Update: Learn English it's good for business

Update: Cheryl gave me the link for the site she mentions in her comment:

http://www.livemocha.com/

To learn English should be obvious in today's world because it's obvious it's good for business.

I understand it can be seen as a very demanding project. Hey, I live in North America. There are at least 35 % of people who speak Spanish as their first language in the US. It should be logical for me to learn Spanish. But I don't really need to, because I'm fluent in English. It would help me develop stronger relationships in Spanish-speaking countries, but it's not a priority for me right now. And, I will admit that learning a third language looks like a big project to me. I say third cause my first language is French.

Here and there, I see members say they would like to speak in other languages besides English at APSense. The same response always comes up: create a group for people who speak your language, or even better, ask that a 2.0 community be created.

But, for the main APSense site, features and services, this is an impossible demand.

We can't ask the moderators to speak all languages. Also, APSense won't hire moderators to try to cover all possibilities. It wouldn't make sense and it would be a big hassle.

If you have problems speaking or reading English, you can use online translators. They don't do a perfect job, but it's good enough to understand the main points in most cases.

However, if you really take your business seriously, and you intend to make money by selling products or services worldwide, learning English should be priority number one. For the following reasons:

• Advertising
• Customer support
• Reading contracts
• Understanding the laws of other countries
• Following the conversations or presentations in webinars, teleseminars, conferences
• Studying and learning
• Selling products from places like ClickBank
  

Money doesn't have to be an obstacle. There are many sites out there where you can learn English for free. Just by typing "learn English" ( without the quotes ) in Google, I found these results on the first page:

• www.tolearnenglish.com/  To Learn English is a free site for English learners. You will find free English vocabulary sheets, English grammar sheets and English exercises.
• www.learnenglish.de/  Learn English offers English grammar and extensive British English vocabulary sections along with a free English magazine and diary, games, lessons and ...
• www.englishclub.com/learn-english.htm  Learn English free online. Lessons and resources to help ESL students learn to speak English. Join English Club free to learn online.
• www.learn-english-online.org/  Learn English Online - free ESL beginners course - free English lessons - EFL ESL lessons in association with Learn English.
• learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/  Learn English online with the help of this free website from the British Council with games, stories, listening activities and grammar ...

These were on the first page of results.

Are these sites good or reliable? I have no idea. The one that caught my attention was the British Council one. But I don't have to learn English, so I didn't check the sites themselves.

Let's say it takes a few months to learn workable English, i.e. good enough to do business. We're talking about an investment of time that will pay off for decades to come. I believe it's definitely worth the effort.