For non-Americans, Has Speaking 2 (valuable) Languages Sped Up Your Career Progression?
For non-Americans, Has Speaking 2 (valuable) Languages Sped Up Your Career Progression?
As in Spanish and dealing with LATAM clients, or Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic etc.
I think at the analyst and junior levels it makes close to 0 difference, but I wonder if it has helped certain people get to MD from VP faster.
Have worked both in North America and Europe, have multiple languages next to English.
I would say languages add character to an otherwise excellent profile, but not sure if I got any jobs just because of a language.
e.g. if you are on a business trip and you speak the local language, it would help tremendously to bond with the local network.
Or you have a client from another region and you have an easier time understanding their requirements, you may even be able to lead the deal (if senior enough).
But English alone would be fine in most cases.
Another special case would be something like this
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-29/jamie-dimon-says-par…
If a candidate is native in French, it would be a distinct advantage for a role that fits their new plan.
curious how you maintain fluency in multiple languages? I'm 6-12mos away from fluency in Spanish (yo espero), and want to be a polyglot. I have a good routine for maintaining one, but am curious how one juggles a job, a life, and more than 2 languages?
For some people languages are just easier. No way around explaining it, I have had a girlfriend who spoke more than five languages fluently and was learning a sixth. I have even met White people who spoke fluent Mandarin or other exotic languages. Anything is possible.
I jumped countries often and learned the language locally, much easier than through books or youtube.
In all honesty, I don't have a family - that is where all my time comes from. If you really want something you'll find or make the time. Read or listen to language programs on the commute or while driving, jogging, etc. I know guys who are married, with kids, the job and gym, and still make time to learn something.
Also, make sure you keep in touch with other people from countries you are learning the language, through networking, travel, job, etc - call them through whatsapp and ask them how they are - best way to learn more about the language.
Lastly, I have dated girls who look the same, but came from diverse backgrounds. They'll teach you a language much faster.
Read on foreign forums, news, youtube, newspaper, etc - i.e. if you spend a lot of time on WSO, it wouldn't teach you a lot about other languages. Only English if you are not fluent in it.
It is also better to be 96% fluent in a relevant, non-native language than learning too many and only be 40% fluent in four other, maybe less relevant ones.
Here is an example
You have more than 42,000 posts on WSO, and so far I loved every single post you sent through on here. But 42,000 x average of 7.5 minutes for each posts are ~315,000 minutes you have invested in us. Or roughly 5,250 hours (excluding reading posts, messaging, ..). Had you posted only 21,000 posts on WSO you would have, theoretically, freed up 2,625 hours. 2,625 hours are more than enough to learn a new language of medium complexity.
Please do not take this the wrong way, I am not saying you shouldn't be spending your time here on WSO. It was just an example that we can all find time if we look through our lives.
Looking forward to reading your next 42,000 posts!
appreciate the candor, I definitely find time for my target language, because as you say, it is important to me. one quick correction, I've not posted 42k times, that's just the points, I get 3 points for every upvote, but I do have 7200 comments over the years, and I'd say it takes less than 3 minutes on average for a comment, so the direction is correct, but I don't waste nearly the amount of time on WSO people think I do, I just say the same shit over and over again and happen to be a fast typer so it feels like a lot (this one took 90 seconds start to finish)
yeah, I read the same thing about attaining fluency before jumping around, that's waht I'm focused on now, I just am hard wired to be looking ahead and now that I see the light at the nd of the tunnel, I'm wondering "OK, if I'm putting this much time into spanish, what happens when I add italian to the mix?"
just need to keep making friends in far flung places, thanks bro
Meh. It helps but unless you aren’t jumping from country to country. Chances is it’s just a niche to learn more languages.
For “non-Americans”? Why
I think he meant to say people outside of the US? Not sure what non-Americans would mean.
I met the head of Merrill Lynch Latin America and he was from the US and bilingual.
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