The Benefits of English Proficiency to Start a Career in Accountancy

Being an English and literature teacher for more than ten years, all my life was focused on literature, grammar, linguistics, and other branches of English and foreign languages. This is my first love, especially creative writing. Yes, I admit I am a linguaphile.

My English proficiency was enhanced when I moved to the United Kingdom. Obviously, the English language is widely used here in the UK. I spoke English every day and learnt some new English vocabulary, slang, and I immersed myself more in English.

Though the love of English is still evident to me, I choose to change my career from being an English teacher to being an accountant. I’d admit that accountancy was one of my choices way back in my college years when I was deciding which course to take. I just did not push through it because I got intimidated with regards to the stereotype that accountancy is more on mathematics, which it is in a way!

I was surprised when I started my course in Forensic Accountancy. Yes, it is given that you should be good at numbers, but to my surprise, proficiency in English is also vital. I believe that it is not enough that you are only good at mathematics. English, especially reading comprehension, is a must.

In accountancy, you will encounter words such as debit and credit. In accounting, debit means money or payment made or owed. Whereas credit means that the money or payment has been received.

One of the tricky phrases in accounting is “money owed to HMRC” and “money owed from HMRC.” They look the same, but the prepositions “to” and “from” make the difference here. The sentence “money owed to HMRC” is the money that the business needs to pay to the HMRC; thus, it is classified as “credit.” The sentence “money owed from HMRC” means that the HMRC will refund money to the business. Therefore, in accounting, it will be classified as a debit.

As we can see here in the example, simple knowledge of prepositions has a big impact on concepts in accountancy.

Learning the English language is not only limited to the exams or assessments that we need to pass in schools or universities. Henceforth, the use of the English language is evident in our everyday lives and all of its aspects—whether in medicine, law, mathematics, or accountancy.