Run by the National Trust, and sitting in beautiful gardens on the banks of the river Thames, Ham House is an absolute must see attraction for anybody who visits Richmond. Just 20 minutes walk from Richmond town centre, it has been called one of the grandest houses in the whole of England.

It was originally built in 1610, and its amazing collection of paintings, furniture and textiles has hardly changed in 400 years.

And there’s more.

Ham House is also supposed to be one of the most haunted houses in the world. Dogs howl and whimper in its rooms. Sometimes there is a distinct smell of old, Elizabethan tobacco in the air. A woman dressed in black silently walks along the corridors. Terrifying screams have been heard from empty rooms.

An eery, strange mirror hangs on the wall on the ground floor, and many visitors – inexplicably – feel too scared to look at it as they walk past.

Will you dare to look into it when you pay the house a visit, or will you turn the other way?

There is a story of somebody who studied French at Oxford, who knew the tenses and grammar, and could happily recite classical French drama. But when he got of the train at the Gard du Nord in Paris for the first time, he didn’t know the words to order a coffee.

True or not, the story does tell us something about how languages (in the UK) have been taught until fairly recently. The focus has been on the academic rather than the practical. So, perhaps it isn’t surprising that when Business English was first taught (in the 50’s and 60’s) it was mainly about the vocabulary. It was an academic, not a practical focus.

However, much of the English communication that takes place within businesses now occurs between non-native speakers. This means people who don’t speak English as their first language are often at both ends of the lines of communication. It could be, for example, a German person speaking to a Japanese person to make an order, but both of them using English.

Sure, they both need to know the words associated with their job, and they will build up specialist vocabulary quickly. But first of all, they need to build up practical skills, like giving a presentation, or making a phone call, or answering the phone.

Because building up the practical skills enables them to do something which we all need to do at the beginning of a new project. We simply need to start.

Today in Business English the focus is on functional language, so that you can finish your course confident that you are ready to begin using English in your day to day working life.

This approach is central to the Cambridge Business English Certificate, which we will be introducing soon. The Cambridge Business Course has been designed to help professionals develop the English language skills to communicate confidently in an international workplace, and the exams are based on authentic situations, giving you the skills to communicate in real-life business scenarios.

I will be giving you a more detail on all this over the New Year, but for now we’d just like to say we can’t wait to start teaching you on our new Business English courses in 2020.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, do please give us a shout.

English is the dominant language of business in a globalised marketplace, and it’s been estimated the 1 in 4 of us now speak it to some degree or other.

Increasingly businesses are adopting language policies, and for some that means an office where only English may be spoken, irrespective of where that business is HQ’d.

Understandably, it’s not always a popular move, but from a commercial point of view it can make enormous sense, and in some sectors it’s not really a matter of choice any more.

Business Communication is something that Richmond English School will be taking a much closer look at in 2020, and in the summer we will be introducing the Cambridge Business Certificate.

So, in the next few blog posts, we will be offering some insights into what we will be teaching, both in relation to the Cambridge syllabus, and Business English in a broader sense.

And if you have any questions, please do say hello.

We will be starting a new A2 Beginners / Cambridge KET Level course in February 2020.

If you want to start some simple English classes, or know somebody else who does, then join us in 2020. The Cambridge KET (Key English Test) helps you use English in simple situations. The exam tests all four English language skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking – and will help you to go on and study for higher-level exams such as B1 Preliminary and B2 First.

The 2020 Timetable is now Confirmed

Below is the confirmed timetable for 2020. Each course now has 2 classes per week, with B1 / PET on Monday and Thursday, B2 / FCE on Tuesday and Wednesday, C1 / CAE on Tuesday and Wednesday, and IELTS on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. All Cambridge courses now have an optional 3rd class each week (marked with a “+” on the timetable), which will go into more detail on that week’s material, but will not cover extra material, so you will not miss anything if you only take 2 classes. There is also a new Speaking Class on Monday mornings.  We intend to create other classes as we move into 2020, including Beginners classes in the afternoons, and new Business English classes, which we’re very excited about.  Watch this space!