When a company calculates personnel costs, English rarely appears in the budget as a separate line item. Salaries, taxes, recruiting, technology, CRM, office space, marketing, legal support—all of these are visible in the financial statements. But poor English skills often fall into a different category. They aren’t always considered an expense because they don’t show up as a separate bill at the end of the month.
However, the business still pays for them.
It pays in the form of longer negotiations, unnecessary clarifications, slower client onboarding, missed opportunities, and a team’s diminished confidence during international meetings. It pays by having a skilled specialist remain silent during a call, even though they could have strengthened the company’s position. It pays by having a manager fail to ask an important clarifying question because they’re afraid to phrase it in English.
At first glance, these seem like minor issues. In practice, it’s precisely these small details that make up the true cost of the language barrier.
Poor English within a team rarely seems like a disaster. Usually, everything works: emails are sent, calls are made, documents are translated, and tasks move forward. But they move more slowly, with greater difficulty, and with more friction.
The team’s problem isn’t writing an email; it’s understanding the context, responding appropriately, and not misinterpreting the meaning. A manager might end up handling all calls with foreign partners because other employees “aren’t ready yet.” A manager might avoid face-to-face communication and hide behind email, even though the issue could have been resolved long ago with a brief conversation.
This is how hidden operational costs arise. They aren’t always visible to the CFO, but they’re keenly felt by team leaders, HR, sales, account managers, project managers, and business owners.
Because poor English doesn’t just make it hard to speak. It changes people’s behavior.
People choose simpler tasks. They avoid complex conversations. They delegate tasks they could do themselves. They refuse to participate in international projects. They show less initiative. And gradually, the company begins to operate below its potential.
The most obvious risk of poor English for business: sales and negotiations.
Imagine a manager who knows the product well, understands the client’s needs, and can explain the benefits of a solution in Ukrainian, but who suddenly loses confidence during an English-language call. They start speaking in shorter sentences, avoid complex arguments, ask fewer questions, and agree when they should be clarifying the terms.
From the outside, this may not look like a language problem, but rather a weak negotiating position.
A foreign client doesn’t always realize that they’re dealing with a strong specialist who simply lacks practice in English. They see uncertainty, pauses, vague phrasing, and caution. In international business, this is easily interpreted as insufficient preparation or a lower level of expertise.
This is particularly costly in B2B sales, where decisions aren’t made after just one conversation. What matters there isn’t just the presentation, but also dozens of subtle moments: responding quickly to objections, explaining a technical detail, clarifying expectations, effectively justifying the price, and agreeing on the next step.
If the team cannot confidently conduct these conversations in English, the company loses more than just a single deal. It loses access to a portion of the market.
English doesn’t just affect sales. It directly impacts the speed of work.
An international client sends a technical specification. The team reads it, but some of the wording needs to be checked. Someone translates it. Someone clarifies it. Someone is afraid of misunderstanding and asks a colleague to look at it again. Then a call comes in that could quickly resolve the issue, but the team prepares for it as if it were an exam.
As a result, a simple task drags on.
The delay may be minor: an hour here, half a day there, another day for clarifications. But in business, speed is often a competitive advantage. Whoever responds faster appears more reliable. Whoever finalizes the requirements faster gets to work sooner. Whoever conducts a demo faster is closer to securing the contract.
Poor English creates communication bottlenecks. Not dramatic ones, but constant ones. Like fine sand in a machine: the car seems to be moving, but the engine is working harder.
In many companies, there is an informal role: the person who “knows English well”. Tasks that aren’t part of their job description are brought to them.
In the short term, this is convenient. In the long term, it creates a bottleneck.
One person becomes the in-house negotiator and safety net for the entire team. Their time is spent not on strategic tasks, but on providing language support for processes. If they’re on vacation, sick, or overloaded, part of the communication slows down.
The company seems to have English, but not as a systemic skill of the team, rather as a resource of just a few people. This is risky—especially for businesses that work with international clients, partners, contractors, or investors.
There are specialists who excel in their professional field but cannot advance to the next level because of their English. They do not give presentations to foreign clients, speak at international events, participate in complex negotiations, or lead teams on global projects.
Sometimes a business loses not the person, but the opportunity to fully utilize their potential.
A top-notch engineer may be unable to explain an architectural solution to a client. An experienced financier may avoid English-language meetings with investors. A department head may have to rely on translation in situations that require a quick managerial response.
As a result, the company either promotes less competent but more linguistically confident people, or confines strong specialists to internal tasks. Both options come at a cost.
English doesn’t automatically make someone a professional. But without English, it’s often harder for a professional to gain visibility on the international stage.
Language influences how a company is perceived externally.
A foreign partner may not know the inner workings of the business, may not see the team’s capabilities in detail, and may not understand all the processes. But they do see the communication: emails, phone calls, presentations, responses to questions, and behavior during meetings.
If communication in English is unclear, slow, or overly cautious, it can undermine the perception of professionalism—even when the product is strong, the service is high-quality, and the team is experienced.
Reputation isn’t built solely on major successes. It’s built on small signals: how quickly you responded, How clearly you explained things. Whether you were able to make small talk. Whether you conducted the meeting with confidence. Whether you were caught off guard by an unexpected question.
In international communication, English often serves as a facade for expertise. If that facade cracks, the client may never get around to evaluating the foundation.
When a company finally decides to invest in English training, the first impulse is often simple: “Let’s set up a course for everyone.”
On paper, this seems logical. There’s a group of employees, a teacher, and classes twice a week. But in reality, this approach often yields poor results.
The reason is simple: different people have different skill levels, roles, and tasks.
A Sales manager needs to negotiate, handle objections, present value, and follow up after meetings. A Project manager needs to conduct status calls, clarify deadlines, discuss risks, and use phrases to diplomatically resolve complex issues. A technical specialist needs documentation, demos, explanations of solutions, and participation in calls with the client’s team. A manager needs presentations, strategic discussions, reporting, persuasive arguments, and management vocabulary.
If you put everyone in the same program, some will get bored, some won’t keep up, and others won’t see the connection to their work. Motivation drops, attendance slumps, HR gets the nice-sounding fact that “the course took place,” but the business doesn’t see any tangible change.
English for the company should not be abstract learning, but a working tool.
Effective training doesn’t start with a textbook, but with an assessment.
You need to understand employees’ current proficiency levels, the situations where English is most frequently needed, where exactly the barriers lie, and which roles are critical for international communication. One team might need to improve their live calls. Another might need to focus on written communication. A third team needs to work on presentations. A fourth needs industry-specific vocabulary and confidence in spontaneous conversation.
After that, people should be grouped not simply “into one corporate group,” but according to their proficiency levels and goals. This makes training more targeted. Participants don’t waste time on things they don’t need and see the benefits in their work more quickly.
This is precisely the principle on which corporate English training should be based: level assessment, groups tailored to specific tasks, a curriculum designed for real-world work situations, regular progress monitoring, and clear reporting for HR or management.
Then English ceases to be just a “box-ticking course.” It becomes part of the business infrastructure.
You shouldn’t measure the return on investment for English training solely through direct financial metrics. Part of the impact is visible in the team’s behavior.
Employees start speaking more actively during calls. They rely less on a single “English-speaking” colleague. They respond to clients more quickly. They conduct demos with greater confidence. They articulate their thoughts more clearly in emails. They no longer avoid meetings where they used to remain silent.
For a business, this is already a result.
Of course, it’s ideal when these changes can be linked to specific metrics: response time to clients, the number of meetings conducted independently, the quality of follow-ups, increased participation by employees in international projects, and reduced workload for managers who previously served as a language “safety net.”
But the key indicator is simple: the team is beginning to use English not as a school subject, but as a work tool.
Poor English costs a business more than it seems. It doesn’t always cause immediate pain, doesn’t always have an obvious cost, and doesn’t always appear to be a top priority. But it affects sales, speed, reputation, talent development, and the company’s ability to operate on an international level.
A company with strong team English has more freedom. It can enter new markets faster, negotiate with greater confidence, attract foreign clients, present itself without intermediaries, and develop talent within the business.
English is not just a nice-to-have bonus on a resume. For a modern company, it is just as much a part of the infrastructure as CRM, financial accounting, or a project management system. Its value becomes especially apparent when the business stops missing out on opportunities due to the language barrier.
Sometimes the greatest cost to a company isn’t what it pays for training. The greatest cost is what it pays for years of not having it.
Traffic on Lesya Ukrainka Boulevard in Kyiv’s Pechersk district will be partially restricted from June 22 to July 15 due to the installation of road barriers in the median strip, according to a press release from the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA).
“From 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., specialists from the Pechersk Road Maintenance Department will be installing road barriers on the median strip. The work will take place on the section from the ‘Pecherska’ metro station to the Pechersk overpass,” according to a statement on the agency’s website.
During the work, traffic will be partially restricted to the far-left lanes in both directions.
The Kyivavtodor municipal corporation apologizes for the temporary inconvenience and asks drivers to take these restrictions into account when planning their routes.
KCSA, KYIV, Kyivavtodor, Lesya Ukrainka Boulevard, traffic restrictions
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a EUR15 million senior loan for Kharkiv to restore its centralized heating system, backed by a EUR17 million grant from the European Union, the bank announced on its website.
“The loan is part of a broader financing package that also includes a EUR17 million investment grant from the European Union. Given the risks posed by the war, the loan will also receive a partial guarantee from the EU based on first-loss coverage,” the statement said, noting that the project is awaiting final approval.
The loan and EU grant funds will finance the purchase of up to 22 small and medium-sized modular natural gas-fired boiler plants, along with cogeneration units, as well as five small cogeneration units in existing boiler plants.
The project’s implementation will restore centralized heat supply services, which were interrupted in February 2026 following critical damage to Kharkiv Combined Heat and Power Plant No. 5. The total annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the project is estimated at 19,091 metric tons of CO2-eq.
CHP-5, EBRD, EU, heat supply, KHARKIV
Over the course of a year since the launch of the Open Agri platform, the Kernel agricultural holding has attracted approximately 480 small and medium-sized agricultural producers who cultivate more than 255,000 hectares of land; the amount of financing secured through the project has exceeded $16 million, the holding’s press service told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“Today, farmers need more than just a buyer for their harvest; they need a strong partner who can help optimize costs and minimize risks. At Open Agri, we have combined expertise, financing, and legal protection, as well as practical services for farm development,” the press service quoted Open Agri project manager Igor Kotsel as saying.
It is noted that platform participants gain access to agronomic expertise, laboratory testing, legal and accounting support, as well as financing programs for future harvests.
According to reports, more than 120 farms have already conducted soil analyses and received customized nutrient maps.
“Kernel” plans to expand the project and increase the number of partner farms by the end of 2026, the press release states.
Open Agri is a platform for the company’s collaboration with small and medium-sized agricultural producers.
Kernel previously reported that it has invested 1 billion hryvnia in the development of Ukrainian communities over the past four years. Specifically, as part of the “My Community: Together with Kernel” program, 67 local initiatives have been funded over two years with more than 10 million hryvnia.
Kernel Agricultural Holding is the world’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, Ukraine’s largest grain exporter, the operator of an extensive network of logistics assets, and a leading producer of grains and oilseeds in Ukraine. It is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. It is engaged in the cultivation and sale of agricultural products.
According to results for the first nine months of fiscal year 2026 (July 2025–March 2026), Kernel’s net profit decreased by 5% to $208 million, while its revenue increased by 0.4% to $3.092 billion, and EBITDA rose by 1% to $403 million.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS, FARMERS, FINANCING, KERNEL, Open Agri
Summer-like warm weather is expected in Ukraine on Sunday and Monday (June 21–22).
According to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center, there will be no precipitation in Ukraine on Sunday. Nighttime temperatures will range from 12–17°, reaching up to 20° in the south; daytime temperatures will range from 24–29°, with some areas in the west and south reaching 30–33°.
Winds will be from the north, and from the southeast in the west of the country, at 5–10 m/s.
In Kyiv on Sunday, there will be no precipitation. The wind will be from the north at 5–10 m/s. Nighttime temperatures will range from 15–17°, and daytime temperatures from 26–28°.
According to data from the Boris Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory, the highest daytime temperature recorded in Kyiv on June 21 was 32.8 in 1891, and the lowest nighttime temperature was 7.6 in 1925.
On Monday, June 22, there will be brief showers at night in the far west and during the day in the western, northern, most central, and Kharkiv regions, with thunderstorms in some areas; the rest of the country will see no precipitation.
The wind will be from the northwest at 5–10 m/s.
Temperatures will range from 14–19° at night to 26–31° during the day, and 23–28° in the eastern regions.
In Kyiv on Monday night, no precipitation; during the day, brief rain. Winds from the northwest at 5–10 m/s. Temperatures at night will range from 17–19°, and during the day from 28–30°.
Hungary has lifted the ban on Ukrainian media previously imposed by the Fidesz party after coordinating this matter with the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representatives of the Ukrainian national minority, who participated in the decision-making process.
“Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have lifted the ban on Ukrainian media that was previously imposed by the Fidesz party.” In 2025, Fidesz unilaterally banned Ukrainian publications in Hungary in response to Ukraine’s blocking of those Hungarian publications that failed to adhere to journalistic ethics and instead spread Russian propaganda and stoked panic about a third world war,” said Zoltán Tarr, Hungary’s Minister of Social Affairs and Culture, in a post on Facebook.
The post also notes that “media outlets spreading Russian propaganda should not be confused with the genuine, independent press, either in Hungary or internationally.”
“The ousted government constantly worked to sow discord, and the blocking of these publications served no other purpose. Our task—to foster good-neighborly relations, which will help improve the situation of Hungarians abroad—is a common national cause. By following this path, thanks to our previous historic agreement, we have achieved more in a few weeks than the ousted government did in 16 years,” he noted.
It is also reported that the decision to lift the block was coordinated with Liliana Greksa, a representative of the Ukrainian national minority. After the decision was made, she stated that it is important for the Ukrainian community and refugees in Hungary to have access to news about their country in their native language.
HUNGARY, Hungary Has Lifted the Ban on Ukrainian Media, UKRAINIAN MEDIA
