Wall Street Journal Article on Correcting Business Students' English---My Idea, Take them to Bars

How Students From Abroad Learn to Talk the Talk


"Now, North Carolina is rolling out a program called Honing Executive English Language Skills, or Heels (a catchy acronym to Tar Heels fans). It requires all of its foreign M.B.A. students -- more than a quarter of the class -- to take an oral and written test when they arrive on campus. The students are rated on a nine-point scale based on their accent, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and other factors. To boost their scores, students can pay a fee to take special classes taught by linguists that focus on speaking English in a business context...



"In the HEELS classes at North Carolina, students are grouped by their native regions, such as Western Europe, East Asia, South Asia, Africa or Latin America, because they tend to share similar problems with accent and pronunciation. The program also addresses nonverbal communication and body language, which may vary from culture to culture. The classes attempt to change behavior that might be misinterpreted by U.S. managers, co-workers or clients. "For example, a U.S. recruiter would expect direct eye contact and a firm handshake," says Mindy Storrie, interim director of Kenan-Flagler's career management center, "but that isn't a universal norm in other countries' business dealings."...


"In addition to the English classes, North Carolina offers courses for international M.B.A. students on American culture -- from sports and entertainment to the origin of slang expressions -- and on U.S. business communication, including practice exercises for impromptu speeches, team presentations, boardroom pitches and employee performance reviews...


"While North Carolina's courses are among the most comprehensive, other schools are also expanding programs to help foreign students prepare for careers in the U.S. The University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business, where nearly half of the M.B.A. class is international, offers an English-language and U.S.-culture program that includes language instruction and trips to museums, theaters and sports events."


Here's my take. These foreign business students are, in a sense, trying to create models of what an American business co-worker is inside their heads. Once they do that, they can imitate that model and thus build rapport. The problem, from my perspective is that they are trying to model "half" a person. That is to say, they are trying to build a model of people by only looking at one side.

This idea was triggered by the last quoted paragraph: talking about taking them to museums, theaters, and sports events. This struck me is not a very effective way to achieve the desired goal. Better would be to take them to bars and allow them to see something of the "other side" of Americans.

One could argue that bars are themselves a somewhat artificial venue, but the point is, it is difficult to inject foreign business students into America in a real way. One key element of a bar is---it is publicly accessible. I would send in two-person teams consisting of one foreign business student at one American "expert" in bars. The job of the American would be: first of all, to keep the person safe; secondly, try to prevent too much emotional damage; and third, provide an opportunity for real exposure to Americans completely outside a business context.

It has to be one foreign student at a time or else they will circle the wagons.