When the ‘free flow of labour’ comes to the ASEAN Economic Community there will be potential for people working in the 10 member countries to have foreign colleagues. Whilst some of these professionals may be skilled in the language of their host nation, the common tongue will officially be English.

 

Doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, those in the tourism and hospitality sector, accountants, surveyors and architects might find themselves having foreign bosses, or being in charge of workers or staff whose native tongue is unfamiliar to them,

 

In our short course it would be impossible to cover every scenario in each of the professions affected by the AEC rules for free flow of labour, and each also has its own specialist vocabulary that would need to be covered. We will deal with three areas: having a foreign manager or boss, encountering a foreign visitor, and dealing with a foreign customer. Each area will cover vocabulary and phrases commonly used in the general situations. The language is aimed at those who have some knowledge of the work environment, and have pre-intermediate to intermediate English language skills. We suggest that those students whose situation is not covered do more research in the English used.