German language training, armed with business objectives

In order to get off to a flying start in his new function as Managing Director of Aon Affinity and Member of the Aon Risk Services Management team in Germany, Mr Goudswaard decided that his German needed bringing up to scratch. He arrived at Regina Coeli, armed with his business objectives and agenda.

Explaining milestones and action points

Mr Goudswaard new exactly what he wanted to achieve at Regina Coeli. “In order to be able to carry out my new function in Germany, I had to get my German back up to scratch. During the training course, we focused on my draft business objectives and agenda for 2013-2014. I learned a lot from going through the milestones and corresponding action points by having to explain what it was all about to my German language trainer. We worked on vocabulary and sentence formulation but also on cultural awareness.” 

Cultural differences are often underestimated

Originally an Anglo-Saxon business, Aon is a provider of financial and insurance services and has its headquarters in London and Chicago as well as offices in 120 countries.  Mr. Goudswaard has been working for the company for nine years now. “I’ve been to many countries and have worked closely with our local and global teams in order to provide our clients with the necessary services as well as to look for new business. In spite of being a global player, we deliver locally. Culture, legislation and economies differ from one country to the next and now that borders are increasingly disappearing, these differences are often underestimated. One of the things I noticed in Germany was the much more formal approach.”

Truly tailor made

Mr Goudswaard is full of praise for his language training at Regina Coeli. “I have made good progress and will be able to use what I have learned straight away. The way the programme was put together, the balance between one-to-one lessons and multimedia sessions in the language laboratory was excellent! The Regina Coeli trainers were a perfect team working together to help me succeed. It was truly tailor made and I can recommend the method to everyone.”