“I know English but call me last…”
ERB has decided to find out whether Belarusian enterprises had a good command of English. It has turned out that it was possible to communicate with marketing services. However, we were asked to phone back later or send a letter with our request many times. Anyway, they will try to talk to you and will not ring off. According to an order of the Council of Ministers, state enterprises had to restructure their marketing services by August 1. Employees should also be able to speak foreign languages. ERB has decided to test our enterprises.
We called marketing services of the leading Belarusian enterprises “to buy” their products. At first we wondered if anyone could speak English there: “Could you please speak English?”
“Kamunarka” was the first one. We introduced ourselves as Polish businessmen and tried to buy a large consignment of chocolate. However, we talked around it. A girl answered the phone.
“Could you please speak English?”
— A moment.
Two minutes later (I could hear: “just come and tell them, but speak distinctly”). Another girl answers. I greet her.
— Hello.
— Hello. I am sorry, I know… I know English, but maybe call last.
Then we called MAZ. I said I was an entrepreneur from Bulgaria and wanted to buy 10 buses from them.
— Mmm… have you? Mmm… do you have any conversation with our or you just first speaking with us?
We exchanged a couple of phrases and the girl asked to call back 40 minutes later:
— Now we have a break time for lunch. So can you call us back in may be 40 minutes?
ERB tried to buy a rock handler from BelAZ. I asked my standard question.
— Could you speak English please?
— Just a moment (I could hear: “Tanya, come and talk to them!” – “In English or what?”)
I spoke with another girl. She asked if we had called them before or sent a request. Then she asked to wait a bit and gave us an e-mail to send the request to.
— You can… ask some questions now… but I guess you need some special… well… some special things — all the products we can offer… so maybe you should send us…
We also managed to communicate with the marketing service of Minsk Tractor Plant – they were stumbling, but it was possible to understand one another. They advised we should contact their dealer in Bulgaria.
— We have a dealer in Bulgaria and sell tractors only for dealer because this dealer is our firm with our money .
The director of the System Business Technologies Centre Zhana Hrynyuk said Resolution 284 was “a step forward”:
“The resolution itself is recognition we have marketing in our country and of the fact that marketing services need to be actively reformed… I even suggested making the date when the resolution was out a professional holiday of marketing specialists in our country”.
Not being able to speak foreign languages is a great problem of state enterprises, continues Ms. Hrynyuk:
“This is an issue of the day. And having a good command of a language is not a panacea here. A graduate of Linguistic University working in a marketing service will also fail to do the job because it requires professional competence and experience besides being able to speak a foreign language.
Of course, the problem exists and everyone admits it. In my opinion, admitting a problem is 50% of its solution”.
At the same time, Zhanna Hrynyuk notes that hiring younger staff members for marketing services is not a way out. Firstly, it is explained by the fact that “you should never swap horses while crossing the stream”. Secondly – no matter how many new employees you hire, nothing will change if the system does not change even if a genius marketing specialists comes there”.
We called marketing services of the leading Belarusian enterprises “to buy” their products. At first we wondered if anyone could speak English there: “Could you please speak English?”
“Kamunarka” was the first one. We introduced ourselves as Polish businessmen and tried to buy a large consignment of chocolate. However, we talked around it. A girl answered the phone.
“Could you please speak English?”
— A moment.
Two minutes later (I could hear: “just come and tell them, but speak distinctly”). Another girl answers. I greet her.
— Hello.
— Hello. I am sorry, I know… I know English, but maybe call last.
Then we called MAZ. I said I was an entrepreneur from Bulgaria and wanted to buy 10 buses from them.
— Mmm… have you? Mmm… do you have any conversation with our or you just first speaking with us?
We exchanged a couple of phrases and the girl asked to call back 40 minutes later:
— Now we have a break time for lunch. So can you call us back in may be 40 minutes?
ERB tried to buy a rock handler from BelAZ. I asked my standard question.
— Could you speak English please?
— Just a moment (I could hear: “Tanya, come and talk to them!” – “In English or what?”)
I spoke with another girl. She asked if we had called them before or sent a request. Then she asked to wait a bit and gave us an e-mail to send the request to.
— You can… ask some questions now… but I guess you need some special… well… some special things — all the products we can offer… so maybe you should send us…
We also managed to communicate with the marketing service of Minsk Tractor Plant – they were stumbling, but it was possible to understand one another. They advised we should contact their dealer in Bulgaria.
— We have a dealer in Bulgaria and sell tractors only for dealer because this dealer is our firm with our money .
The director of the System Business Technologies Centre Zhana Hrynyuk said Resolution 284 was “a step forward”:
“The resolution itself is recognition we have marketing in our country and of the fact that marketing services need to be actively reformed… I even suggested making the date when the resolution was out a professional holiday of marketing specialists in our country”.
Not being able to speak foreign languages is a great problem of state enterprises, continues Ms. Hrynyuk:
“This is an issue of the day. And having a good command of a language is not a panacea here. A graduate of Linguistic University working in a marketing service will also fail to do the job because it requires professional competence and experience besides being able to speak a foreign language.
Of course, the problem exists and everyone admits it. In my opinion, admitting a problem is 50% of its solution”.
At the same time, Zhanna Hrynyuk notes that hiring younger staff members for marketing services is not a way out. Firstly, it is explained by the fact that “you should never swap horses while crossing the stream”. Secondly – no matter how many new employees you hire, nothing will change if the system does not change even if a genius marketing specialists comes there”.
