LEZIONE 1 24.02.2025
WORKPLACE CULTURE
Why is English the international language?
There’s one very ancient language that was the language of the international trade and culture of culture:
that was LATIN  it was the Latin because the roman empire concurred most of Europe. Everything was
written in Latin: church, science, etc.
It’s also called LINGUA FRANCA
The next international language was FRENCH  it was the so called “language of diplomacy”
After something changes because of the industrial revolution that started in the UK. The UK was a very
powerful country. In the 18th century was an empire, had many territories in different continents. Its power
derived mainly from trade.
After the second world war, there was another country that became even more important than the UK, which
is USA.
So basically, English was important before as for UK and then because of the US, that became most important
economic power of the world after the Second World War. That’s why we are studying English as an
international language.
Now China is more important than US. Nobody can know what happening in the future, but probably we are
not going to change the international language, which wasn’t chosen before but is also spread in terms of
accessibility and easiness to learnt.
Now in the Europe, we have 2 official languages:
- FRENCH = traditional ..
- ENGLISH = international language
BREXIT is the main speaking English country. It’s no more in the European union but English remains the most
important language.
The language we speak internationally, it is sometimes kind of artificial English, it’s not the traditional one.
Some people call it GLOBISH (globe English)  British, Australian, American
each person speak English with their own accent or add something, structure etc.
Each language corresponds to the culture  culture means common references = so we are not sharing the
same culture refers references,
every culture has own references
EXAMPLE: common references,
There are other benefits of speaking an international language:
- we can easily communicate and speak with people from different cultures
PROBLEMS:
- we have different culture references: we have different “English style”  even if we speak the
language correct, we have different references, even if we understand the world we have different
cultural values. It is called “cultural clash”.
We have British and American English. but there’s many more like Canadian English, Australian English
There are many varieties and usually it depends on the location (different accent, other words) and social
classes (the language we speak depend on your education)
an accent was created artificially and that’s called KINGS ENGLISH/BBC ENGLISH. It was created in London by
the aristocracy to distinguish themselves from the commoners.
(foto daria)
KINGS ENGLISH 
BBC ENGLISH 
There are differences between British ad American English:
- in accent
- spelling (UK: analyse – US: analize) (UK: colour – US: color) (US: center,
- vocabulary  but it doesn’t affect in business English
In business English we have two kinds of words:
 one from Latin
one from Germanic
Workplace culture is related to the so called “corporate culture”  we refer to dress code, how people work
together,… MIN 20
in companies. the hierarchy is based on culture, It can be:
- TALL ORGANIZATION: LINE MAGER, TEAM, where everyone have one define role
- FLAT ORGANIZATION
VIDEO:
- They decided to give to everybody the same salary.
- Some people had their pay increased meanwhile managers had their pay decreased because
managers supposed to have a bigger pay
1. What exactly was the change that Gravity Payments made in their pay to employees?
They gave everyone a minimum salary of $70.000 a year.
2. How did this change help Korinne?
Korinne could afford to live closer to work
3. What was Alyssa able to do?
Alyssa was able to pay off her car loan, credit card debt and move into a better home.
4. What did some senior staff do in response to the change and why?
They left the company because they were not happy, because they believe that their skills and
experiences were not recognized.
5. How did this change directly affect the employees and the quality of their work?
The had some increases.
6. What positive effect did the publicity about the increase in salaries have on the company?
The numbers of clients raised. The employers are more committed to the job. The company pulled
in (received) a lot of new business.
7. What did one of their customers say about the change?
Staff felt better about being part of the company and worked harder with customers.
8. What did staff do to thank their boss?
They bought him a Tesla car (worth 590,000).
the profit is the net value
GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT = domestic (= of the country)
Publicity it’s free
advertisement  it’s something paid
1. We talk about the 'culture of a company – this might mean its dress code or the way in which staff
communicate with their managers.
2. Dan Price announced the company's minimum salary would go up to $70,000 a year.
3. We are going to have a minimum $70,000 pay rate for everyone that works here.
4. They felt their skills and experience were not recognized in the new more equal pay structure.
RATE = when you book a hotel you can ask the rate for room. It’s usually use for formal things
“Rate” it’s not “rata” but it’s installments (= we usually pay installments)
when you pay to come to the university, we pay the FEE (we use it in Italy, when for example we buy a house)
 commissione
we pay taxes to the governments
1. Company hierarchy refers to staff organized on various levels. (In such structures, staff are organized
into levels and people at one level have authority over those below them and report to those above
them).
2. The values of a company are principles and practices a business or organization feels are important
and tries to follow.
3. Organization behavior looks at how people is an organization work together and how this affects the
organization as a whole
4. A good atmosphere in a company means a pleasant or positive feeling that a place gives you.
5. A strategy is a plan for achieving an aim
6. Company structure means the way an organization is structured. (It does not refer to a specific or
strict hierarchy.)
7. The image of a company refers to the general opinion that most people have of an organization or
product. (This is not limited only to their advertisements or TV commercials.)
8. An open-place office is one which does not have walls dividing it into separate rooms
9. Flexibility refers to people or plans that can be changes easily to suit any new situations (refers to
flexible hours, the place where you work  smart working means when you work with many tasks
to do, it’s not mean that you work at home. When you work at home it’s called “remote work”)
CORPORATE CULTURE is different from company to company but very often it is connected to the values the
company has. This affects the company structure as well as the pay rate. Some companies are more formal
and have a specific dress code while others feel that it's important to have flexibility in what people
can wear. Asking employees for input when developing a strategy for the future
can make employees feel valued and can help to create a good atmosphere. Each company has to decide
these issues for itself, and they all go together to create the image the company has both internally and
externally.