Improve your Vocabulary
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How to Improve your Vocabulary on a Business Trip

  1. You are welcomed on to your flight in English and the language of the country to which you are flying. Try to internalise one of the phrases you hear.
  2. The safety instructions will also be in both languages. If English is second, try to work out what they say as you hear the foreign language. If you hear English first, pick out a phrase you are going to listen out for.
  3. You look through the in-flight magazine. Try to read the section in the foreign language, just referring to the English version if you get stuck.
  4. Watch and listen to the cabin crew. There is a general way the cabin crew operates in any culture or language. But they will use some of their own body language.
  5. Listen to what they say to passengers and how the passengers respond. Can you clone that? Do this, even if they know you are English and speak English to you. If you're feeling brave, you can make a point of replying in the foreign language.
  6. As you wait for your baggage to arrive, do some creative observation. Try to write at least one phrase down in your note book.
  7. As you queue to go through customs, if appropriate, and passport control, listen out to the exchanges between the travellers and the officials. Is there something there you can adapt?
  8. In the taxi, try out your carefully rehearsed small talk. Listen to the radio. Enjoy the rhythm, the intonation, the pronunciation and the accent, even if you do not understand every single word.
  9. As you register at the hotel, take your cues from the people in front of you. Work out what the receptionist is likely to say and how you should respond. Read the walls.
  10. In your room, flip through the TV channels. Maybe you find a football match. You know what's going on because of what you see on the screen. You can guess what the commentator is saying because of the way the crowd is reacting. And you find out the words for goalkeeper, goal, half-time, if you didn't know them before, because they are scripted at the bottom of the screen. Consciously listen for at least one phrase you will remember. And then let your subconscious do the rest.

And you've only just arrived!

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