Introduction

Each unit of this course has a central theme and it provides information and examples set in business contexts with the aim of giving the students the tools to develop the language skills in their workplace. Furthermore, you will also find exercises and activities online to practise the contents of the unit.

This unit, “International commerce”, is intended to describe the operations involved in trade, especially in international transactions, the workforce, activities, documentation and processes of international trade. We will meet different people whose work is related to this sector. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. They are serving the purpose of showing plausible contexts and situations which students of international commerce might encounter, thus providing them with helpful vocabulary and resources to use in a real workplace situation.

The unit is composed of three separate sections, each of them divided into four different parts. The first one includes some reading texts about topics related to the unit. The second part, called “Language in use”, includes explanations about the oral and the written language with multiple examples, such as emails, letters or conversations. The third part is called “Communication” and it offers practical examples of the use of the English language in different situations and to serve different purposes. Finally, there is a grammar reference, with grammar contents to use as a reference and as a revision of different grammatical points. This structure will be present in every section of this book.

The section called “Trade” contains information about the process of importing and exporting goods. We will get acquainted with terms such as comparative advantage, specialization or protectionism, which are essential to understand the mechanisms of international trade. Additionally, we will learn some facts about markets and its protagonists, and we will see the description of the process of ordering items online.

In the “Language in use” section there are different conversations. The first one is an interview to Lily, and import-export clerk who works for Patterson Lines. She describes her job and tells us how she feels about it. Then, there are some other conversations set in various contexts, formal and informal.

The “Communication” section explains the difference between the language styles (formal and informal) and between the written and the oral languages. These differences are very clearly marked in English.

The grammar section deals with the structure of the English statements and questions. This refers to the correct use and position of the elements that compose a sentence, which is especially important in written English. On the other hand, this section also explains the correct answer to yes/no questions.

In the section “Purchasing”, there is a description of the purchasing process, which starts from the moment a need of a product is identified until it is delivered to the final customer. Furthermore, we will learn what a product is and see a classification of different types of products.

In the “Language in use” section there is an example of a purchase order and some emails with examples of different stages in the purchasing process.

The “Communication” section deals with two important examples of written English: business letters and emails, which are very important in a business environment. You will learn the structure of business letters and emails as well as the type of language which is necessary depending on the context. This part also includes a list of connectors an the basic rules of spelling and punctuation in English.

The grammar section continuous the topic of the structure of English sentences. In this cas, we are going to learn about the verbal complements of other verbs. Those verbal components can go in infinitive, in gerund or in both, but there are no clear rules to establish which form they take.

The section “Logistics” is about the fascinating world of logistics, how different pieces of the network interconnect to attain the final goal of transporting any goods from the point of origin in any country to their final destination. We will learn vocabulary related to transport and modes of transport, read about incoterms and packaging. Finally, we will meet Gary Clerk,from Los Angeles, who moved to England and works for an English logistics company.

In the “Language in use” section, Anna Garcia, who works in the purchasing department of KeepImmerFit, calls a Chinese company to order some goods and discusses the terms of the transaction with Ms Younghi’s secretary. After the discussion, Ms Garcia writes a mail confirming the order and the terms agreed on the phone.

The section called “Communication” is devoted to talk about time in English. You will learn about the correct way of expressing the dates (both in the written and oral language) and the clock times.

In the grammar section, we are going to learn about the use of the prepositions of time and place. In English, the use of the prepositions does not always conform to a logical use, so it is sometimes necessary to learn the prepositional frase (for example, at the weekend) as a whole.