Does proficiency in other languages lead to greater advancement opportunities?

Learning a new language seems like a great way to create new opportunities for yourself in your career. How can you justify the time, effort and cost of investing in language-learning classes?

Research shows that learning a new language can not only benefit your career, leading to salary increases and more advancement opportunities, increase confidence and boost performance.

A research report published by Christine Uber Grosse, Department of Global Business at Thunderbird University, shared the results of an electronic survey of Thunderbird alumni (Thunderbird graduates from 1970 to 2002) focused on this very issue.

The report published in the Modern Language Journal Vol. 88. No iii (2004) states that out of the 581 alumni responding to the survey, over 80% indicated that their foreign language and cultural skills training at Thunderbird have benefited them in their careers. Half of them acknowledged that their knowledge of foreign languages and cultures has given them a significant competitive advantage.

“Communication is the lifeblood of a company,” noted Sylvain Leblanc, the learning and instructional supervisor for Berlitz in Quebec. “Mastering a second language can improve performance, and how companies work as a whole.”

In today’s global economy, it is important for businesses and individuals to be able to communicate in a number of languages. Data from a 2014 study by the U.S. Committee on Economic Development (CED) found investing in language skills can lead to significant financial benefits. Nearly 80 percent of business leaders surveyed by the CED say their companies would do better with multilingual employees on staff. The CED calculates that American companies lose more than $2-billion a year on language or cultural misunderstandings.

“Speaking more than one language makes you more marketable by facilitating your career advancement within the company you work for; it opens doors,” said Leblanc, adding that Berlitz has a unique, proven approach to learning, custom-designed to fit the specific needs of students.

If you’re ready to enhance your resume and invest in yourself, contact Berlitz to get started at Berlitz.com.