Friday, January 27, 2006
From English teaching to a meeting of minds
Retraining as a teacher and working in-company in Milan was the best thing that ever happened to me.
By working in Sephora, Unilever, Ernst&Young and Accenture to name just a few, I got to network at a high level: after all, I was helping project managers, inhouse accountants, lawyers and senior executives brush up their language skills.
Admittedly, the pay was poor (we're talking Eur10 an hour gross) and it seemed I was forever on trams and busses to get to the next company. Some days I got up at 6am and finished teaching at 10pm. I was doing so much teaching I was even dreaming of it at night.
Yet, three years later and I'm still in touch with most of my former students - and the teaching has paid off.
I've been asked to work on other language projects in Italy and out-of-the-blue I got a phone call last week offering me a contract.
Although I'm now in Sardinia living the life of my dreams, I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't have taken the first step teaching English in Milan.
Teaching English introduced me to the Italian-speaking business community. But more importantly, it allowed me to get to grips with the cultural diversity, communication gap and business etiquette.
And today that means I'm comfortable with doing business in Italy and taking part in meetings. I know I shouldn't procrasinate to confuse people and I shouldn't be polite if I don't mean what I say. Instead, I should use an extensive vocabularly and wave my hands and use my face a lot.
Of course, there's more to it than that. A lot more.
We'll be revealing more in our new workshop Meeting of Minds soon.
Emma Bird is the founder of www.howtoitaly.com
By working in Sephora, Unilever, Ernst&Young and Accenture to name just a few, I got to network at a high level: after all, I was helping project managers, inhouse accountants, lawyers and senior executives brush up their language skills.
Admittedly, the pay was poor (we're talking Eur10 an hour gross) and it seemed I was forever on trams and busses to get to the next company. Some days I got up at 6am and finished teaching at 10pm. I was doing so much teaching I was even dreaming of it at night.
Yet, three years later and I'm still in touch with most of my former students - and the teaching has paid off.
I've been asked to work on other language projects in Italy and out-of-the-blue I got a phone call last week offering me a contract.
Although I'm now in Sardinia living the life of my dreams, I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't have taken the first step teaching English in Milan.
Teaching English introduced me to the Italian-speaking business community. But more importantly, it allowed me to get to grips with the cultural diversity, communication gap and business etiquette.
And today that means I'm comfortable with doing business in Italy and taking part in meetings. I know I shouldn't procrasinate to confuse people and I shouldn't be polite if I don't mean what I say. Instead, I should use an extensive vocabularly and wave my hands and use my face a lot.
Of course, there's more to it than that. A lot more.
We'll be revealing more in our new workshop Meeting of Minds soon.
Emma Bird is the founder of www.howtoitaly.com
