BTS Assistant de Gestion PME-PMI

BTS Assistant de Gestion PME-PMI 1998
ANGLAIS
LE DICTIONNAIRE BILINGUE EST AUTORISE
(à l'exclusion de tout dictionnaire électronique)
Durée 2 H 00
THE ACCENT IS ON BUSINESS
Companies working in the international arena are
sending their staff back to school to learn to speak
their clients' language
By Marcus Gibson
When a big British insurance company was
unexpectedly bought by a French group last year, its key
staff had to take a crash course in French. They suddenly
found themselves in a situation which is increasingly
common these days: as a business leaps across national
frontiers, its executives need to master a foreign
language.
It has long been known that exporters need to be able
to speak the language of their potential clients. But that
was just the beginning: it is now becoming important that
employees such as dealers in the international money
markets and those involved in financial institutions
should at least be bilingual.
"Anyone wanting to trade successfully in the
international arena must be a linguist," said Professor
Eric de la Croix of the European Business School (EBS)
in London. In the past seven years there has been a
monumental shift in the qualifications needed for jobs in
finance. Nearly every advertisement emphasises ability in
languages." The EBS requires students to study two
foreign languages for six hours a week. It offers French,
German, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and
Mandarin Chinese.
All too often, however, businesses find that it is hard
to fit expert tuition into their hectic, erratic schedules.
There are complaints that language learning for business
24-30 JULY 1997
Coefficient 1,5
purposes is poorly served by some traditional schools,
which tend to see themselves as part of higher education,
not of the business community.
The result, says Jonathan Smith, the director of the
European Centre for Business, a specialist languages-forbusiness training college which opened in Manchester,
England, in 1992, is that many schools have little
understanding of the true needs of the business
community. "Recognising what they really need is the
first step," says Smith. "Many language colleges are
happy to sell companies all manner of training courses
when it might not be the best solution."
Companies come to the centre, he says, "with a
problem that needs to be urgently addressed." And
language teaching has to be flexible. 1t is no good telling
a major company that the teacher is not available on a
certain day." Smith gave the example of a large British
bank which wanted to transfer certain computer functions
from Paris to Manchester. British staff required a fivemonth crash course in Paris, together with instant "on the
phone" linguistic support after the course had finished.
Smith says: “Instead of sitting in classrooms, our teachers
spent 80 per cent of their time onsite with the client."
[...]
One new trend is that European executives require
languages not just because they are selling across
borders, but because they are having to manage across
borders. While many can "get by" in a foreign language,
it is not enough to enable them to be as competent a
manager abroad as they were at home. This is a type of
transnational responsibility that is becoming more
common as most senior managers expect to shoulder
cross-border
duties during their careers.

 THE EUROPEAN
QUESTIONS
I. COMPREHENSION DE L’ECRIT
(12 points)
Après une lecture attentive du texte, vous rédigerez en ANGLAIS un COMPTE RENDU de 140 à180 mots. (Vous
indiquerez le nombre de mots utilisés).
II. TRADUCTION EN FRANÇAIS
(8 points)
Vous traduirez depuis “When a big British insurance company ...” (§1) jusqu'à “…at least be bilingual." (§2).
Correction : I/ VERSION
Quand un groupe français a créé la surprise en se rendant acquéreur, l’an passé, d’une importante compagnie
d’assurances britannique, les personnes qui occupaient des postes clés dans cette dernière
 ont bien été obligées
 de prendre des cours intensifs de français.
 n’ont eu d’autre choix que

Ils se sont trouvés brutalement confrontés à une situation qui est, de nos jours, de plus en plus fréquente : quand une
 passe d’un pays à un autre, 
entreprise  change de nationalité,
 ses cadres ont besoin de maîtriser une langue étrangère.
 franchit des frontières,

Depuis longtemps, on sait qu’il est indispensable pour les exportateurs de parler la langue de leurs clients potentiels.
Mais ce n’était qu’un début : Le bilinguisme, au minimum, devient à présent primordial pour des employés tels que les
opérateurs des marchés monétaires internationaux, ou que ceux qui travaillent pour des institutions financières.
II/ COMPTE RENDU
This article from the European deals with the increasing importance of mastering several languages in the business
world, a phenomenon that grew more important in the 1990s’.
In Import/Export activities, fluency in a second language has long been a requisite. With the globalisation of trade,
though, the need has spread to other industries. The financial sector in particular wants at least bilingual executives.
International buy-outs and mergers mean that linguistic skills are no longer necessary just to deal with foreign
customers, but also for global managers to be able to run multinational teams.
Business schools consequently stress the importance of languages in their curricula.
However, many companies regret it that schools tend to provide a teaching which is too academic. They look for
educational organisations that can address their specific needs : first, they should be able to adapt to the demanding
time-tables of the company. They also should not limit teaching to the classroom, and be able to help students onsite
with the technical specificities of a given job.
(170 mots)