讲一口正宗的英文,能够帮我们找到一份外企工作;也可以去海外游学,体验不同的文化冲击,总之帮助很多。现在,我就跟各位一起讨论一下有关英文口语培训班的问题。
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假如各位想咨询英文口语培训班的价格,或想获得实用的选课意见,可以把你居住的城市、英语水平告知我们的课程规划师,他们会及时为你服务的。
Hong-Kong-based John Rice is among the most senior American businessmen ever posted to one of the world’s emerging markets. Number two to General Electric’s chief executive Jeff Immelt, the 55-year-old heads the conglomerate’s global operations, and relocated from the US last year in a move designed to accelerate globalisation and to locate top executives close to the economies that now drive world economic growth.
在所有被派英语口语驻某个新兴市场的美国商人中,驻香港的约翰?赖斯(John Rice)属于最资深的之一。赖斯现年55岁,在通用电气(GE)是仅次于首席执行官杰弗里?伊梅尔特(Jeffrey Immelt)的第二号人物,主管这家大企业集团的全球运营。通用电气去年将赖斯从美国调到香港,此举旨在加快公司的全球化进程,让自己的顶级高管离如今推动世界经济增长的经济体更近。
At the same time, however, GE is recruiting managers who were born in emerging markets in order to draw on the expanding pools of educated talent in China, India and other developing countries – and to bring into the group an ever-wider range of professional – and human – experience.
不过,与此同时,通用电气也在招聘出生于新兴市场国家的经理人,以利用中国、印度和其他发展中国家日益增长的受过良好教育的人才库,为公司带来更广泛的专业和人力资源背景。
“We will soon have 2,000 interns from outside the US,” says Mr Rice. “This is 10 times more than a few years ago. We want to develop local talent – and to give aspiring leaders in our business a shot at senior roles. Management is always a blend of outside and inside talent.”
“我们将很快在美国以外地区招聘2000名实习生,”赖斯表示,“这个数字比几年前高出10倍。我们希望培养本土人才,让有抱负的业务主管有机会升至资深职位。在我们的管理层里,一直既有来自美国的人才,也有来自美国以外的人才。”
The result is a complex transformation at GE and many other multinationals, in which traditional career generalist expatriate managers are giving way to globally mobile executives – expats or locals – with deeper specialised skills and a wider range of backgrounds. As Christine Greybe, Hong Kong-based president of DHR International, a recruitment agency, says, “the market is no longer dominated by westerners but by global citizens. They can be of any ethnicity. But they must be mobile”.
结果就是,通用电气和其他许多跨国企业开始了一场复杂的转型。传统的通才型职业外派经理人,开始让位于可在全球范围内调动的高管(无论他们原本是外派的,还是本地招聘的),后者拥有更专业的技能和更丰富的背景。猎头公司DHR International驻香港总裁克里斯蒂娜?格雷比(Christine Greybe)说:“市场不再由西方人主导,而是由全球各地的人所共有。他们可能来自任何民族。但他们必须愿意接受调动。”
Last year French industrial group Schneider Electric sent its human resources and strategy chiefs to Hong Kong to create an Asian management hub, in addition to its existing US and European centres. Dutch electronics group Philips last year switched the headquarters of its consumer appliances business to Shanghai. Last month German carmakerVolkswagen appointed Jochem Heizmann, its 60-year-old trucks chief, to a new management board job in Shanghai to head the group’s Chinese operations.
去年,法国工业集团施耐德电气(Schneider Electric)将一些人力资源和战略部门主管派往香港,目的英语口语是在现有的美国和欧洲中心之外,创立一个亚洲管理中心。荷兰电子集团飞利浦(Philips)去年将消费类电器业务总部搬到了上海。1个月前,德国汽车制造商大众(Volkswagen)将现年60岁的原卡车业务主管约赫姆?海兹曼(Jochem Heizmann)派到上海,担任一项新的管理董事会职务,主管集团的中国业务。
For decades a few multinationals that were traditionally based in the developing world have been run by western expatriates based in developing-world locations, for example HSBC, the bank that started life in Hong Kong and Shanghai. But the growth in emerging markets since 2000 is accelerating corporate globalisation and with it the nature and location of executive jobs. No longer are only country and regional managers based in emerging markets; executives with global roles are moving along with their headquarters teams.
几十年来,一些原本就在发展中国家开展业务的跨国企业,一直由外派至发展中世界的西方人管理。创立于香港和上海的汇丰(HSBC)就是这种情况。但自2000年以来,新兴市场的蓬勃发展加速了企业的全球化,这体现在高管的工作性质和地点上。不再只有主管某一国或某一区域业务的经理人被派驻新兴市场;那些担任全球化角色的高管也开始与总部团队一起,转移到新兴市场。
Mr Rice, who was previously posted to Singapore in the mid-1990s, says: “Then, you had career expats. Solid, good-performing people who were out and wanted to stay out, and didn’t have an interest in returning to the home country. They weren’t always people who were going to run GE. Now we have fully developed global leaders [in expatriate positions].” 上世纪90年代中期,赖斯曾被派驻新加坡。他说:“后来,我们有了职业外派员工。他们能独当一面、恪尽职守,接受外派以后就愿意呆在外面,也不想返回祖国。他们并不一定都想着在日后掌管GE。如今,我们(在外派职位上)培养了一些经验丰富的全球领导者。”
Moreover, for high-flyers, emerging- market postings are increasingly compulsory. Christoph Nettesheim, Greater China managing director for Boston Consulting Group, says: “These [relocation] requests are becoming less like requests and more like instructions.”
另外,对表现优异的尖子人才来说,派驻新兴市场越来越变成一种强制性安排。波士顿咨询集团(BCG)大中华区董事总经巩华城理耐迪贤(Christoph Nettesheim)说:“这些(有关调动的)意向征询开始变得不那么像意向征询,而更像是命令。”
The posts are becoming more demanding in terms of personal commitment. And there is growing competition for such jobs, from emerging markets as well as the west.
外派也开始对个人承担的责任提出更多要求。外派职位也开始引起越来越激烈的竞争,竞争既来自新兴市场,也来自西方。
In principle, promoting developing-world staff is nothing new. Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch group, decided to “train Indians to take over junior and senior management positions instead of Europeans” as long ago as 1942, and has had an Indian main board director since 1978. Royal Dutch Shell, the energy group, and Citigroup, the US bank, are among other multinationals that pioneered the development of top executives from emerging markets, often India.
原则上来说,提拔新兴世界员工并不是什么新鲜事儿。早在1942年,英荷集团联合培训利华巩华城(Unilever)就决定“培训印度员工,由他们(而不是欧洲人)担任一些初级和资深管理岗位”。自1978年来,就有一名印度人担任联合利华的主要董事。还有一些跨国公司也很早就开始尝试从新兴市场(通常是印度)选拔顶级高管,比如能源集团荷兰皇家壳牌(Royal Dutch Shell)和美资银行花旗集团(Citigroup)。
But the scale of today’s changes is unprecedented, headhunters say. Multinationals are seeking both to localise management – employing Indian managers in India, for example – and to diversify global teams.
但猎头们表示,如今的变革力度可谓前所未有。跨国公司不仅追求管理层本地化(比如在印度请印度人担任经理),还追求全球团队构成的多元化。
At junior levels this saves money, because young locals are cheaper than imported expats. But higher up the corporate ladder, the cost differences have largely disappeared and the main incentive is to secure better in-country inside knowledge.
对初级职位而言,这一变化可以节约成本,因为雇用本地的年轻人比引入外派员工成本低。但对级别更高的职位而言,雇佣本地人和引入外派员工的成本基本没有差别,选择前者主要是因为他们更了解这个国家。
Ms Greybe says: “The real switch has come in the past three years, where you have seen escalation in demand for global citizens. At least 50 per cent of searches at vice-president level and up are now for global citizens.”
格雷比表示,“真正的变化发生在过去三年间,在这期间,我们已目睹全球公民变得越来越吃香。在副总裁及以上级别职位中,起码有50%希望招聘全球化人才。”
Chinese and other emerging market-based companies are looking for similar people, which is also intensifying competition. Occasionally they try radical changes, as when LG, the South Korean electronics group, recruited foreigners for top posts in 2007-08, appointing eight to an executive board of 10.
中国和其它总部位于新兴市场的企业正在寻找类似的人才,这也加剧了竞争。他们有时会尝试大手笔的改变,比如,韩国电子集团LG在2007-08年聘请外国人担任公司高层时,一下子任命了8名执行董事,而整个执行董事会总共也只有10个人。
But more often, companies move steadily, hiring a few westerners for senior roles and more at junior levels. Johnson Electric, the Hong Kong-based electrical group, Samsung, the South Korean electronics group, and Reliance Industries, the diversified Indian conglomerate, are all examples. LG is also now taking this approach: it parted company with its executive-board foreigners in 2010, after the global economic crisis struck, but like other Korean groups it is now focusing on hiring and promoting foreigners in the lower executive ranks. Ki Wan Kim, global marketing officer, says: “At the time, we wanted to push forward globally. It was bad timing but we must keep globalising.”
但通常情况下,公司会稳扎稳打:资深级别的职位只聘请几个西方人,更多地在初级职位中聘请他们。这样做的企业有:总部位于香港的电气集团德昌电机(Johnson Electric)、韩国电子集团三星(Samsung)以及印度综合性企业集团信实工业(Reliance Industries)。LG如今也在采取这种方式:在遭遇全球经济危机冲击之后,该公司在2010年辞退了执行董事会中的外国人。但与其他韩国集团一样,LG目前的重心是,针对较低级别的管理层职位招聘和提拔外国人。三星环球市场总监Ki Wan Kim表示:“当时我们希望推进全球化。那个时机不对,但我们必须继续推进全球化。”
Westerners still have the upper hand in the jobs market. Jimmy Ho, managing director of the Guangzhou and Hong Kong offices of Korn Ferry, the recruitment agency, says: “More and more mandates say ‘find locals’, but at the end of the day westerners are hired because only they have the skills and experience.”
西方人仍在就业市场占有优势。猎头公司光辉国际(Korn Ferry)培训广州及香港分公司董事总经理何鼎礼(Jimmy Ho)表示:“越来越多的委托人让我们‘找本地人’,但到头来还是招聘了西方人,因为只有他们拥有技能和经验。”
However, in the long run, demographic forces favour emerging economies. McKinsey, the management consultancy, calculates that China and India already produce 38 per cent of the world’s graduates and will supply 60 per cent in 2012-30. Not all will become executives, but many will. 不过,从长期来看,人口条件有利于新兴经济体。管理咨询公司麦肯巩华城英语口语培训锡(McKinsey)估算:如今中国和印度的大学毕业生已经占到全球的38%;从现在到2030年,新增大学毕业生中,中国和印度的大学毕业生将占到60%。这些毕业生并不会全部成为高管,但其中许多都会。
Bringing together western and non-western cultures is a challenge. Joseph Ngai, Hong Kong managing partner at McKinsey, says: “There are more failures than successes, and the costs are humungous.”
将西方和非西方文化带到一起,这是个挑战。麦肯锡香港管理合伙人倪以理(Joseph Ngai)表示:“失败的例子多于成功的例子,且成功的代价是巨大的。”
For GE the answer is to develop managers who bring people together. As Mr Rice says: “You are optimising big and global with local. It’s an art and a science which doesn’t work the same way in every case. The big challenge is to get past cultural barriers.”
对通用电气而言,解决办法在于培养能将员工团结起来的经理人。正如赖斯所言:“你努力寻找‘更大’、‘更全球化’与‘更本地化’之间的最优平衡点。这是门技术,也是种技巧,每面对一种新情况都需要做相应的改变。跨越文化的重重障碍,这是个大难题。”