Complex English problem

Professional people who emigrate to the UK from Poland and other eastern European countries in the EC have to have a larger vocabulary – have to speak better English, than an unskilled immigrant. Because their work is more complex, it has a more complex vocabulary.
The following is a true, real life, example of a problem which was faced by a professional person who has emigrated to Britain from Poland.
He is involved in the retail sector of the pharmaceutical industry, and although most of his work is highly skilled a very small part of it involves measuring people for surgical appliances, such as surgical stockings.
One day he had to measure a lady for a pair of surgical stockings, and he said to her: “I will have to take measures.”
On a certain level, it was acceptable to say this. It wasn’t good English, but it was good enough for this purpose. She understood what he meant, gave him permission to measure her, he measured her, and everything was fine.
She didn’t complain about his English, and his colleagues, co-workers, including his boss, didn’t complain about it either, probably because they realise that it is difficult to speak a foreign language perfectly.

Good English

But what he should have said was: “I will have to measure you,” or “I will have to take your measurements.” Both of these examples are good English. One of his British friends, a colleague,  who realises that he is trying to improve his English, suggested that he might want to use either of these next time.

Different use of English in different situations

If you say: “I will have to take measures,” it means that you will have to take a course of action, that you will have to do something about something. For example, a member of the government, or of a government department, might say “The government (or department) will have to take measures to control the problem.”
But in ordinary life the phrase `take measures’ is hardly used. For example, no-one says: “I will have to take measures to wash my car.” Instead, they will just say: “I’ll have to wash my car.”