Why You Should Learn Another Language
Rejecting monolingualism to break out of the Anglophone domain and into the international.
Sitting in the United Nations chamber in Geneva aged eighteen and very monolingual; I heard the linguistic diversity around me and I felt deflated.
I thought to myself that this is a place that I could see myself working, but aside from basic French phrases, I was nowhere near being able to walk into an interview at an international organisation and get through any sort of language assessment. It was the first time that I had the realisation that I needed to learn another language, to be part of this international world, multilingualism was essential.
When considering an international career path, is it really necessary to learn another language if English is your mother tongue? The UN operates primarily in six languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian. These six languages are the standard however the two main working languages of the UN secretariat are English and French. However, when it boils down to it, only English is essential and it has become the de facto lingua franca of international organisations, even the European Union operates for a large part in English. In anglophone countries, there is never any real urgency to learn another language, as so many of the world’s organisations daily language is English. Therefore, it poses the question as to whether anglophone native speakers really need to learn another language when working in the international workplace.
However, the importance of languages in the global workplace is becoming more and more crucial and this must not be forgotten by English speakers. As the world becomes more and more culturally and linguistically diverse so does the workplaces that we operate in. Languages are such an integral part of the way that international organisations work and to be able to have bilingual or multilingual abilities can really help to propel your career prospects, as well as making you feel more connected to the work you are doing. Having the capacity to speak in other languages allows you connect more with the projects and also those in your team.
Four years later and I finally feel like I have managed to reject my eighteen-year-old monolingual self and understand the true importance of why languages are so important in the working of international organisations. Above all, I have found that it has given me an identity and a reason to feel part of what it means to be international. When thinking about picking up a second, or a third language, especially when considering an international career path, think of what Nelson Mandela once said:
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”.
Therefore, even if English still prevails, if you are lucky enough to have the opportunity, the benefits of bilingualism and even multilingualism in the international workplace, are endless.
