The current pandemic does not only bring global health issues but also has a negative effect on the economy – die Wirtschaft. Another shift is becoming visible now. In the wake – inmitten – of the pandemic many industries experience a labour shortage – der Arbeitskräftemangel. This has far reaching consequences like supply chain disruptions – die Unterbrechung der Versorgungskette. As the economies reopen many workers quit – kündigen – roles and demand – die Nachfrage – rises.

Why do we have a labour shortage?

One factor behind the labour shortage are changing demographics. For example, many poeple are leaving into early retirement – frühzeitige Rente. Many people experienced the benefits of home office during the pandemic. And the thought of returning to the office is not an attractive one. Additonally, a slower birth rate means that less younger workers are entering the workforce – die Belegschaft/ die Arbeitskräfte. On top of that, border controls and immigration limitations and demands for better pays and more flexible working arrangements – die Arbeitsvereinbarungen – have an influence on the job market. Latest surveys – die Umfrage – show that more poeple are willing to switch employment or walk out on a job. In the US the so-called quits-rate rose to 4.3 million.

The sectors that are effected the most are accomodation and food services – die Gastronomie -, wholesale trade – der Großhandel – and governement education – die Bildung.

Key industries struggle to keep up with demand due to a lack of workers and raw materials. This disrupts global as well as local production. Furthermore, it hampers – beeinträchtigen – economic growth. And leads to a product and service shortage for customers. Experts state that while the pandemic is accentuating – etw hervorheben – the labour shortage the problems started beforehand. One reason might be, that workers have built up savings – das Ersparte – buffers and dont feel the urgency – die Dringlichkeit – to return to work.

What it means for the future…

In the UK the situation has been exacerbated – verschärfen – by Brexit. The many foreign workers the country relied on – sich verlassen – have left the UK. Industries that are effected most are meat production, transporttation and agriculture – die Landwirtschaft. This has led to a shortage of fuel at as stations. This situation could go on longer than expected at the moment. Not only that, it could mean that companies have to raise pay in order to keep their current staff – das Personal.

In order to stop redundancies – die Entlassung – during the pandemic governements have introduced furlough – Urlaub, Freistellung – and subsidized – bezuschussen – worker´s earnings. The situation could mean one good thing for job seekers. Namely, more leverage – das Druckmittel – to negotiate for better pay and conditions in the future.

This week´s business English blog post deals with advertising strategies – this is a step by step plan to reach customers – der Kunde – and convince –jdn überzeugen – them to buy specific products. A well-planned strategy might help a company to sell more products than their competitors – der Konkurrent. But, its important to adapt the strategy to the product and the market. An advertising strategy that worked for a product in the past might not be the right choice for a campaign at present. People change their perspective and with that their requirements – Ansrpüche. Planning an advertising strategy is a creative process. In order to launch an effective advertisement campaign you need to understand your business and your target audience – die Zielgruppe.

Steps to an effective advertising strategy

Determine the purpose – der Zweck – the first decision is to decide why you want to advertise. To boost sales? Or to launch a new product? To increase tarffic on the website or foot traffic?

Determine the target audience – this is a crucial – maßgeblich – step. Companies create a profile of the customer that is supposed to buy the product and create the campaign around their interests.

Decide on advertising budget size – it is essential to decide on the budget size before deciding on an advertising strategy

Select media and schedule – there are a few media outlets – Medienkanäle – a company can choose to advertise their product. Such as print media, digital media, direct mails, radio advertising, trade shows, outdoor medias (billboards, posters)

Implement – etw. umsetzen – advertising program – implementing the advertising strategy is referred to as an advertising campaign. It is important to have consistency – Übereinstimmung – when advertising a product on different platforms.

Measure – etw messen – effectiveness – the effectiveness can be measured by the return on investment you get by implementing an advertising strategy.

Different types

• seasonal advertising – this means advertising a product during a specific season, for example, around christmas.
• social media advertising – this is one of the most popular advertising strategies used in order to stay in contact with customers. This way people can not only learn about a companies new product or service but also interact with the company.
• ownership advertising – here a company makes their customers participate in the ad itself. For example, Coca Cola asked people to share a selfie wih their coke bottle.
• modeling advertising strategy – this means to make use of a celebrity or famous person to advertise a product
• utility advertising strategy – advertising a product by helping people achieve their goals.
• evocation advertising strategy – this strategy grabs the attention of potential customers by evoking – etw. hervorrufen -strong emotions. Thus companies create a positive image of their brand – die Marke.

Every week we provide you with a new topic and with it useful vocabulary and idioms. This week it is time to vote – wählen! The German federal election – die Bundestagswahl – is coming up on Sunday, September 26th and we have a few interesting facts for you.

A quick history on votes

Elections have been the main means by which modern democracy has operated since the 17th century. But elections have been held long before that, in ancient Greece and Rome. These were used to select – auswählen – rulers and the pope. Suffrage – das Wahlrecht – is typically only for citizens of the country. But the question who is allowed to vote is crucial to the process of elections. The electorate – die Wählerschaft – does not automatically include everyone. In Australia, for example, the Aboriginal people were only allowed to vote after 1962. And for a long time only male citizens in general were allowed to vote. In many countries this is still the situation.

In order to convert a vote into a political decision we need an electoral system – ein Wahlsystem. There are different counting systems and ballot types – proportional, majoritarian – nach Mehrheit – and mixed systems. In most elections the secret ballot – geheime Abstimmung – is now considered crucial for a free and fair result. Furthermore, elected officials are accountable – rechenschaftspflichtig – to the people and must therefore return at prescribed intervals to be reelcted. But there are different schedules for different countries – for instance, the president of the US is elected for four years, the president of Ireland for seven years and the president of France for five years.

Sometimes an election is in danger of being rigged – hier: manipulieren. As a result, the winning party might not actually have the trust of the majority of the electorate. Furthermore, a sham election – die Scheinwahl – is held purely for show while the outcome has already been decided in advance.

My vote for this years election

The last German federal election took place 4 years ago in 2017. Evey German citizen who is at least 18 years old is eligible – hier: berechtigt – to vote. Everyone has the opportunity to vote per postal vote – Briefwahl. On top of that, right now politicians and their supporters attempt to win voters over to their side by campaigning – Wahlkampf. The city of Leipzig is full with campaign posters by the top candidates – Spitzenkandidat:in. And in order to keep track on how your candidate is doing people can consult opinion polls – Meinungsumfrage. Of course, people can also abstain – sich enthalten – from their vote.

Every week we present you with an interesting topic, useful English vocabulary and idioms. This week our blog is all about social media.

The sector – die Branche – is relatively new but has rapidly grown over the last few years. And with that also came a new job, namely the social media expert. This is someone who is well versed – versiert, bewandert – in marketing through social media channels. Someone who monitors site metrics, responds to reader comments and oversees creative designs. They are responsible for creating and administering – verwalten – content on different social media platforms. Furthermore, social media is an important tool used to create brand awareness – Markenbekannheit – and to enhance a company´s name recogntion – der Bekannheitsgrad.

Advantages and Disadvantages of social media

A challenge for businesses use of social media are raised customer expectations. They want immediacy – Unmittelbarkeit – and expect interesting new ideas to promote a product or a service. Businesses should be aware of these expectations. It is also important to have a plan for handling negative comments. And last but not least, social media experts need to make sure that the represent their company in a professional way.

Learn English every day – a new topic every week! This week we collected interesting facts and new vocabularies about the ongoing – derzeitig – space race – Wettlauf ins All – between billionaires. Elon Musk wants to fly to Mars. Richard Branson plans to establish space tourism – Weltraumtourismus. And Jeff Bezos dreams of colonising the moon- Mondkolonie.

Online English Course – The space industry

Half a century ago space opened up with the moon landing. Then it was a race between the US and Russia to be the first one on the moon. Now, however, its getting more crowded and highly commercial. About 72 countries have a space programme – Weltraumprogramm. Amongst others India, Brazil, Japan and Canada. After the US the UK is boasting – etw. aufweisen – the most private space startups. Right now the number of rocket flights is still quite low – the whole of 2020 saw 114 attempted – versucht – orbital launches in the world. Up til now the focus on space transportation has been on cargo supply – Frachtlieferung. But this is supposed to change.

The Race off the Earth

More and more, also non-state people play a bigger role in exploring what is out there. Entrepreneurs – Unternehmer – that enter the space industry from outside, especially computing. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each have their own space programme. And the billionaires plans are ambitious – ehrgeizig.

On Sunday, July 11th Richard Branson became the first man who flew into space aboard a rocket he helped fund – finanzieren. It took him and four members of his crew to the edge – der Rand – of outer space. Today on Tuesday, July 20th is the day Jeff Bezos is set to follow him. The Amazon founder – Gründer – also has his own rocket that is supposed to fly him and three more crew members to suborbital space and back. And while Elon Musk has no plans to follow them himself (at least not this year), he is due – fällig – to send his all-civilian crew into orbit later this year.

Start saving for a ticket now!

Recently I attended this years’ BESIG conference in Malta. As well as meeting very interesting people who also work within the English language world, I really enjoyed some of the talks and workshops. On top of this, I was able to take a bit of free-time on the beautiful Mediterranean island to enjoy its beauty, culture, history and good weather

For me there were two talks that stood out, the first was by Helen Spencer-Oatley, Professor and Director of the Centre of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick. Her talk was about her research in the interrelationship between Culture, language and business relations.
She broke it up into small digestible bite size parts, the first focused on models used for intercultural competencies and how all of them all agree that one of the key elements is communication. But she highlighted the fact that they are almost always lacking the information of which components are needed to communicate effectively across cultures. She gave us some useful tips on building frameworks to address this gap.
In the second part, Helen spoke about the impact that culture can have on Business relationships and culture. She explained that in the past, cultural understanding has often been based on such things as values, high/low power distance as well as individualism/collectivism even though recent studies have shown there are limitations to these factors.
The final part, which I found useful, looked at tools out there of which many are free for educators and learners alike. These tools are a great source to encourage and create awareness and skills to help us communicate effectively across cultures.
After her talk, I was lucky enough to steal a bit of her time to discuss my interest and work in multicultural communications. I explained to her, that in my opinion, many of my clients and other companies cannot only think inter-culturally but more multi-culturally due to there often being participants in meetings, teams etc from many nationalities and cultures. She said that she agreed with my points and would like to talk about it with me further, so hopefully we will find time to sit down together and brainstorm ideas on how we can make these frameworks work across the multicultural board!

The second talk, by Allesia COGO, had a really big impact on me to the point that we will be re-thinking some of our concepts for next year. It was about Business English as the Lingua Franca (BELF) and its implications on Business communication and in turn on Business English training.
She spoke about how we cannot dispute the fact that English has become the international Lingua Franca, but the English language no longer belongs only to the Native speakers such as the Brits, American, Australians or the New Zealanders but actually to all those that speak it.
Due to this she spoke about how practitioners and teachers need to plan differently to ensure their clients are learning what is necessary for them. She gave some very good tips on how we can give our clients a usable English, quicker than we can with traditional methods that do not take globalization into account.
Another valid point that she made was, we should not forget that efficiency is more important than accuracy especially when 2 non-natives are communicating with each other. Meaning they do not need to spend a lot of time reducing their accents or learning every element of grammar they should focus on being able to react quickly and explain something clearly.
As I said, this talk had such an impact on me that I have decided to create a BELF course for my clients starting early 2018. Watch this space!!

Here is a short video, with some of the delegates giving their feedback: