work and life ask me how to learn English well.

I take the liberty to conclude with one sentence: first, raise your level of written and spoken Chinese, and second, learn English grammar well. (I suggest buying the practical English grammar of thin ice, I think it is the best grammar book at present). Three, remember the words carefully, four thick skins, bold and cautious, listen to more mouths!

In short, for foreign trade personnel, written English is less grammatical (word / syntax) errors, oral communication with customers can be good!

Attention, I'm talking about standards.

That is to say, some people fail to meet the standards, some people just reach the standard, others will exceed the standard.

If you are the front of the "some people", happens to have 468 certificates in hand, suggest you immediately burn them all, otherwise it is blaspheming this article.

Ha-ha!