[Series Column-4] How’s Your Spoken English?
[Series Column-4] How’s Your Spoken English?
  • By Kari Karlsbjerg
  • 승인 2020.04.09 13:49
  • 댓글 0
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1. Series Introduction and Building Your IT Career in Canada
2. The IT Job Market in Canada
3. Professional Credential Evaluation First Step
4. How’s Your Spoken English?
Everyday Vancouver's author, Kari Karlsbjerg
 
Everyday Vancouver's author, Kari Karlsbjerg

 

How confident are you in your spoken English skills and your ability to discuss technology with the company’s engineers so that you can translate their ideas into language the customer can understand?

From your interview to your first job in Canada to your professional interactions with colleagues and customers, spoken English communication skills are critically important. Korean professionals who immigrate to Canada typically have very strong reading, writing and vocabulary skills. However, when it comes to their speaking and listening skills, they find it more of a struggle and don’t feel as confident. Therefore, as you prepare to work in the IT industry in Canada, don’t neglect to strengthen your verbal English skills.

n the past, engineers and IT professionals had strictly technical roles and were not hired for their ‘soft skills’. These days, very complex tasks and processes are now being turned into software, and the work often involves collaborating with people from many different departments/professions, so clear communication is more important.

According to a recent Globe and Mail article, the Canadian IT job market is one of the hottest job markets in decades. However, “employers are looking for professionals who have exceptional soft skills—the ability to write, listen and communicate effectively.” Not only do you need to competently and persuasively share ideas so that you can stand out and get ahead, you need to be able to do that in English.

Don’t assume that your strong English reading and writing skills will automatically transfer over to your speaking skills. It can be particularly challenging to participate in fast-paced team meetings in the workplace and feel comfortable enough with your spoken English to join in the discussions. As one Korean immigrant IT professional working in Canada explained, “as soon as I felt like I had my opinion ready to share on a particular subject at the meeting, they had already moved on to the next topic.” He then shared that “by then, the rest of the team had already moved on and I had missed a few minutes worth of discussion and had to catch up again!”

Compounding the challenge is the fact that workplace culture in Canada is quite different than in Korea, especially in terms of hierarchy. Everyone is welcome and expected to share their thoughts and ideas in meetings, regardless of age, rank or experience. While there is an expectation to use polite language, there are no other restrictions. Even if you are prepared for cultural differences, they can add a level of difficulty while you are trying to communicate professionally and effectively in a language that is not your mother tongue. 

In today’s workplace, superior technical skills and experience are simply not enough. Nowadays, employers are looking for job candidates who have technical skills, along with social, creative and communication skills. As Mark Cuban stressed in a recent Recode Decode podcast about building a successful IT career, “creativity, collaboration, communication skills: Those things are super important and are going to be the difference between make or break.”

Kari Karlsbjerg and Elaine Chu are authors of the best-selling bilingual guidebook, Everyday Vancouver, which contains all the practical cultural information and resources Korean newcomers need for life in Vancouver, Canada. 


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