Positive Assessment for LANGUAGES & BUSINESS 2008

Multilingualism has landed on Europe’s political agenda, but what are things like in business and industry? Are European firms fit to compete? What are the language policies of large-scale companies like, and how can small and middle-class businesses prepare their employees appropriately for international trade? How can schools and universities contribute to the language-training process? The seventh LANGUAGES & BUSINESS, held from 21 - 23 April in Düsseldorf, was devoted to answering these questions. Current challenges such as quality assurance shared center stage with innovative learning instruments and methods, tests, and up-to-the-minute research.

With 251 participants from 15 countries this year’s LANGUAGES & BUSINESS again demonstrated considerable growth. The seventh edition of the event, which focuses on foreign languages and international business communication, offered firms and providers of education and training an ideal forum to exchange experience. Practitioners from companies of all sizes demonstrated how foreign languages and intercultural competence can be provided today efficiently and targeted to the needs of a specific group.

At a roundtable discussion that was a prelude to LANGUAGES & BUSINESS, the EU Business Forum on Multilingualism, Leonard Orban, the EU commissioner responsible for multilingualism, formulated his message to businesses clearly: "Companies today require a purposeful language strategy - and not only with an eye toward exports and marketing. In the future English won’t be enough.”