The Language of Business, Essay Example

Learning to Speak the Language of Business

Business is tricky not only in the management, but also in communication and interaction with customers. The writer of the article “Learning to Speak the Language of Business” is a third party who has studied language as a barrier in the expansion, and differences in the way different merchants handle customers. The author aims at passing this information to aspiring businessperson and the existing ones to dream of growing globally. To give a live example, the Mikitani’s company studied in the way it has evolved statically in terms of language.

The writer develops the whole text in a strategic manner that leaves the audience in suspense. He begins by saying how one would call Hiroshi Mikitani the Jeff Bezos of Japan. One develops the urge to know more, thus desires to read the text to follow. Mikitani’s company is indeed the leading company in e-commerce in their home market, but that is not enough for a businessperson. There is always the desire to grow and expand. The rhetorical situation occurs that the famous Mikitani’s company launched in 1997, and in less than 15 years, it owns   not less than 37,000 merchants. One would wonder of the possibility of such an occurrence raising suspense. It happens that many companies can run for over twenty years, with lesser merchants. The urge to expand more into the international market is obviously present in most investors, but it happens that not all nations speak their local language forms the basis of the author’s argument.

The thesis of the whole paper revolves around the English language as a global business language. The context of the whole writing consists of logos, pathos and ethos. One of the pathos applies where the chairperson and CEO, Mikitani, Rakuten says that they created a real online marketplace for customers to interact one a one on one with the shop owners. They further empower their merchants with the aim of building relationships with customers. The Mikitani’s company also shows some sense of ethos and logos, as it is an appeal of ethics to have the merchants’ possessing the freedom to interact with customers. It so happens that some companies give limited freedom to their merchants when it comes to interaction with customers. Such companies have little faith or rather no trust in their merchants creating a barrier for further expansion.

It is ethical to think of the international market of the customers who do not speak the Japanese Language, yet they need the products and services from the Japanese. Language would be a barrier to global ambitions of the Mikitani’s company to expand into Brazil, China, and the United States.  English, being a global language could save the whole issue at once. Mikitani studied how the Japanese language possessed a barrier to the firm’s global ambitions. Mikitani’s company subsidiaries outside Japan and the Tokyo office had an immense language barrier. This was an observation made on 2011 upon carrying out a HBS case study on Rakuten. Thereafter, Mikitani did not only find it viable to communicate in English, but he also discovered the entrepreneurial kind of thing in the idea.

Mikitani’s company did not sleep on this. He had it that all 7,100 employees at the Japanese firm communicate in English, which is the global language of business.  In March 2010, Mikitani further announced the changeover, in English. He set a two-year deadline for everyone to demonstrate proficiency in English proficiency.

The argument possesses some weaknesses in the deadline that marked a subtle approach to overcome the language barrier. There is the likelihood that the types of persons who are not quick to learn were disadvantaged.  There is the assumption that all people are the same in learning and grasping a new language. While two years would be adequate for the youngster to learn a new language, an elderly person would require more time to learn and be proficient in the English language. This type of employees probably ended up sacrificing their chances of employment.  Maybe it could only be fair to insist on the English language on new employees and the existing younger employees while giving allowance to the aged employees.

Despite the weakness present in the whole argument, credit given to the author for identifying and explaining a precise essential business topic. The project “Englishnisation” went further to set the international media into attention. The whole discussion compressed to be short and clear. All relevant information described in eight paragraphs with each paragraph passing out some necessary information.  The language smooth, easy to understand, and has a lot of humor. The paragraphs present a pleasant flow of ideas from one paragraph to the other, with a strong conclusion where Mikitani urges that the issue not only affects Japanese but all companies practicing global business, and that their success succeeded by others. It is a piece that would change hundreds of minds into adapting the English language.