Increasingly many small and midsize businesses are certain: English is a must! Eleven percent of 1,000 small and midsize businesses surveyed by the EU Commission stated that they had lost orders because of inadequate foreign-language skills; 26% of those businesses specified English and 13% mentioned German as the most important languages for export commerce. Nearly half of the surveyed businesses accordingly plan to improve their staffs’ foreign-language skills in the coming three years. New applicants who have already perfectly mastered one or more foreign languages prior to applying for a job are much more likely to be hired.

Summer, Sun, Speaking

People who want to polish up their English would be well advised to hurry, because the summer holidays are just around the corner. Vacation trips offer plenty of opportunities for people with an interest in foreign languages to test their fluency. English is a global language: it’s advantageous on the job, and it’s also very useful when traveling. Although German is widely spoken among the 370 million people who reside in the 15 member states of the European Union (EU), the English language still predominates. Approximately half of all Europeans can communicate in English, which is spoken by circa 340 million people native speakers throughout the world. These statistics alone are reason enough to devote some time to the English language.

Wall Street Institute, which has offered English lessons since 1972, currently operates 400 centers in 28 countries. The language school offers custom-tailored English courses – whether for professional use on the job, for travel to foreign countries, or simply to continue one’s education. Every person has a different background, an individual learning rhythm, a personal tempo and his or her own preferences and goals. That’s why individuality and the utmost flexibility characterize the learning methods. Professional and private appointments pose no obstacles to a student’s successful learning. The didactic concept too is composed of a wide variety of building blocks which students can use according to their individual needs. Learners improve and test their English in small classes, through individual written preparation, via multimedia speech training and in conversation groups. Pedagogically trained coworkers facilitate all components. Lessons and group work are taught exclusively by native speakers.

“Learning by doing” is the guiding principle. English is the language spoken throughout each center. Communication classes and club activities help to overcome inhibitions and encourage everyone to speak freely. More than 11,000 students are currently improving their English in 27 centers throughout Germany.

Everyone is welcome to take the Wall Street Institute’s free proficiency test. If the person decides to enroll afterwards, the results of the placement test will help us assign the new student to one of 17 learning grades and six optional business modules. When students reach the sixth module, they’ve achieved the highest goal: they can now readily understand and participate in complex discussions in all of life’s situations.

Offers for Short-time Workers and Unemployed People

Wall Street Institute collaborates with Germany’s employment agency and is officially recognized as an educational institution for foreign-language training. Jobseekers with education vouchers can attend the Institute’s classes for free, thereby enhancing their professional qualifications and improving their career chances without incurring any expenses whatsoever. Businesses which have informed the employment agency that they have reduced their staffs’ working hours can likewise arrange to have the agency subsidize lessons taught at the Wall Street Institute. It’s a great way to emerge from the current crisis stronger than ever. Remember: “Well begun is half done!”

With eyes wide open: The Johanniter emergency service at the scene of an accident (source: www.presseportal.de/Johanniter)

Car crash in Hamburg  

   Thuesday night the police chased a drunken 18-year-old driver from Pinneberg to Stresemannstraße/Alsenstraße. A witness called police when he noticed that the young girl in an Audi A4 seemed drunk and was acting neurotically. When the police arrived the driver panicked and sped off at 180 km/h. During the following chase, the driver headed towards the city center, where she entered the oncoming lane of traffic and ran many red lights, eventually crashing into a taxi. The taxi driver and his passenger were badly injured. The driver of the Audi was taken to the intensive care unit of a nearby hospital. An empty bottle of vodka was found in her car.