A couple in the Hsinchu, Taiwan Science Park enrolled their children in a DreyerCoaching Summer Camp a few years ago. Pleased with the results, the dad (to respect his privacy, we will call him “Wayne”) then joined DreyerCoaching classes too to improve his career prospects.
This is his story.
Wayne worked in a high-tech company in the Science Park and he often had to interact with foreigners in English. Several times each year he had to travel overseas with work, and many other times he had one-on-one or group phone calls. All this interaction with foreign customers or partners was done in English. Wayne had to speak with people from the US and UK, so those people’s accents varied widely. To make things more challenging, some other people were from France, Brazil, Japan, Italy, or elsewhere, so they spoke English with their own accents. Furthermore, by speaking over the phone, he could not see the other speakers and thus could not see any body language or context clues.
Simply put, Wayne struggled with the English, especially when he traveled. He told me as long as he was using English to discuss his company, the project, or technology, he felt comfortable. The vocabulary and content were familier to him. However, each evening when the meetings were over, he felt miserable.
Everyone would gather in a lounge or restaurant for what is called “small talk.” Having worked hard all days in meetings, most people wanted to relax and discuss fun topics. But for Wayne, all the “small talk” was not relaxing…. It was torture!
“I have a hard time understanding what they are saying!” he told me in desperation. “I know they are talking about their families or travel or the weather or sports or economics, but they keep jumping from one topic to another and I don’t have enough vocabulary and background knowledge to keep up with the conversations!”
In addition to the difficult conversations, Wayne struggled with reading and writing emails in English, and he had to write all his business reports in English, Even though he worked for a Taiwanese company in Taiwan, all internal written communication in that company had to be in English….Boss’s orders!
Sensing Wayne’s frustration, I suggested he enroll in a DreyerCoaching one-on-one Business English class. To serve as his personal guide to give him customized instruction, DreyerCoaching teacher Nancy Rosenbaum met with him weekly and helped him with “small talk,” listening, pronunciation, writing…whatever Wayne needed help with that week.
Over the months and years, with Nancy Rosenbaum as his guide, Wayne’s English got better step by step! Eventually, Wayne got to the point where he felt like a pro reading and writing English emails, writing reports, joining conference calls with different accents from all over the world…and even engaging in that “small talk.” Success!
Once Mrs. Rosenbaum and I were talking about Wayne, and she told me this amazing and encouraging story Wayne had told her earlier. Here it is below, as she wrote it.
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Wayne held a high-level position in an electronics manufacturing firm that did international business. He regularly had dealings in different areas of the US, the UK, as well as Taiwan. Because he was in some informal situations as well as very formal ones, he was interested in developing skills to make a favorable impression that would encourage good relationships with lots of different people in a more casual situation. Some of the situations were things like waiting in a hall area for the doors to a meeting to open, minutes after a lunch when people are standing around, chit-chatting with each other and being friendly, and waiting to start again. If, after a meeting or session, a group of people were going to relax and have drinks, it was an accomplishment to be invited along to join the group informally (and a good way to network informally). (People like to do business with people they know, even if they only know them a little it helps). We usually practiced the art of small talk a little at the beginning of class almost every time and sometimes at the end, to get the idea and get a little practice. Favorite/ safe topics: weather, sports, good restaurants, good vacation trips, and of course, NO politics and NO religion.
One year Wayne and another high-level officer of the company attended the yearly new technology/electronics products convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. People come from all over the world to attend this . After a day at the convention hotel, they decided to rent a car and go out into the Las Vegas area in the evening. They got lost in the evening dark, on unfamiliar roads, in Las Vegas, trying to get back to the hotel. Their driving got the attention of the local police who stopped them. The man with Wayne had hardly any English skills, so Wayne took the initiative to talk to the officer, explained to him, in English of course, what the situation was. The colleague with Wayne was extremely worried about the police stopping them especially since he didn’t know much English, but after talking to Wayne, the officer told him how to get back to the hotel and let them follow him to the road they needed.
This might not have had quite as smooth an outcome if Wayne had not been confident enough and had enough practice to pull out his English in a new, unstructured situation and use it. The man with him was pretty impressed, and Wayne was pretty happy with the outcome too.
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So there you have it. Happy Ending! We helped Wayne overcome his fears and achieve success.
Do you want to see if DreyerCoaching can help you, your team, or your family too?
Take the next step and contact Scott today to find out more!