Most teams in Dutch organisations speak decent English. Good enough for an email, a call with a foreign colleague, a presentation that just about lands. But between “decent” and “truly fluent” sits a grey zone that nobody measures, and that still costs time and money every week. This article is about that zone: what not-quite-fluent English costs an organisation, and how to find out whether your team is affected.
Because the problem is rarely that a team cannot speak English. The problem is that the English is not quite good enough for the work the team actually does. And precisely because everyone gets by, it almost never shows.
In short
- Not-quite-fluent English costs organisations time, lost deals and confidence, often without ever showing up in the numbers.
- Research by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that 18% of professionals lost a sale due to miscommunication.
- The gains do not come from generic courses, but from targeted business English for teams, tied to the real work.
What is “not quite good enough” English?
Not-quite-fluent English, sometimes called good enough English, is language ability that works for everyday communication but falls short the moment the work becomes more complex, faster or higher-stakes. People get by, but they lose their edge. They simplify their message, avoid difficult conversations, or spend twice as long on a text that a native speaker would write in half the time.
You recognise it in small signals that seem harmless on their own:
- A colleague who would rather email than call, because writing buys more thinking time.
- Meetings that suddenly switch back to Dutch the moment things get complicated.
- People who become more polite, more cautious and vaguer in English than they would ever be in their own language.
- Important nuance that disappears, simply because the words to express it are missing.
Small, one by one. Added together, a brake on everything that goes international.
What does not-quite-fluent English cost an organisation?
The costs are real. They just rarely appear as a separate line in a budget. Research paints a clear picture of the scale.
- Lost time. International research shows employees spend up to a fifth of their working week clarifying unclear communication. Every misread email, every extra round of alignment adds up.
- Delayed and failed projects. In a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit of more than 400 professionals, 44% said miscommunication caused a project to be delayed or to fail.
- Lost revenue. In that same study, 18% lost a sale through miscommunication. International research cited by language trainer Learnship also shows that 64% of companies miss out on international deals due to a lack of multilingual employees.
- People who disengage. Anyone who cannot quite express themselves day after day loses confidence and engagement. Companies that invest in language training see staff turnover fall by roughly a quarter, according to the same source.
None of these costs appears under the heading “English too weak”. They hide inside delays, rework and conversations that do not quite land. That is why the total is almost always larger than you would expect.
Why does this rarely show?
Because there is never one moment where it goes wrong. There is no report that turns red, no project that derails on language in one go. Instead, the team quietly adjusts downwards. The message gets simpler, the ambition slightly smaller, the pace slightly slower. Nobody says in a meeting, “I understood about eighty per cent of that.” Yet that is exactly what happens.
That silence is the real problem. A shortfall nobody names is a shortfall nobody can solve. The first step, then, is not training. It is making the friction visible.
How do you know if your team speaks not-quite-fluent English?
Start with a few honest questions about your own team:
- Do people avoid certain tasks or conversations in English?
- Does writing an English email take noticeably longer than a Dutch one?
- Do colleagues sound less convincing in English than they are in their own language?
- Has there ever been a misunderstanding with a client or partner that better language could have prevented?
One yes is not a problem. A pattern of yeses is. To bring that pattern into focus without guesswork, we built a short diagnostic: the Business English Team Scan. Not a pass-or-fail test, but a quick check that shows where the friction sits in your team, and roughly what it costs you.
Map your team’s English in 5 minutes
Take the free Business English Team Scan and see straight away where the gains are. No sales pitch, just insight.
What helps: targeted business English for teams
A generic course off the shelf rarely solves this. What does work is business English for teams that is built around the real work: the emails they send, the negotiations they run, the presentations they give. That is exactly where a good business English course stands apart from a general programme. Not the language in general, but the language your team needs tomorrow. At Language Partners, certified trainers teach one to one, online and blended, using material from each learner’s own practice. So it is not just vocabulary that grows, but above all the confidence to communicate clearly in any language.
For teams that need fast results, for example ahead of a new international role or an upcoming project, there is the Summer Crash Course: an intensive programme of fifteen hours, fully online and tailored. Want to know more about how we work? See the pages about business English and our training methods.
Frequently asked questions about business English for teams
What is business English for teams?
Business English for teams is language training that helps a whole group of employees communicate clearly and confidently in a work context, think emails, meetings, negotiations and presentations. The training is built around the work the team actually does, rather than general grammar.
How do you measure whether a team needs better English?
Look for patterns: avoiding English-language tasks, taking extra time over English texts, switching back to Dutch on complex topics, and misunderstandings with clients or partners. A diagnostic such as the Business English Team Scan makes that friction visible in a few minutes.
What does poor English cost a business?
The costs hide in lost time, delayed projects and missed revenue. Research by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that 18% of professionals lost a sale through miscommunication, and 44% saw projects delayed or fail.
How long does it take to improve a team’s English?
That depends on the starting level and the goal. For concrete situations, an intensive programme such as the Summer Crash Course (fifteen hours) delivers noticeable results within a few weeks. For structural growth, an ongoing blended programme works better.
Can you train business English online for a whole team?
Yes. At Language Partners the training is fully available online and blended, one to one with a certified trainer, wherever team members are based. That keeps the quality consistent and the scheduling flexible.
Want to know where the gains are for your team? Take the free Business English Team Scan and get instant insight.
