Learn a Language to Improve your Career 1 comment
You may think it is a good idea to learn Italian in order to take a trip to Roma, or you might decide to learn Spanish to give a bit more out of your summer holidays. However, taking foreign language courses and then following through and learning a language really well can help boost your career too. Let`s look at a few examples of how this could happen.
Global mobility
These days there are more opportunities than ever to live and work in other countries. Sometimes you can request a foreign transfer with your own firm if it has offices abroad. Otherwise you will find that the internet is a great source of jobs from all over the world. Even in countries with a different language English is still often seen as an important business language, so if you can speak English and the local language you will have a great advantage over many applicants. If you just want a chance of scenery for a few months then worker mobility within the European Union mean that you can just hop on a flight and go to somewhere where your second language is spoken. This is particularly common with people who fancy working during the summer months in a Mediterranean resort.
Interview advantages
The simple fact that you chose to learn a foreign language is often looked upon by employers as plus even when it isn't precisely relevant to the job you are applying for. Someone who speaks two languages to a good level uses different parts of their brain from a monolingual person and they are usually seen as being able to learn other things more quickly too. If you learned the language while abroad then you will also be viewed as a resourceful, independent person who has seen something of the world and therefore has an open mind.
Language jobs
This option is where you want to stay living where you are but would like an interesting job where you have to use your second language. This could mean working as a translator, a customer service agent for foreign customers, a clerk for an import and export company, a teacher showing others to learn French, Swedish or whatever language you learned or any one of a number of other jobs. Another popular job like these ones is working in tourist information offices or as a travel guide in a place where a lot of foreign travellers visit. This is a role which lets you practise your second language and meet a lot of interesting people too. These types of jobs can be difficult for employers to fill, as they often require a good level in both English and the second language. This means that they are usually well paid and can often lead you to better jobs and more opportunities, as you have the chance to make yourself someone that is relied upon as an intermediary in a lot of discussions between speakers of the two languages within the company.
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Turkey’s liberal political and intellectual climate bridging East and West, traditional and modern, is a comforting environment. Learning Turkish gives access to many new opportunities for business, scientific and technological research, and for scholarship and journalism. Currently, students in Turkey are learning English at a record rate, while few Americans learn Turkish: to offset that imbalance of skill and opportunity, there is great need for Americans to meet the creative challenge of learning Turkish.