Málfríður - 15.09.1995, Síða 19

worth remembering here that
the goal is to be understood,
not to be a university professor.
The goal in pronouncing is also
to be understood and not nec-
essarily to sound like a dupli-
cate of an American or a Brit.
Icelanders do not learn English,
for instance, just to talk to Brits
and Americans. The letters they
get from Germans, Scandi-
navians and others are usually
not in perfect English but the
meaning is clear. Getting the
message across is what matters.
All this adds up to distinct
advantages in learning some
basic business language. Here is
a chance, for instance, to check
on grammar problems and
encourage communication
Skills. Can the students really
talk about where and when to
meet or where and when they
expect something to happen?
Can they introduce each other?
Using a variety of teaching
methods has the advantage of
keeping the students interested
and giving them something to
do. Not incidentally, a variety of
approaches keeps me from
going stale in a subject I have
taught for decades. Scenarios;
writing business letters, faxes,
and memos; grammar exercises;
short reports, both oral and
written; answering short ques-
tions - I use them all to supple-
ment lecture material.
Scenarios have worked well.
I’ve written them to take from
initially, a few minutes (intro-
duce yourself to your neighbor)
to two hours (negotiate a con-
tract). I give the students a
clear goal each time (for exam-
ple, should a firm publish a new
set of English textbooks?) and,
as necessary, suggested vocab-
ulary and phrases. Most require
a written memo at the end, sum-
ming up the results of the dus-
cussion and the steps agreed
on. I’ve already given them
examples of good and bad
memos, of course, so that here
is yet another chance to teach
them to organize their thoughts
on paper. Some of the scenarios
are done in pairs, others can
involve more students, but all
emphasize participation. I’ve
had excellent response with
these. For the longer ones I lis-
ten in and go around helping as
necessary. Afterwards it’s possi-
ble to talk to the class as a
whole about certain difficulties
they had, or to say how well
they have done (it’s very good
to let them preen a bit).
The main international busi-
ness terms are set forth by the
International Chamber of
Commerce and therefore called
INCO terms. The Verslunarráð
has materials in English to
explain all of them, including
shorter explanations with color-
ful diagrams. They are also
explained in Viðauki IV in the
Ensk-íslensk viðskiptaorðabók.
The chief ones for Iceland are
FOB and CIF.
English grammar problems
are basic. Here we are dealing
directly with language differ-
ence, the building blocks of
English that are not like Ice-
landic. These problems are a
standard part of intermediate
level English but can also be
taught using sentences and
vocabulary that businessmen
regularly use. In fact, the first
nine exercises in Viðskipta-
enska, Málfræðiœfingar með
svörum (2nd. edition, Fram-
tíðarsýn, 1995) deal with basic
problems. I have yet to teach a
class that already knew how to
use at, in, and on properly in
the most needed phrases in-
volving space and time.
(Recently I’ve had to correct
tourist literature that promised:
“The bus stops in the Blue
Lagoon“!) There are several
exercises in the book covering
the use of these little trouble-
makers as well as other com-
mon bug-a-boos such as
for/ago/since and “she’s a thirty
year old woman.“
Different countries use differ-
ent styles for setting up busi-
ness letters. Unfortunately one
of the key business differences
between British and American
is the format of a letter, includ-
ing the salutation and compli-
mentary close (ávarps- og
kveðjuorð). Note that it makes a
difference whether you know a
person’s name or not; use the
name of the addressee if you
know it. These forms are clearly
stated in Viðauki V in the same
dictionary and explained clearly
in Icelandic, along with other
important information, in the
first part of Ensk viðskiptabréf
(Framtíðarsýn, 1994). The latter
book also includes information
on setting up a fax, today an
integral part of business com-
munication.
Teaching pronunciation can
be trickier. Despite how often I
point it out, nobody wants to
bother to pronounce v in
English and to keep v and w
separate. If the students could
only hear how foolish they
sound when they miss! I’ve
often wished that more empha-
sis was placed earlier on the
sounds that English speakers
find most troubling in listening
to Icelanders: v/w and the
sounds often written as s, z, sh,
ch, dge, and g as in beige. These
“v“ and “s“ sounds are also
ones that Europeans in general
need to hear pronounced
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