International Trade English 2B Vocabulary Units 10-18 Notes
Unit 10
To do battle with: To find something difficult to learn. Example: She battled with elementary German during her study, finding Mandarin a difficult language to learn.
To have mastered the basics of: To have a good basic knowledge of something. Example: We quickly mastered the basic fundamentals of navigation.
To be firmly plugged into the fabrics of: To have a good network of contacts.
Criss-cross the world: To go to many different countries. Example: She earns standing ovations while crisscrossing the world to introduce her new product.
Assignment: When someone is sent to work in a particular place. Example: Their Australian employees were scheduled for an assignment to Greece.
A drawback: A disadvantage of a situation, product, etc., that makes it less attractive. Example: The major drawback of the company is the cost of its product.
Feel at home: To feel relaxed and comfortable in a particular place or situation. Example: Americans welcome people with open arms and make you feel at home.
Gain experience: To learn more about a job over a period of time. Example: I gained a lot of experience from my last job.
High-flyer: Someone in a company who is talented and who will be promoted quickly through the organization. Example: High-flyers in the industry typically earn 25 per cent more than their colleagues.
Hurdle: A problem or difficulty that you must deal with before you can achieve something. Example: The first hurdle she faced entering the job market was one of confidence.
Kudos: The state of being admired and respected for being important or for doing something important. Example: Women’s organizations have been getting kudos for their service activities.
Mismanage: To manage something badly. Example: The company was hopelessly mismanaged by a former musician with no business experience.
Mismatch: A combination of things or people that do not work well together or are not suitable for each other. Example: There is a mismatch between the capacity of the airport and the large number of people wanting to fly from it.
Post: A job, especially an important or well-paid one. Example: They have several vacant posts.
Posting: An occasion when an employee is sent to another country by his/her employer to do a particular job. Example: If you were offered an overseas posting, would you take it?
Produce a return: To get profit or income from time or money invested. Example: Over time, we produced a return of our investment.
Recover your investment: To get back money or another result according to what you have spent. Example: Therefore, the initial investment can only be recovered over a longer time period.
Rising stars: People in an organization who are talented and likely to reach high positions. Example: She’s the rising star of the organization.
To second: To send an employee to work for another organization for a period of time. Example: During the dispute, many police officers were seconded from traffic duty to the prison service.
Secondment: Arranging for an employee to work for another organization for a period of time. Example: She gained a lot of experience during her secondment as an economic adviser to the Treasury.
To uproot: To force someone to leave the place where they live. Example: He had been with the team six years and didn’t wish to uproot his family to play in a different city.
Anti-climax: Something that is not as exciting as you expected it to be. Example: The debate has been one of the biggest anti-climaxes of all.
Come bottom: To be in last place in a survey or competition. Example: We became bottom during the competition.
Come top: To be first place in a survey or competition. Example: We became top during the competition.
Common culture: A culture shared by everyone. Example: How long will it take for the new organisation to develop a common culture?
Unit 11
Allegiance: Loyalty to a country, belief. Example: For many of us, allegiance to the local community comes first.
Concerns: Things that worry you. Example: It concerns me that he hasn’t been in contact.
Disastrous: Very bad or ending in failure. Example: This decision will have a disastrous impact on the foreign policy.
Home town: The place where you were born and spent your childhood. Example: He has moved back to his home town after working several years in another country.
Lead-in time: The time needed for preparation. Example: This may mean a longer lead-in time, but is fairer to learners.
Miserable: Extremely unhappy, for example because you feel lonely. Example: She’s miserable living on her own.
To move: Going to live or work in a different place. Example: A lot of businesses are moving out of London because it’s too expensive.
Culture shock: The feeling of being confused or anxious that you get when you visit a foreign country or a place that is very different from the one that you’re used to. Example: It was a real culture shock to find herself in Bangkok after living on a small island.
Peripatetic: Travelling from place to place, especially in order to do your job. Example: Her father was in the army and the family led a peripatetic existence.
Relocation company: A company that specialises in helping executives and their families move to live and work in another country. Example: The company’s relocation overseas would result in the loss of over 300 jobs.
To settle: To go to live permanently in a particular place. Example: After they got married, they settled in Brooklyn for his new job.
Spouse: A husband or wife. Example: In 60 per cent of the households surveyed both spouses went out to work.
To thrive: To become very successful. Example: Some employees thrive on the challenge of intense workloads.
Trailing spouse: Wife, husband, or partner who accompanies an executive on a foreign assignment. Example: Some companies have found it difficult to help the trailing spouse, of a newly hired employee, find a local employment.
Overseas postings: A job, often within the organization that you already work for, which involves going to a different country or town to work for a particular period of time. Example: He has been working for the multinational company for several years and has enjoyed various overseas postings, including assignments in Germany and Belgium.
Expatriate assignment: Going away from your hometown. Example: She is very excited as she has been selected for a prestigious expatriate assignment in Tokyo.
Percentages:
80 per cent - Four-fifths
22 per cent - Just over one-fifth
9 per cent - Just under a tenth
47 per cent - Almost half
27 per cent - More than a quarter
33 per cent - A third
66 per cent - Two-thirds
28 per cent - Almost a third
60 per cent - More than half
62 per cent - Almost two-thirds
Unit 12
To boost: To help something to increase or improve. Example: The company is looking for ways to boost sales in Asia, its biggest market.
To bring up: To look after a child until he/she becomes an adult. Example: They brought her up to be a Catholic.
Likelihood: The degree to with something can reasonably be expected to happen. Example: There is little likelihood now that interest rates will come down further.
Offspring: Someone’s child or children. Often used humorously. Example: His sister came over on Sunday with all her offspring.
Overall: Considering or including everything. Example: Overall, it has been a good year for the merged company.
To rank: To decide the position of something in a list in order of quality or importance. Example: He has just been promoted to the rank of captain.
To put them out of the reach: Place beyond the limit of someone’s ability. Example: High fees may put them out of the reach for some expats.
To drag: Making someone go where they do not want to go. Example: The lack of effective communication among team members can drag down the progress of a project and hinder overall business performance.
Dominance: Full control. Example: The new chairman appears to be trying to assert his dominance with a set of personnel changes.
To secure: To get something important, especially after a lot of effort. Example: He was disappointed by his failure to secure the top job with the bank.
Unit 13
To build relationships: To create a good way of working together. Example: Managers are encouraged to build positive team relationships both through their work and socially.
To build trust: To create a belief in the honesty and goodness of someone. Example: The key to avoiding conflict is to build trust.
Code of practice: A set of rules about how people should behave. Example: The company plans to implement the recommendations through its code of practice in the new year.
To come about: To happen, especially in a way that is not planned. Example: New information can come about a number of ways.
Consistency: The ability to remain the same in behaviours and attitudes. Example: They found that the merger has made it hard to achieve consistency throughout the whole company.
Crucial: Something that is extremely important, because everything else depends on it. Example: He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself.
To draw up: To prepare a written document, such as a list or contract. Example: He wants his ministers to concentrate on implementing policy, not on drawing it up.
Face-to-face: Involving two people who are together in the same place. Example: It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two directors.
Fine line: If there is a fine line between things, they are almost the same as each other. Example: It is a fine line between success and budget cut.
Geographically dispersed: Working in different countries, often far apart. Example: These technologies are forging virtual societal networks communities of geographically dispersed individuals.
Inundated: Receiving so much of something that you cannot easily deal with it all. Example: Her office was inundated with requests for tickets.
Isolated: Feeling alone and unhappy, with no friends. Example: Some patients may become very isolated and depressed.
To kick off: If you kick off a discussion, meeting, event, etc. you start it. Example: He kicked off the meeting with a funny story.
To put in: To spend time or effort doing something. Example: He was going to be paid a salary, whether he put in forty hours or not.
To set out: To write about something, such as a group of facts, ideas or reasons, in an organised way. Example: An increasing number of laws sets out how an employer should approach hiring and firing staff.
To summarise information: Example: I would like to take a moment to summarize the facts that I presented earlier.
To determine success: Example: So many other factors determine the success o r otherwise of an acquisition.
To meet objectives: To achieve something that you’re trying to achieve. Example: Our boss is quite stubborn and when we don’t meet our objectives, he becomes mad.
To form a team: To form a group. Example: We need to form a team for our assignment.
In line with: in alignment or accordance with. Example: The action taken was in line with her decision.
Social information: One way for new team members to get to know each other is to exchange personal and social information.
Unit 14
Coax: To gently persuade someone to do something. Example: She can coax agreement from even the most stubborn people.
Culinary: Relating to cooking. Example: She was keen to acquire more advanced culinary skills.
Hands-on: Doing something yourself rather than just talking about it or telling other people to do it. Example: If reason didn’t work, he could always go back to a more hands-on approach.
To pose: To ask a question, especially one that needs to be carefully thought about. Example: When I finally posed the question, ‘Why?’ he merely shrugged.
Sovereignty: The right to rule a country. Example: They do not respect the sovereignty of Parliament.
Tactics: A method or plan to achieve something. Example: They planned the tactics for the next day’s battle.
Tough: Difficult to do or to deal with. Example: He built up a reputation as a tough businessman.
To link: To connect two things together. Example: The company is trying to build a strong link with the manufacturer.
To tour: To visit extensively. Example: She plans to tour around the world to broaden her life experience.
Unit 15
Board member: One of the group of people chosen by shareholders to control a company and decides its policies. Example: He was eager to become a board member to pursue his ideas.
Cultural mix: When people from different cultures mix together. Example: The cultural mix on the workplace creates innovative ideas.
To devise: To invent a method of doing something. Example: The company devised a solution to eliminate the bug in their latest product.
To implement: To take action or make changes that you have officially decided should happen. Example: If such measures were implemented, the problems could be overcome in twelve months.
Joint venture: A business activity in which two or more companies have invested together. Example: The company formed a joint venture with their biggest concurrency to make turbines.
Mutual trust: When two or more people or groups have confidence in each other. Example: Leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms.
On target: Working well towards what you are trying to achieve. Example: Our year-end results were right on target.
Organisational culture: The attitudes and beliefs shared by everyone who works in a particular organization. Example: It is important to make new employees understand our organisational culture so that they fully support it.
To play to your strengths: To concentrate on the things which you are good at. Example: While achieving organisational goals, it is important that you play to your strengths.
Prerequisite: Something that is necessary before something else can be happen or be done. Example: Training is a prerequisite for competence.
Unique selling point: A feature or a product or service that makes it different from all others = unique selling proposition. Example: These cars had a unique selling point that they were congestion-charge free.
Niche: A job or activity that is very suitable for you. Example: The key is to find the right niche and the right workplace.
Inevitably: Certain to happen, unavoidably. Example: Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.
A trick: Clever way of doing something. Example: We are playing a trick on a man who keeps bothering me.
A fair proportion: A fair amount. Example: The student received a fair proportion of credits from their research.
Collaboration tools: Devices or systems for communicating and sharing information more effectively at a distance. Example: During the corona pandemic, many companies worked with online collaboration tools such as Teams.
Unit 16
Brand-new: New and not used yet. Example: The company works with brand-new technological equipment.
Diverse: Very different from each other.
Fresh: Having just finished your education or training and not having a lot of experience.
Global competition: Competition between companies from different countries.
Global demand: Total demand from all over the world.
Global economy: The economy of the world seen as a whole.
Global footprint: Having offices and activities in many parts of the world.
Global team: A team of people based in different countries around the world.
To immerse: To become completely involved in an activity.
To jump on the bandwagon: To follow an idea or activity that suddenly becomes very popular.
Learning curve: The rate at which you learn a new skill.
Peer: Someone who is the same age or has the same job, social position, etc. as the person you are talking about.
To rotate: If people rotate jobs, they do the jobs for a fixed period of time, one after the other.
To spread your wings: To start activities in different areas or parts of the world.
Work experience: A short period of time during which a young person works for a company in order to learn about a job and about working life in general.
Work placement: When a student spends time in an organization to gain work experience.
Workforce: All the people who work in a particular country, industry or factory.
Workload: The amount of work that a person or organization has to do.
Workplace: The room or building where you work.
To equip: To provide with something.
To stand out: To be better that others.
Global projects: Important pieces of work that are planned and organised over a defined period of time in different parts of the world.
Scheme: Programme
Workshop: A place in which tools are used to make or repair things / or a short training course to improve your skills.
Workman: Someone who does physical work, such as building
Worksheet: A piece of paper with exercises on it that helps you to learn something.
Workaholic: Someone who spends most of their time working.
Global market: When trade can be carried worldwide.
Global village: The idea that the world van be considered as one unit for business and communication purposes.
Global warming: A general increase of world temperatures.
Global brand: A product that is known and sold all over the world.
Unit 17
Awareness: Knowledge or understanding of a particular subject, situation, or thing.
Global interdependence: The degree to which countries around the world are connected and need each other.
Humble: Not proud and not thinking you are better than others
Eye-opener: An experience from which you learn something surprising or new.
To jump to conclusions: To make a decision about something before you have all the facts.
Knowledgeable: Knowing a lot
Self-knowledge: An understanding of your own character and behaviour
Well-travelled: A person who has travelled to many countries
Take everything you read in the media at face value: Doubtful about the truth of what is written in the newspapers
To have a pretty warped view of the world: To see the world through a very distorted lens
Own lack of knowledge: Not knowing much about many things
To be took down a few notches: To make someone a bit less confident about themselves
Cross-cultural sensitivity
Unit 18
Candidate: Someone who is being considered for a job
Applicant: A person who applies for a job
Cohort: A group of people of the same age, social class
Cues: Using someone else’s actions or behaviour to show you what you should do or how you should behave
Far-reaching: Having a great influence or effect
To foresee: To think or know that something is going to happen in the future – to predict
Ground-breaking: Ground-breaking work involves making new discoveries, using new methods
To hire: To agree to give someone a job
To mirror: To match the qualities or features of someone else
Perceptive: Someone who is perceptive notices things quickly and understands situations, peoples feeling, etc. well
Setting: The place where something is or where something happens – the general environment
Spell: A short period of time
To stumble: To stop or make a mistake when you are speaking
Succinctly: Clearly expressed in a few words
Ultimately: Finally, after everything else has been done or considered
Unthinkable: Something that is impossible to accept or imagine
To work out: To find an answer to a problem or a way of dealing with a situation