Our new course Advanced English Skills for International Business is all about writing plain English in business, and writing it well. Writing good English will give you and your company, the competitive edge. This means using words that are universally understood and avoiding jargon. Understanding the basic rules will enable you to pitch your ideas successfully to others, to grow in personal development and to shine and impress through the quality of your words.

English is not the world’s first language in terms of the number of people who speak it. That honour goes to Mandarin Chinese. Nor is it the second language; that one is Spanish. English is the world’s third language but with one important difference. Unlike the first two, which are spoken mostly by people for whom their language is also their mother tongue, English is far more widely spoken as a second language than as a first language.

It is estimated that more than one billion people around the world speak English of which only 350 million speak it as a first language. This includes around 63 million in the UK, another 200 million in the United States, 35 million in Canada and 30 million in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific).

Despite the small number of countries for which English is the first language, there are more than 50 other countries in which English is an official second language. This includes the Caribbean and much of Asia. Why? Because English is the language of international business. If you want to be understood throughout the world, chances are you will be communicating in English.

And if you want to do business around the world, then you will need to communicate in written English and in a manner that is readily understood.

That introduces another problem: because of the global nature of English, it continues to evolve in different ways. If we want to be understood no matter with whom we are communicating we need not only business English but also plain English—a form of English in which we can communicate readily, not only within our own organization but also around the world (Figure 1).

From the Introduction to ‘Advanced English Skills for International Business’

Training Manual | Advanced English Skills for International Business