UPDATE: This post was originally published on March 29, 2019. It has been updated with new tips and information below.
You are probably ecstatic to have recently been accepted into one of your top MBA programs and can’t wait for that new chapter to begin. Of course, a huge part of that will be your English communication skills, and you need to make sure they are in tip-top shape.
Most likely, you will find yourself attending a program in an English-speaking country such as the United States or the United Kingdom. You may also be entering an English-language program in another top school in Europe, like IESE or INSEAD.
Either way, you will soon find yourself in an environment where English is the lingua franca – the common tongue – on campus and in professional settings. In fact, over 40% of Stanford GSB students in MBA programs hold a foreign passport and likely speak English as a foreign language, and you may fall into this category, too.
Whether or not your English is already excellent, it is good to brush up on it to get yourself in the mindset for your upcoming program. This means that polishing your English skills – no matter how good they are – is essential for any MBA candidate.
That’s why we’ve collected our top 13 tips to help you make the most of the months before your MBA to take your English to the next level.
English: The Key To Effective Communication In Your MBA
It is given that your classes, assignments, discussions, and exams will take place entirely in English. However, that is not the only reason your English needs to be excellent. Much more significant is one of the most fundamental components of business and professionalism: communication.
You are not only getting your MBA at a top school to get good grades and the school’s letterhead on your graduation certificate. A huge part of any MBA program is networking and recruiting for jobs.
To network effectively, you must be able to communicate effectively.
Schools like Booth and IESE see communication as one of the most important qualities in candidates, and every MBA program looks for signs of effective communication in their candidates.
Especially in the world of business, entrepreneurship, and working relationships, a simple, basic understanding of language will not cut it.
To correctly maneuver through the complicated world of interpersonal communication, your understanding of English must go beyond mere comprehension of words, phrases, and sentences. This means you must also understand the finer nuances of speech such as extended vocabulary, complex sentence structures and verb forms, indirect meanings, and intercultural connotations.
Only with a deeper understanding of the language can you make the most out of extracurriculars, get to know your peers and professors, form long-lasting personal relationships, and immerse yourself in the international community you are a unique part of. This includes both understanding others as well as expressing yourself.
So How Can You Improve Your English Before Your MBA?
It may still be a few months – or even just mere weeks – before your begin your MBA, and you probably do not have time to take an advanced English course just for kicks.
But don’t worry, there are plenty of other fun ways to polish your English with the time you do have. Who knows? You may even find a way to combine your favorite way to relax with brushing up on your English language skills!
The landscape of English communication is wide and varied. You may be excellent at teatime conversation but not so good at grammar structures. Maybe you find yourself great at reading assignments, but just can’t keep up so well when listening to people with heavy British accents. Because everyone’s English strengths and weaknesses are different, it is good to focus on the four language skills to get the most out of your practice time.
The four skills are reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Here, we will look at specific ways to improve each of these areas.
Reading
You will need to read in English all the time once you begin your MBA. Of course, you will be reading much more than just the expected case studies, reports, and assignments.
Reading comprehension extends into the basics of everyday life – from directions at the museum entrance, to email correspondence, to signing up for healthcare. Need I emphasize this more?
Reading in English will be an everyday experience once you begin your MBA.
Improving your English reading comprehension skills can help you train various aspects of language. Not only is reading in English good for expanding your vocabulary, it also helps to intuitively anchor those tricky verb forms and grammar structures that you may not be 100% comfortable with yet.
Improving your reading skills will also help you familiarize yourself with formal and professional language as well as that precarious English spelling. It can also help you improve specific areas of interest – if you are going into investment banking, for example, you should be familiar with the specific language of that field.
Here, we have gathered together some ideas about how to improve your English reading skills before you begin your MBA.
Tip #1: Duolingo
If you haven’t heard of Duolingo, google it immediately. It is a great tool for anyone seeking to brush up on or learn a completely new foreign language. Not only can you use Duolingo to polish your English skills, you can also learn French, Indonesian, Swahili, Korean, Arabic, Esperanto, High Valyrian, and a whole lot more. I am currently maintaining my Spanish skills daily through their app.
Duolingo doesn’t just train your reading skills, it focuses explicitly on all the other language skills as well. You don’t have to start at the beginning, either – simply test out of the highest level you can. After that, you can go back and practice individual grammar and vocabulary topics to focus on the areas you need the most.
Tip #2: Your favorite book or novel
What is your all-time favorite book in your native language? If you haven’t already, get a copy in English. This is a great way to really get into the nuances of a language – because you already know what happens, it will be easier to understand the finer points of language when you encounter them again. And you already know you will enjoy the ride.
If you want to check out what your friends and colleagues are reading, we suggest signing up for Goodreads. It can also be a great way to connect with your future classmates!
Tip #3: Daily newsflash
One of the easiest ways to practice reading on a daily basis before you begin your MBA is to keep up on world news in English. There are plenty of English news outlets that will update you with headlines through their app.
Because I speak Portuguese as a foreign language, I always keep up on current events through a Brazilian newspaper – that way, I can kill two birds with one stone over breakfast.
Even better – try to read the local news where you will be attending your MBA. If you are headed to London Business School, try downloading The Guardian; if Kellogg is your destination, get the Chicago Tribune’s app. That way, you can begin acquainting yourself more intimately with your new local community.
Writing
Like your reading skills, you will need to write constantly during your MBA. Think your application essays were a lot? Expect plenty more where that came from.
Just like reading, you will need to exercise your English writing skills constantly – you will need it just as much for your semester exams as you will to write emails to job recruiters.
It is especially important here that you can distinguish between formal and informal writing.
While both are useful in daily life, you must be familiar with formal vocabulary, spelling, phrasing, and punctuation to project a professional image to your peers, colleagues, and network. Writing is great for training this difference.
So how can you improve your English writing skills before your MBA?
Tip #4: Find an online community
Forums represent one of the Internet’s greatest opportunities for communication. Especially big platforms like Reddit offer readers the chance to discuss their favorite topics and hobbies – no matter how obscure – with a community of like-minded peers. By participating, you can help others solve problems, ask your own questions, and get a sense of community you might not find locally.
Check out these subreddits on business schools, the GMAT, MBAs, marketing, and consulting.
Note: Forums are especially good for practicing your informal language skills. Make sure you are aware of the differences between formal and commonly-used Internet language. This article from The Guardian discusses some of these differences and how English has evolved through its use on the Internet.
Tip #5: Take a Coursera course
If you do have a bit of extra time to spare in your week, try improving your writing skills through Coursera. Trust me, this platform is amazing for high-quality learning directly from home.
Coursera’s courses are fully-online, including videos, quizzes, assignments, peer feedback, and exams. They are conceptualized and taught by professors from some of the world’s top universities and institutions, including schools like Stanford, CalTech, IESE, the World Bank Group, USP, Duke, and many others.
Coursera offers a wide variety of classes on all sorts of topics, not to mention English. This is a great opportunity to improve your advanced writing skills. They also have a whole series focused on Business English, including classes like Business English Communication and Speaking English Professionally.
Many of Coursera’s courses are free to audit, but you can subscribe monthly or pay a class fee to receive grades, individual teacher feedback, and course certificates.
Tip #6: Ask our editors
Hopefully, you are currently writing or have already completed your MBA admissions essays. Whatever you do, you definitely need another set of eyes to make it top-notch. That is where our editor’s at Ellin Lolis Consulting come in. We are happy to help you through the editing process for your MBA application essays.
Of course, at any time during this process, feel free to ask us about specific changes – we love helping you understand the adjustments we make to your essay.
If you are unsure of why we edit a certain verb form or the exact connotations of a word, our language experts will be happy to help you understand those details.
Listening
A good communicator is a good listener. Whether you are listening to your professor lecture about ethical environmental business practices, your peers discussing digital strategy, or participating in an on-campus club, you will be listening to a lot of English in the upcoming months.
Improving your listening skills is especially important in international contexts, where a variety of dialects, accents, and vocabulary is often utilized differently among members of the international community. It is important that you are familiar with a variety of common pronunciations and are able to adapt your skills however the situation dictates.
Beyond that, training your listening skills can help you react appropriately in spontaneous interactions. It is also great for implicitly training formal as well as colloquial speech and further internalizing grammar structures and vocabulary.
Tip #7: Podcasts
I love this one. I personally listen to podcasts whenever possible – while exercising, driving, cooking, or even in the shower. There are so many ways to fill your day with interesting podcasts, especially because of the large variety available that are nearly always downloadable and free.
No matter what tickles your fancy – crime, fiction, science – there is a podcast out there waiting for you. I recently began listening to NPR’s podcast How I Built This, which talks to business owners from well-known companies like Lonely Planet, Kickstarter, and Airbnb and interviews them about their entrepreneurial journeys. This list from Lean Labs features their top picks for business-related podcasts that are also great listens if you want to improve your English skills before you begin your MBA.
Here too – plenty of news outlets offer free daily podcasts that are a great way to start the day in English.
Tip #8: What should we do tonight? Netflix!
Okay, I love this one, too. What better way to train your English than by relaxing on the couch? There are so many good shows out there on any platform – not just Netflix, but also on Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, and many, many more. If you like TV and movies, you already know there is plenty out there for you.
Consuming media (including music) in English will really help improve your skills long-term. Without you even noticing, making English your normal mode for TV-watching will help you deeply internalize the language over time.
Speaking
While all of the language skill areas are important, speaking may just be the most essential. That’s why Harvard Business School – notorious for its 100% case study method MBA – requires hopeful applicants to score at least 109 on the TOEFL exam.
As luck has it, it also tends to be the area learners have the most difficulty with.
Getting up the courage to express yourself may be strenuous – you must quickly come up with appropriate phrasing and vocabulary and structure it properly. If you haven’t had a lot of practice speaking English, you may feel uncomfortable formulating your thoughts or particularly nervous about making mistakes. This will only become more challenging after starting business school, as group work and presentations in front of the class are a way of life. The only way to get comfortable with this, however, is practice.
Tip #9: Get involved
Once you know where you are headed, contact your community. If you want to become involved with extracurriculars, reach out. You may also find plenty of clubs or interest groups in your local community who would love to hear from you.
Once you’ve reached out, ask to call or Skype to get more details. Maybe you can brainstorm ways to help out even before you get into town? Or maybe you can discuss ideas or projects you can imagine leading in the future with others from the group. You never know what opportunities this might reveal.
Tip #10: Do you like gaming?
Online gaming is an increasingly popular pastime among consumers – and it can be a great way to improve your English speaking skills before your MBA. Real-time strategy multiplayer games involve coordinating verbally with teammates as you play, forcing you to speak quickly out of necessity even if you are shy.
Besides, online gaming can be great for training strategic thinking, teamwork, and interpersonal skills that will be essential – and applicable! – during your MBA and your career in business beyond that.
Tip #11: Local conversation groups and clubs
Especially if you live somewhere close to a university or center for higher education, conversation groups are a fun and social way to polish your speaking skills.
Nearly every school is likely to have an English conversation group and often you do not need to be an enrolled student to participate. In fact, these are often held informally at pubs or cafes and are open to anyone who is interested. The online platform Meetup is a good resource for finding local conversation groups as well.
If you’re not able to find any conversation groups, check if your hometown has an active Toastmasters chapter. In many cities around the world, Toastmasters offers English-language meetups that can help you polish your English and public speaking skills.
Tip #12: Conversation exchanges
You may not live in a university town, however. If not, do not despair! There are plenty of opportunities to practice your English conversation skills online with conversation exchanges like conversationexchange.com. Platforms like these offer participants the chance to register and be paired with other language learners who share common interests free of charge, offering them opportunities to chat, Skype, or even meet in person if you like. That way, you can make some international connections while honing spontaneous language production. This particular service offers pairings in any language you can find a partner for, not just English!
Tip #13: Make mistakes!
This is a more general tip rather than a specific method, but it is the most important of all when training your speaking skills: do not be afraid to make mistakes. In fact, make a lot of them!
Making mistakes is a natural part of language learning. It is simply a part of the process. Often, small mistakes won’t even hinder communication. And when misunderstandings do occur, your mistakes will help you understand where you went wrong and how to prevent similar situations in the future.
Coming to terms with the fact that you – and every other foreign language learner – make mistakes will help you get over fears of speaking. Only by putting these aside will you be free to communicate and improve.
Get the Targeted Help You Need
No matter how comfortable you are with English, applying for an MBA can be difficult.
Making sure you are not only preparing all the necessary elements of an MBA application but also crafting them for successful admission is a difficult task to achieve on your own, especially when thinking about things like how to craft a compelling narrative in your second (or third!) language.
This is why ELC’s expert team is here to help you. We can help you at every stage of the application process, from organizing tasks and creating your application strategy, to crafting outstanding essay responses, to nailing your interview. Apply to work with us today!
Real MBA Essays That Got People In
School-specific sample essays that got our clients accepted
