Value of foreign language knowledge?
Hello guys!
I have a question for anyone who is working internationally. Since I am interested in learning languages, I was wondering if this hobby, this skill I am developing, could be beneficial in the future at some point. Just to clarify, I am not trying to say hello in a gazillion languages, I have a set number of languages that I am interested in and I am planning on becoming as fluent as I can in all of them. And to clarify another thing, I am doing this just for fun because I enjoy it, not for my career. If it turned out to be beneficial, that's really just a bonus for me.
So could knowledge of foreign languages be beneficial, when working with a client from another country? I assume that English is the language everyone would conduct business in, but I thought maybe it would be a nice thing to have to boost the relationship with the client.
What are your experiences? Could you break the ice with a client more easily when speaking their languages or how did they react? Good experiences? Bad experiences? I am curious to hear from you!
I speak multiple languages, some I am native in, some were acquired later in life.
It depends, I would say. If you are aiming at traditional industry jobs in the typical hot spots (NYC, London, Zürich, ...) English will be fine and mostly the only language used. This is across multiple industries I worked in, my employers and I used English in telecoms, banking, cards, ..
Now, it does have an advantage to speak other languages for..
...recruitment The top employers will see this as a bonus, even though there is no need to actually apply the skills. It is useful to have this in a global team.
...networking (external) you simply can approach more people. the more languages, the more culture, the more people you can reach out to in their native world. Please note that language is only one bit of an entire nation/culture though. It is not just about the words you read/write/speak. ...business relationships (internal) Your internal network will eventually be much larger if you connect on many layers, one of them being language. I have met more colleagues and had deeper relationships because I spoke many languages. ...dating I got more dates and girlfriends out of my languages. This is something you can really put to use to approach, date, and make a lasting impression. women dig this.
...personality you'll become a more interesting and most likely more intelligent person with multiple languages.
Eventually, you will also get more job offers through your career. Imagine the opportunities if you didn't have to lock yourself into NYC and London, but could also work in other industries and other nations. It gets very exciting. Languages make you more employable and, while each salary might not be the highest because of your skills, over the course of decades you will earn more money.
Early in your career you cannot truly imagine what skillsets you'll need later. Language skills are invaluable, as is having a breadth of business related skills. I've gotten a LOT of opportunities out of my Mandarin language skills.
Yes, this exactly. You may find another language is even more useful socially than professionally. That is, you may never write a report in a foreign language, but you may use it to network and break the ice socially.
Mandarin is easy to practice in a lot of places too! Hop on a bus to your nearest China Town! Depending on where you're from its tougher to learn languages like German, arabic, or Afrikaans if you can't speak with people.
there’s 50 million overseas Chinese they’re literally in every corner of the planet
That sounds like good news! Thanks for your answers!
The biggest investment for learning a language is time. It takes a lot of effort to be really fluent in a language, and then you'd still not have learned about the culture, behavior, people and other aspects...
Do you have any books or website recommendations that you used to acquire a new language?
That is true, I always incorporate some books about the history or culture of a country in which the language is spoken into my language learning to understand it better. It really makes a difference. But for me, it is a very enriching hobby and I just love doing it, so it is time well spent imo.
Depends. It can happen you work with an exotic client who doesn't speak English well. If you know their language, they very often appreciate it immensely.
It can easily happen otherwise that they don't understand you or think you are not understanding them, which gets them unnecessarily agitated and that's bad for business.
If you want these to actually be useful to you in a professional capacity, then I would not set your sights higher than two languages. The chances of a person in their mid twenties with a full time career becoming legitimately fluent in more than that is very low (especially if you start out as a monolingual English speaker). I enjoy studying languages as well, and this is just my own opinion, so do with it what you will.
I second this. Really pick one language and concentrate on it. I am monolingual English speaker, and about 9 months ago decided to learn a second language as intensely as I could (given various time & money constraints). Whilst I’ve made progress, it’s not easy and I’ve not come as far as I would have liked. Drop me into the middle of Spain and I would survive fine, but trying to conduct business, or learn a class, or have a full blown convo with a native would be impossible. That being said though, I’ve always had trouble learning languages, so maybe things will be better for you.
Hey is there a specific resource or resources that you recommend for someone who is also a monolingual english speaker looking to learn Español?
Absolutely a critical skill to have no matter the industry. You'll be so grateful that you took the time to learn new languages. Even if it's just one you'll be very glad you took the time to learn.
I got a Spanish minor and am self taught in Portuguese and you have no idea how many doors and relationships it has opened. Spanish is increasingly important and once you learn how to learn a language the sky is the limit.
My native language is German and I am also fluent in English and roughly on a B2 level in Russian. I am learning Italian atm because my girlfriends family is Italian. Otherwise I would have picked Spanish, but that would be the next project. I think knowing Italian will give me a leg up with Spanish as well.
Even though I don't think it is possible to become truly fluent in a very large number of languages, especially if it is just a hobby, I think we should never limit ourselves and just try it and see how far we can get. For me, it is more about getting a little better everyday. The journey is the goal so to say.
how are you planning on immersing yourself in this many languages, is there a plan or opportunity to live in the countries at some point?
Dass Du wahrscheinlich Deutsch sprechen wirst habe ich an Deinem user namen gesehen ;)
Oh ist das so ein typisch deutscher Username? :D
So, immersion can be a little tricky, if you don't have the opportunity to live in the country, where your target language is spoken. However you can try to immerse yourself at home: watching TV shows, listening to music, reading books, speaking on skype with native speakers etc. There are plenty of possibilities. You don't necessarily have to live abroad in order to learn a language. Thanks to the internet you can learn (almost) any language from home.
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