English language in the Czech Republic

5English language in the Czech Republic

In 2011, Profesia.cz (Personnel Company) carried out research that proved the requirements for knowledge of foreign languages. Most of the companies required active knowledge of English language therefore they even advertised their job position in English to eliminate those who do not understand the language at all. 67 percent of advertising companies required English language in their job offers, in the first half of the year 2011. 21 percent of companies’ required German language. Requirements for other languages are rather rare and are needed mostly in specialized jobs such as translators, lectors or those workers who will have to do business at market in countries where people do not speak English or German; in numbers those requirements are about 1 percent for Spanish, Italian, Russian or Hungarian language. According to applicants English language is the most spread foreign language. Basic knowledge of English language is declared by 56 percent of applicants (“Pokud neovládáte angličtinu, najít práci je těžké”).

CzechInvest conducted research from different angle. In the year 2009 asked Czech population about ability to speak any foreign language. 9 out of 10 people claimed that they are able to speak at least one foreign language. Unfortunately Slovak language has not been excluded, therefore the number got so high as 72,2 percent declared the knowledge of Slovak. English language got to second stage with 61,3 percent of people who are able to use it. Only 16,1 percent said that they are fluent speakers of English. People living in Prague have the best knowledge of English language, it is about 81,9 percent, South Moravia is considered to be on the second place together with people from Pardubice and Hradec Králové (70 percent). Better knowledge of English as well as German language have young people in the age between 18 to 29 and every fifth person use foreign language in job (“Průzkum: devět z deseti Čechů mluví cizím jazykem”).

To sum up aforementioned research even though people’s ability to speak English language grows, there still differs the level that is required by employers and what applicants may offer. Employers often encounter with insufficient knowledge of English. Time to time one can read newspaper articles that deal with this problem. For example iDnes in different times inform people the knowledge of English is required otherwise you may lose on job market. The need of English language is required no matter what origin the company is. It used be a habit that companies required English language even at job position that would never use the language. However, nowadays the companies do not follow it and once it is stated the knowledge is required than employee will use and encounter with the language at work ( Hudečková).

To support or disprove abovementioned researches I decided to carry out my own research. The research is focused on multinational companies (corporations) where the ability to speak English is expected.

6English language in corporations

6.1Introduction to research

The data were obtained from several companies that operate in the Czech Republic. The companies were located either in Prague or in Brno. Though aspiring to cover as broad industry categories as possible, received answers were mostly from companies that have their specializations in information technology, telecommunications or finance; few answers were from aviation, news agency and pharmaceutical company. According to division, if these companies are specialized in service or research and development, this was equal.

When obtaining data, I have not asked any of these companies officially to use their name in the thesis and so for reasons of confidentiality, I will not name any of the companies. The data were received from many various companies but their specializations are somehow similar, I put the companies for this research to three following groups. When speaking about companies in group A, those are meant companies specialized in information technology, group B are the companies specialized in telecommunication industry, group C are the companies that have their specialization in finance, audit or taxation. As mentioned above I received few responds from companies specialized in aviation, news agency and pharmacy, however respondents work in these companies as experts either in information technology or in finance, therefore I will put them to group A and C. Even though I grouped the companies accordingly, I worked with the findings as a whole and did not subdivide them per these categories.

In numbers, I received 33 responses in total (Chart ). Majority of the responses were from telecommunication industry, 14 respondents, the other field that was covered are ‘IT’ companies, 10 respondents. 6 respondents were from companies that deal with finance, audit and taxation, 3 respondents were from other industries, such as aviation, news agency and pharmaceutical company.