English as a lingua franca has snuck itself into our daily lives, thus also affecting the language practices in many workplaces all over Switzerland. In the world of music, there are plenty of anglicisms that we use on a regular basis: DJ, Hip Hop, Rap, Charts, R’n’B and Jazz, among many others. This study aims […]

  For my project, I was interested in the language practices of an international student organization, based at a university in the Swiss German-speaking part of Switzerland. The organization creates events for exchange students to get to know each other and explore Switzerland and the city the university is located in. Of the 25 members […]

Have you ever wondered about the two mysterious figures sitting in the cockpit, entrusted with the lives of hundreds of passengers? How did they get there? And what does it take to wear the pilot’s hat? Among many other qualities, it takes a good amount of English language skills. But how good exactly? And how […]

  In a multicultural and multilingual country, English is beginning to take on more and more of an important role. Also playing an important role in this globalisation is the medium of emails. Thanks to today’s technology, larger scale communications can take place simultaneously and anachronistically. One does not have to immediately be available to […]

  Have you ever been told that learning English will open up the gate to a successful career? In most businesses, a certain proficiency in English is the premise. Switzerland has a particularly rich linguistic environment, starting with four national languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansh). Could the “common” language English bridge the linguistic difficulties […]

    In my early childhood, it was my dream to one day become a zookeeper and spend my days tending to a wide variety of creatures that co-inhabit our decaying planet alongside us. Life had another plan for me, however, and I began a journey that led me down the path of English and […]

  As part of our English project, we decided to visit two museums in Basel and compare the English usage in those localities. The museums we visited were the Kunstmuseum and the Antikenmuseum. During our investigation we found that, despite both museums having a lot of international customers, not many signs were available in English. […]

Basel is home to many international and global companies that use English as their business language to secure a productive internal and external communication. Although this language practice might be considered slightly challenging by some, English successfully continues to be the most used language in the corporate world. While trying to understand how this practice […]

  Is English really necessary in the workplace in Switzerland? And can those who speak English receive a higher salary? These questions come up often in my head, especially considering that English is presented in coexistence with 4 national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh when it comes to the workplaces in Switzerland. In this […]

  Have you ever had to work in together with other people on a group project? Have you ever wondered how a leader gets determined in a group-work setting? And have you ever wondered if the participants gender is relevant to leadership establishment?  If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you would […]