English for work: emails, phone calls and meetings without hesitation

In many Ticino companies, English is the language of clients, suppliers and colleagues at other sites. Staff have often studied it and understand it reasonably well. The problem appears when they have to actually use it: writing an email to an important client, answering an unexpected phone call, speaking up in a meeting. These are three different situations, and each one is difficult for different reasons.

Emails: clarity and tone

In writing there is time to think, but every mistake stays visible. The most common difficulties are not grammatical: they are about structure and tone. An email that is too long, a request buried halfway through the text, or a phrase that is too abrupt (or too ceremonious) gives an unprofessional impression even when the English is correct.

A few habits help straight away:

• put the purpose in the first line ("I'm writing to confirm...", "Could you please send me...")
• one paragraph per topic, short sentences
• end with a clear next step ("Please let me know by Friday if...")
• adapt the tone to the reader: a new client and a long-standing colleague are not greeted in the same way

Phone calls: no time to think

On the phone there are no gestures, no lip-reading and no time to reflect. That is why even people who write well in English can freeze. The most delicate moment is often the start: understanding who is calling and why.

What matters here is having a few reliable phrases ready, so that you manage the conversation instead of being swept along by it:

• ask for a repeat without embarrassment ("Sorry, could you repeat that, please?")
• have names and numbers spelled out ("Could you spell that for me?")
• summarise to confirm ("So, just to confirm...")
• buy time or call back ("Let me check and call you back.")

Knowing how to ask for clarification is a skill in itself: it is better than a "yes" said without having understood.

Meetings: speaking up

In meetings the difficulty is mainly one of confidence. People who do not feel at ease tend to stay silent, even when they have something useful to say, and what they could have added is lost. They need expressions for stepping in, giving an opinion, agreeing or disagreeing politely, and summarising the decisions made. Whoever chairs the meeting or presents a project also needs a method for structuring what they say.

Why a generic course is often not enough

A general English course improves the language, but this does not always turn into confidence in work situations. A role-oriented programme starts from the calls, emails and meetings that participants actually handle, and trains them with exercises and individual corrections. This is what people working in administration, customer service, sales, purchasing or human resources are asking for.

How BLC works

BLC offers two specialist professional-language programmes:

• Telephone & E-mail: answering and handling a professional call, writing clear emails to clients, suppliers and colleagues, using the right tone for the reader
• Meeting & Presentation: running an effective meeting, giving a professional presentation, speaking in public in a foreign language

Programmes are defined with the company according to the role and the level of the group. A level test on the CEFR scale (A1–C2) makes it possible to form homogeneous groups. Courses run in groups of 3 to 6 people or one-to-one, at your company, at the BLC site in Coldrerio or online, with schedules agreed with your HR department. BLC is certified to UNI ISO 21001:2019 and has been active in Ticino since 2007.

Find out more about the Telephone & E-mail and Meeting & Presentation programmes, or explore all language courses for companies. To understand why language training pays off for a company, also read Why invest in corporate language courses in 2026.

Three questions to get started

In which situations does your team use English every day? Where do they struggle most: in writing, on the phone or in meetings? And how many people have the same need? The answers show where to begin.

To design a programme for your team, contact us.