English is a piece of cake. Is it?

Let's face the facts: English is a must. Everybody speaks it. Regardless of what you do and in which area of business you work, you need this language. It has become a second mother tongue for almost all the population at productive age.?

Therefore, it is important and necessary to strive for continuous improvement of your level of the language. The more you use it, the deeper your knowledge should be.

BUT: When do you know that you know enough? And when you think you know enough, is it really so?

No matter how you learn, you must understand that with the language itself you also learn the culture.

Being aware of all the nuances, tiny details and shades makes you far more competitive on the labour market, compared to someone who does not aim for further development and claims present tenses and 500 hundred words are what they need.

Surely, expectations can stop us as well as motivate us to learn. If you see your boss studying, you are more likely to be willing to follow their example. Individual expectations should meet the reality and reflect an overall setting within a company.

At The Bridge, where all the colleagues speak English, we do not only work on making it better, but we also keep on learning other foreign languages.

In our team, there are people from various countries, ready to motivate one another not only during teacher development sessions, but also within classes or team-building activities aimed at improving certain skills:

"English is one of the key skills, along with digital skills, communication and emotional intelligence."

Of course, all are relevant and equally important.

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As for the knowledge of English, mastering the language requires an open mind and constant evaluation of own progress.

Our colleague responsible for projects mentioned the following:

"I thought my English skills were strong because I had studied the language. However, after interacting with teachers from various backgrounds, I realized there were nuances in stylistics and tone that I needed to work on. Some phrases I used, which seemed fine to me, could come across as too direct or rude. I started to see the importance of understanding cultural and contextual differences in communication, which goes beyond just grammar and vocabulary. Mastering a language also means being aware of how others perceive it and adjusting to communicate effectively and politely."

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And this is something that makes a difference.

Written by: Kamila Jancikova