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Being successful is always a challenge, goal or even a dream for a person. But as every dream, it is not easily achieved. Unfortunately we cannot all be gifted singers, actors, and sports athletes or possess some other talent that ensures us a place between the rich and famous. Very often we have to work hard to achieve the dreamed success, position and status. We must have diplomas, certificates, experience, right connections, we also have to work hard and prove ourselves as reliable and dedicating employees. Apart from all those academic and professional requirements and achievements we are often required to speak second and even a third language.
So how learning a new language can help one’s career? After all English language has managed to become the most widely spoken language all over the world. There is not a country in the world where people would not speak English language and where you would be unable to communicate and even work if you are an English speaker. Why then go to the trouble of learning a new language? Learning a second language is hard and a time consuming endeavor without guaranteed result and could be money consuming too.
There are basically 6 different ways how learning a new language can help in your career.
- We have to study other languages because they give us freedom; freedom to communicate, to touch a new culture in a unique way, to acquire new knowledge and to see things from a different point of view. All that enriches us as human beings and in a way makes us more confident and tolerant to others. Those are very useful qualities in our everyday work and will help us a lot in our career.
- Very often knowing a second language has become a requirement. You cannot get a promotion just because you do not have that skill.
- Many people believe that being bilingual actually makes you smarter. A smarter employee has bigger and better chances for career development than the others.
- Let’s not to forget that we are the ones who choose our jobs especially after gaining the right experience and qualifications. Multinational companies that do not hold only domestic market and services usually give better working conditions. Those kinds of companies do not ask for a second language as an addition to your skills, for them this is a must. So speaking a second language will be helpful in obtaining a position in that kind of a company. It can be useful if the company wants to attract a new partner or open a branch abroad.
- If you have already acquired a job in a multinational company and managed to prove yourself as a good and reliable employee, you become attractive to the competition, which means that if you are not satisfied at some point of time because of your working conditions, the chances of finding a better job at a competitor’s firm become significantly bigger and better.
- It is always better to bring something extra on the table, making you more indispensable. There are exotic languages that are becoming more and more essential for the business, for example Chinese and Japanese. There’s no doubt that speaking those languages is a great advantage.
There are researches conducted by famous universities which have proven that bilingual people have better solving skills, faster decision making process and better adaptation skills. Again, those are highly appreciated qualities in a working environment. Adding additional skills like second language to your personal resume shows that you will want to add and improve constantly at your work place. It shows that you are looking for new possibilities and personal development. Knowledge is power. We live in the world where geographical boundaries have practically become invisible but not the cultural ones. We never know where we are going to travel and whom we are going to work with. But having even some basic knowledge of culture and language about a county is a great advantage.
Author bio: Ben Russel speaks 3 languages fluently. Recently he has been hired by SolidEssay.com to teach Japanese to college students.
