Listening to fake conversations for exams has its purpose, I guess, but they are not going to teach your students anything about business. Maybe you don't know much about business yourself and the idea of teaching business English intimidates you a bit. No worries!
If you're a teacher of business English classes, or you're learning English, and you need professional or business English in your career, we've put together a list of seven of the best YouTube channels for authentic business English terms, expressions, phrases, and interaction. NOTE: These are NOT English teaching channels. I'm sure you can find plenty of those if you search. However, these are for those who want a more natural touch than just a lesson about Business English. |
How to study with them
Whether you're a language teacher or learner, you can use just about any listening piece to learn your target language. You just have to focus your listening and listen for the right things. If you go to our Real Listening Practice activity, you will find a worksheet with focused questions that are intended to help students grasp key content and language from any listening. Or use them for your own classes and create engaging activities. |
7. Charisma on Command
These will be useful in business if you have business meetings, dinners, you have to meet with clients, and any social situation you may find.
One thing to keep in mind, they do talk a bit fast. If you're using this for class, you may have to slow the video down or play it several times to catch some of the details.
6. Flux
This will be useful for creatives and entrepreneurs who want to learn tips and practical vocabulary in the web design or graphic design field.
One thing to keep in mind, he also talks a bit fast. Also English is his second language, but he doesn't really hav an accent, but it may be a challenge for some students. If you're using this for class, you may have to slow the video down or play it several times to catch some of the details.
5. Tim Ferriss
This will be useful for creatives, people who create start-ups, CEOs, and anyone who wants to be more productive in their lives.
One thing to keep in mind, he and his guests shares a lot of technical vocabulary that aren't used everyday (for example "batching"). However, he explains them well.
4. TED
This will be useful for students who want to learn about most any topic.
One thing to keep in mind, the topics of TED Talks can quite literally be about anything, so it can be hard to narrow down a search when you want to sit down and practice listening.
3. Silicon Valley Girl
This will be useful for small business owners, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and girls who need a bit of female inspiration.
Another useful thing about her channel is, it seems that she had either taught English abroad or has had some hand in the EFL world because she has been a part of several language-learning start-ups as you will see in the video below. She naturally speaks slowly and clearly which makes it easy to follow what she's saying.
2. Salesman Podcast
This will be useful for people who want English for sales, business strategy, or any kind of business venture.
One thing to keep in mind, he has plenty of guests and some English learners may have a hard time with some accents and speeds of talking. The shows are also long, so lessons or sessions may need to be broken up in bite-size pieces.
1. The Futur
This will be useful for any and all creatives, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and more specifically graphic designers. Students who want to learn clear, useful, and targeted vocabulary and expressions that they can apply to growing their business.
One thing to keep in mind, there are many different types of videos on this channel. Some videos are long and some are short, some have music in the background and some are just conversations. Taking short excerpts from the longer shows and accompanying it with the listening exercises above, could make for some very valuable language lessons for business English learners.
Pro Tips:
Break up longer sessions - Some of the videos on these channels are longer. A teacher or tutor will want to break them up into bite-size sessions of 4-8 minutes depending on the level of the student and the content being discussed.
Easter Egg Lessons
What else can you find?