English in a global economy

One of the reasons I took to writing my blog in English is to practice myself with a language not my own. I needed to practice it because it is the business language not only here in Qatar but for many parts of world. Practice makes perfect as many use to say. Without practicing the language I will easily lose whatever mastery I have with it.
Since I spend most of my time in my room after office hours, writing became the natural outlet for me to express my thoughts, feelings and opinions. Besides I can easily correct the sentences I have constructed to convey what I mean in a more coherent manner. But since I am a person who is more technically inclined, I would tend to bring out my thoughts in a more direct way than using a more descriptive or dramatic way as a novelist would. Many a times I would be lost for words to state some of the things I wanted to share. But still I try to express everything in this language.
During my college days I remembered that we have English subjects that teach besides the usual literature topics also introduced us to letter writing particularly business writing. It taught us how write correspondences, application letters, product presentation and even resignation letters. I wonder if this is still taught in college or whether with the advent of the Internet, students just download from thousands of examples from various websites without bothering to make one. Or maybe just maybe Filipinos are so engrossed with the abbreviations of words on SMS messages that many have forgotten the spelling of the original word.
I am saying this because our company has been trying to hire some administrative assistants and secretaries for many months now. Naturally we are hoping that a compatriot be hired for the position. Sadly as of this writing, no Filipino applicant has passed a relatively simple test – to a write either a correspondence or an appointment letter. A simple letter would be filled with misspelled words, grammatical mistakes and abbreviated words as those used on SMS messages. I pity those who don’t make it because it is an opportunity that has passed them by.
For many who want to find work here in the Middle East and for those who are here already and want to get ahead in their career or just get a better contract, I offer this humble advice: Get a good grasp of the English language. You do not have to able to speak in the accent of English kings or write like a poet or a novelist but at least you should be able to communicate in an understandable manner and correspond in a coherent way. Believe me better skills in the English language is a great advantage in a global work environment.