How many words should I know before entering an international business conversation?

Before speaking in a foreign language, the first concern for many is: I do not know enough words. So, how many words should I know to feel confident during a conversation?

If we start thinking about it, we have the same problem in our native language. We may feel inhibited by not being as eloquent as our car mechanic, tax lawyer or IT specialist.

For German, the Duden dictionary company searched their text databases and found more than 17 million distinctive words. Most of them are rare words and/or technical words, of course. No native speaker knows all words in his or her native language.

Conversations, even concrete ones, are really open-ended, unpredictable situations. We cannot know for sure in advance everything that will be asked or said.

That is why, even in the age of AI, students are still afraid of exams, job applicants are anxious before a job interview and spouses worldwide have misunderstandings.

Therefore, we will never know all the words than can be possibly said during a given conversation.

The question should be: What would be the 10-50 most important words (=concepts, expressions) in an upcoming conversation? What are the crucial words used by our counterparts to express their concerns, expectations or beliefs?

You could do such an exercise with the help of AI, giving it as many details on the meeting as possible. However, you should be training your mind to do this exercise on your own, because, in real life, new situations appear often so quickly that you cannot ask Chat GPT fast enough.

This exercise will have the following positive side effects:

In a foreign language, you will learn new vocabulary in a more focused way, instead of wasting your energy on learning irrelevant and generic words. At least, you will learn new words in the right order, that is according to relevance and urgency.

You will focus on becoming “fluent” and comfortable with using fewer keywords, but words that matter to your counterpart.

You will take more often the perspective of your counterparts, trying to put yourself in their shoes, thereby increasing empathy and the chances of successful communication.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

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Want to get rid of insecurity and bad feelings regarding the foreign language(s) you have already started to learn? Want to learn a new language, without going through various levels of standard courses? You feel you are making no progress?

Go to Amazon and grab a copy of my classic book ”The GO Method – breaking barriers to language learning”.

https://www.amazon.com/GO-Method-Breaking-barriers-language/dp/1973118688/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZLMGYKR6PDY3&keywords=Gerhard+Ohrband&qid=1694099394&sprefix=gerhard+ohrband+%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-1

Get the first two chapters for free by subscribing to Gerhard's weekly newsletter, with advice and resources on selling in foreign languages. Just click here.

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Do you feel a bit insecure when doing business internationally, maybe even in a foreign language?

Profit from new strategies, insights and techniques that will make you use foreign languages more successfully in international business communication.

Get rid of fear of mistakes and blocks during trade shows, presentation and sales calls.

Gerhard Ohrband is a communication consultant, psychologist and author of 9 books from Hamburg/Germany. He speaks 10 languages fluently and assists individuals and companies in doing business in foreign languages.

 

 

 


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