Being bilingual is good for your job

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Being bilingual is good for your job, as a native spanish speaker it can be a challenge to speak another language (Of course! It happens to all of us) from the time we go to school we have to learn English. It is very common to hear your parents say that if you speak English you will get a better job and it is true! Speaking English or any other language opens up a lot of job opportunities. I am a marketer designer. I decided to become one because I think it is amazing what you can achieve with this profession if you don’t know why here you can read my article about why I am a marketing designer and the advantages.

There are too many benefits to speaking one, two or even more than three languages when looking for a job, the most common ones would be to have a good position in a good company, you receive a better monetary income, you feel more confident, etc. Likewise, these reasons are very common on the internet, but I will tell you mine and what I have managed to achieve thanks to applying it in my job.

Reasons:

- You can live anywhere: I’ve been lucky that my job is 100% remote, speaking a second language makes it even better. Imagine being on a beach somewhere while taking those calls with clients or with your co-workers from other countries and having the best view of the sea and at the same time doing what you love most about your job.

- You understand a different work culture: Being bilingual in a different work environment than the one you are used to. You have an idea that all companies are the same, but this idea changes when you leave those companies and migrate to others where the language and culture is different. The treatment and the atmosphere change completely because you are surrounded by different people who were born in other countries, your habits change and your ideas change as well.

- Your mind is more open: By living with new people you realise that you adopt different ways of thinking, you open yourself to new possibilities and even new ideas. Being bilingual definitely makes you grow as a person and as a professional speaking a different language always has more than one advantage.

- You create international relationships: Creating relationships is a very good action for job growth, but imagine creating those relationships in other countries — that’s definitely going much further.

- At the same time, you understand that everyone has something in common even if we are from different nationalities: Engaging in some conversation outside of work is very good to know how foreign people think about politics, religion, faith, economics, etc. It happened to me that when you get to know different opinions about topics that are of interest to us worldwide, you even discover that you are not the only one who thinks in a similar way to others and you realise that we are more connected than we thought.

- Never stop learning: This is the biggest lesson I have had so far, never stop learning is extremely important no matter if it is a single word or a different program than the one you usually handle, learning to do or know something new will always be an advancement to your person.

- Reading in another language is the best thing to do as well as writing: You adopt a new way of learning, or continue practising the language. In case you are not living abroad it is a very good practice to read, write or listen to audios in other languages so that you don’t lose the practice even if you are not working in a foreign company.

Of course there are many more advantages of applying a different language than the one you were born with to your work, but I consider that these are the ones that have had the most impact on me. I have had the opportunity to experience other cultures in person and I think that living it is one of the best experiences a human being can have. Your way of doing things changes drastically, since you realise that there are many alternatives or different routes of how you can do your work, since as I mentioned before your mind opens up and your ideas change.

On the other hand, being bilingual is not for everyone, not many take the risk to do it, I remember having classmates in my high school refusing to speak another language, as they thought it had no benefit for their future and of course they are wrong. It doesn’t matter if you speak English as a native speaker, Portuguese or Russian, speaking an extra language will always be one of the best investments someone can make for their professional preparation or even for travelling. Communicating with people from other countries creates more cultural diversity and acceptance. We should be proud of the languages we each speak whether they are native or learned by choice, the cultural diversity that is opened creates better working environments and more job opportunities.

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