Pros and Cons of a multilingual workplace
Working with people from different nationalities is usually seen as a great opportunity to brainstorm ideas in a team through one common language. Using more than one language at work also means a diversity of culture and therefore a chance of seeing projects from very different perspectives and opinions.
Is it always a benefit?
Are there limits to the use of multiple languages in the workplace?
Nowadays, more than ever, companies need bilingual or trilingual people. Usually, the languages spoken in international companies are English and the language of the country where it is based.
Having people who speak different languages in a team is a strong asset in terms of variety of culture. A culturally rich environment brings different talents and different experiences, which when blended together find creative solutions, whereas a group made of people with the same or similar cultural backgrounds might end up solving a problem the same way they always have.
This creativity can come from a blend of different cultures in the same team, but also from multilingual people. Indeed, knowing another language can change behaviours. The Emperor Charlemagne said, “To have another language is to possess a second soul.”
We are somehow limited by our mother tongue, since our language reflects our culture. This is why learning a second language can open us up a little more to different aspects of life. Opening our minds to new languages makes us think outside the box and bring us more creativity.
The fact that it is easier to bond with someone who speaks the same language is another advantage. For instance, being the only Dutch in an Italian team can be difficult, but having a colleague from the same country usually creates an automatic bond. People who speak the same language tend to get on well; an easy way to bond with someone is through culture and habits. It creates a stronger work coherence, and solidarity develops among the team.
As nice as having different nationalities and languages in a workplace can be, it can also bring up unexpected issues.
Have you ever heard of language discrimination? Some people can be made fun of because of their accent, lack of vocabulary or how limited their speech is. Language discrimination can also happen when a group of people talk in a certain language to exclude a person from the conversation. This can affect someone in their self-confidence and integration in the team.
It can also be tricky if people from the same team have different levels in the most-used language. Let’s take the example of a Spanish company. If some non-Spanish employees are at ease with Spanish, some others might only be fluent in English, which can create misunderstanding and general communication issues.
Should the language be changed according to who’s talking? Should Spanish be chosen, and the person who lacks Spanish skills will learn?
This usually should be decided in a team or with managers. It is important to do so, in order to avoid excluding people from conversations, whether it is for a work project or for social events.
Speaking different languages does not mean mastering them all.
People sometimes expect their foreign colleagues to speak their language and to understand them perfectly. In reality, they struggle to understand some key elements of a conversation. In the same way, it can be very frustrating to not be able to explain ideas as clear and as detailed as in the mother tongue. We use the only vocabulary we have, which is not as rich as it could be, and therefore, we probably just give the superficial side of what we really want to say.
This can lead to the feeling of not being taken seriously by other team members, which is an important downside of using different languages in a workplace.
To conclude, using multiple languages at work has more disadvantages than we might think of at first, and it is essential to take them into consideration for the cohesion of the whole team and for everyone’s inclusion.
