by Olivia Augustin | Jul 3, 2025 | Technical English
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England and accidentally broke the English language. Within two centuries, English had absorbed thousands of French words. Legal vocabulary, culinary terms, words for royalty and government — all...
by Olivia Augustin | Jun 25, 2025 | International Projects
Most international engineering teams work in English. Some team members are fluent. Others are proficient. A few might still be learning. But in most cases, communication seems to work well enough: emails are sent, meetings are held, and specs are written. Everyone...
by Olivia Augustin | Jun 8, 2025 | International Projects
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that doesn’t show up in any project report. It hits engineers at the end of a meeting where they understood about 70% of what was said, said half of what they meant, and spent the entire hour translating — not just...
by Olivia Augustin | Mar 31, 2025 | Engineering & Career
Last updated 22 May 2026 Estimated reading time: 7 minutes You have more impact on health and safety than you think you do as an engineer. We all have beliefs that inform our actions, and these values affect how we communicate and make decisions. Even if you spend...
by Olivia Augustin | Oct 23, 2024 | Guest Interview
Most engineers accept that international projects run in English. Then they meet a project that runs in three languages at once. My guest is Dr Omar Chávez Alegría, a civil engineer, professor and researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro in Mexico. He works...
