WOW! - week 2

The word of the week is:

VERBOSE - This means language characterized by the use of many or too many words.
We also use the word "wordy" to mean using more words than are necessary.
For instance, this week I came upon this in a job ad for a salesperson:
"May include out bounding to drive current penetration in retention and development accounts."
This is too verbose. In fact it is bad business English because it is too difficult to understand.
Business English is language used to make sure that everyone knows what is going on in a transaction. It would be better to say "May include calling current and potential customers"

WOW!

Announcing the launch of WOW! - my word of the week. These will be words that are useful in the workplace or may be used in job interviews
The word for this week is:

ESCALATE - Dictionary.com says this:

"1.to increase in intensity, magnitude, etc.: to escalate a war; a time when prices escalate.

2.to raise, lower, rise, or descend on or as if on an escalator."

but here are some meanings more specific to the worlplace:
If you need a decision made by someone more senior than yourself, then you are escalating the question, decision, or issue.
In accounting software, there is usually a rule somewhere that says that the authority to approve an invoice over a specified amount "escalates to" a specified person who has more authority.

In a job interview, you may be asked "Tell me about a time when you had to escalate an issue to your boss?" or "Have you ever had to escalate to your boss's boss?"

There is an interesting article by Jeff Lash about when to escalate and when not:

http:/www.goodproductmanager.com/2007/05/09/learn-how-to-escalate-issues/

Should my teenage children have a tutor?

A mother of three asked me if I thought her children should have an English tutor. This is my answer:

As a native English speaker and English tutor, I have found that there are three groups of young people who particularly benefit from tutoring in English.

1. There are many young people who have grown up in Canada but whose parents speak little or no English. As a result, the children have learned most of their English from other children. They have a Canadian accent and no-one would guess that their knowledge of English is incomplete. They tend to have a small vocabulary and little knowledge of idioms. A tutor can fill in these gaps.

2 There are many young people who have studied English for many years in their
home country. Their knowledge of grammar is usually greater than that of the average native speaker and they have a big vocabulary. They can read at a sophisticated level but their ear is not yet tuned to the Canadian accent and they have trouble making themselves understood. They can be helped by intensive pronunciation and listening work.

3 There are young people graduating from high school or college who have a good grasp of social and academic English but who are not familiar with the English used in the workplace or in job interviews. They do not know how to describe their accomplishments. They can be helped by a Business English tutor

Website

My website is up ! It is pretty minimal at the moment but will be growing and will have lots of useful links to sites that can help with your English and sites that will point you in the direction of resources to help you prepare for and search for jobs.

http://www.eslpickering.com

This week I met Pedro for a language exchange. He is from Columbia and speaks English beautifully. He says that people don't understand him. His experience is not uncommon. He feels self conscious speaking English so that he speaks quietly and timidly. He really only needs confidence and to enunciate clearly. We will work on some pronunciation exercises and tongue twisters. Meanwhile, he will help me with my (practically non-existent) Spanish