The post Want to Earn More and Find a Job Faster? Learn a Foreign Language appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> ¡Hola! ¿Me contratará?Many people aspire to learn a second language in their lifetime, but is adding this skill to your resume really necessary for your career?
For many professionals, the answer is sí. While becoming proficient or fluent in a second language is rarely easy, it could be a distinguishing ticket that helps you board the train to career success. (Click here to Tweet this idea.)
Even the federal government has issues finding multilingual talent, as they demonstrated during the Senate’s panel on the foreign language deficit in 2012.
Even if your professional ambitions aren’t set on the US government, picking up a second language can make you a more attractive job candidate overall. Plenty of industries have positions for multilingual workers. But the choice isn’t for everyone.
Consider these few points before grabbing a foreign language dictionary and enrolling in class at your local language school.
It takes a lot of time and immersion in a language to begin to pick it up — up to 1,765 hours to learn fluent English for a clerical office job, according to some reports.
You don’t want to embarrass yourself by using a false cognate in front of a hiring manager, so be realistic about the time and effort it will take to become sufficient or fluent in your chosen language.
If double majoring in a language doesn’t fit into your course schedule, don’t fret — a minor can be a great way to keep your skills sharp while still offering the option to study abroad.
You could make big bucks with second language skills. Students studying Japanese at Johns Hopkins University were offered jobs starting at $100,000 a year in international affairs, banking and finance.
In companies where knowledge of a second language is critical for success, some have a policy that dictates paying bilingual workers more. Still, advanced knowledge is key; many of these companies require candidates to interview in the second language.
Achieving that fluency level can be a pricey investment. At the international language school Berlitz, a 10-week course for two can run $1,500. At the Boston Language Institute, you can expect to pay around $400 for a small group class and $1,000 for intensive classes.
But the price tag can be worth it if you’re entering an industry with high demand.
Will the hours spent conjugating verbs and translating sentences really be suitable for your career? Positions in marketing, communications, sales, translation or international relations can obviously benefit from multilingual knowledge. But research your industry’s requirements and salaries to see if there’s real value to this knowledge.
Hit up recruiters on LinkedIn or visit job fairs to quiz them on the importance of a second language for their open positions. Even if it isn’t a hard-and-fast requirement, learning a second language can never hurt, as you expand your cultural horizons, learn a new perspective or enhance your skills.
Experts say the US will be the only wealthy country that will see its population grow in the next three decades, which will lead to a shortage of talent in highly populated countries like Germany, Japan and Sweden.
At least 83 countries and territories have fertility rates lower than those necessary to replace the existing population. That means multilingual speakers will be in high demand if you’re willing to relocate internationally for work. It’s not impossible — nearly five million non-military Americans already live abroad.
In the US, the need for Spanish speakers is growing rapidly. WPP is an advertising agency that has an arm dedicated to serving Hispanic markets with their campaigns. In 2012, media giant NBC launched NBC Latino, aimed at Hispanic news and readers, and Fox started MundoFox, a Spanish broadcast television network.
For bilingual communications, marketing or sales professionals, opportunity is ripe for expanded career opportunities right here at home.
Second language learners are in high demand in many industries, both at home and abroad. But remember, learning a second language takes a large amount of time and dedication. Before you jump in, determine if the choice is really right for your career.
Yael Karov is the founder and CEO of Ginger Software, a grammar and spell checker platform that proofreads text based on the context of a sentence and adapts to correct the user’s mistakes.
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The post Want to Earn More and Find a Job Faster? Learn a Foreign Language appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/10/29/want-to-earn-more-and-find-a-job-faster-learn-a-foreign-language/feed/ 3The post 5 Ridiculously Easy Ways to Learn a Foreign Language appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> If there were a ridiculously easy and fun way you could gain the competitive advantage of knowing a foreign language, would you do it?While learning a new language can make you more employable, it’s not always easy when you’re searching for a job, gaining skills from the latest books on leadership and giving 107 percent to whatever is making you money now.
Understandably, learning a language might sound like the furthest priority from your growing list of obligations.
But with the help of these five tactics below, learning a foreign language can be a fun and easy process that helps you find a job and lowers your stress:
Don’t just choose Spanish because it’s commonly spoken. If you’re going to put effort into anything, you should enjoy it. Where have you always wanted to travel? The Red Square in Moscow? Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China? The canals of Venice, Italy?
If it’s Italy, decide to learn Italian, and then start planning your visit to stunning Venice or jaw-dropping Tuscany.
Even if you want to spend all of your time searching for a job and building up other skills, breaks are oh-so-necessary.
If you choose Italian, watch Italian movies. If the budget is tight, go to the public library and rent out movies from the foreign language section.
We all know how it feels to be stressed out and then hear an amazing song come on our iPod that totally takes us to a new, less icky place.
Go to the MTV website of the country whose language you want to learn—MTV.it if you’re learning Italian, for example—and explore what songs they have to offer. Then take some of those names and do YouTube searches to find related artists. Even if you can’t understand it yet, you can appreciate the rhythm and the way it sounds.
Plus, sites like MTV.it are fascinating. Explore the TV shows section and watch dubbed clips of Teen Wolf.
Go on a website like Italki and find other people for language exchanges. Find someone who speaks Italian natively and wants to learn English. Correct some of their notebook posts to get a feel for who they are, and then message them to talk about chatting via Skype or Google Hangout.
It can be a little weird at first since you don’t know the person, but use your good judgment to ensure you’re talking with somebody you actually want to be friends with.
Print out recipes in Italian and English and whip up some authentic Italian dishes. You’ll learn the words for food (which everyone needs to know), and you’ll be fed in the process.
These five tips will create a pleasurable language learning process, and when you learn a foreign language, windows, doors and gates open themselves for you. It could be a job overseas in Torino, Italy, or you could just decide to let go of searching so hard for a job and teach English abroad in Taiwan.
Who knows?
In the process of following your passion to learn a language, you might discover that the job you’re pining after isn’t for you. It’s quite possible you were meant for something off the beaten path, where you have permission to chase your wanderlust as often as you’d please.
You won’t know until you make that first decision. Your journey is up to you.
So choose a language, relax into the culture and let the doors open around you!
Cher Hale is an instigator of adventure and romance on her blog The Iceberg Project, where she teaches women how to charm Italians with their own language and chase their wanderlust.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/06/27/5-ridiculously-easy-ways-to-learn-a-foreign-language/feed/ 4The post One Skill That Will Instantly Make You a Better Job Candidate appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> Looking for a cool job? Check out Black Enterprise’s Cool Jobs section for profiles on, well, some cool jobs!Looking for another way to stand out in a tough job market, plus increase your competitiveness and versatility down the road in your career? If you can commit to adding one or more languages to your resume, you’ll instantly stand out from the crowd.
Being able to use a foreign language for business purposes is a transferable skill that will always be in demand, no matter what career path you follow.
If you learned a bit of foreign language in high school or college but then just kind of dropped it, this is a great time to pick it up again and get serious about becoming proficient, if not fluent.
Maybe you’re wondering: Don’t people everywhere pretty much speak some English by now?
Yes, the world’s getting smaller thanks to digital technologies. But that doesn’t mean it’s getting more homogenous. As more people get connected, the Internet is becoming more diverse and multilingual. Get this: Arabic is now one of the fastest growing languages in use on the Internet.
Chances are that, as you climb the career ladder, you’ll have contact with clients or colleagues living overseas. Speaking the language of people in your communities gives you insights into what matters to them. If they’re customers, that knowledge can be a big advantage.
But it’s not just about making yourself a better employee; it’s about putting yourself in a position for more adventure.
If you’re fluent in another language and can hold your own in another culture, you’ll also be an excellent candidate for overseas postings. It’s a chance to expand your horizons in a way few people can once out of college, while keeping some ties with home.
Don’t feel like resuming your college Spanish (although Spanish is an excellent choice)? Mandarin Chinese and Arabic are becoming more important on a global scale, with demand for speakers outstripping supply. Even if your company doesn’t have immediate need for a Mandarin-speaking manager, most employers will love the potential for future growth.
And don’t forget that languages can lead to exciting career opportunities of their own.
1. Translator or Interpreter. These careers require full fluency—plus you’ll need a flair for capturing the tone and style of the foreign language. If you want to be an interpreter, you’ll need to be able to work at speed and with the nuances of a language while under pressure.
2. Language Teacher. If you have a gift for teaching, there are few careers as rewarding. The choices include everything from high school teaching to adult education. There’s also the option of teaching your native language abroad.
3. International Marketing. From account executives to brand managers and PR consultants, you have a wealth of opportunities if you speak other languages. Online marketing makes it easy to go international, and every language you can use will give you better access to the growing number of non-English speakers who use the Internet.
4. Entrepreneur. Never has there been a better time to make global connections. Being an entrepreneur is all about seeing opportunities and seizing them. The polyglot (someone who speaks several languages) not only has a much larger network, but can also keep an eye on global trends. While your competitors chase the fiercely competitive English-speaking markets, the rest of the world is wide open to you.
Armed with a foreign language or two, you’ll be well-placed to switch careers or to seize promotion opportunities in your current field. There’s a whole world out there—go get your share!
Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, a top translation service in the USA. Follow Lingo24 on Twitter: @Lingo24.
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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/11/07/one-skill-that-will-instantly-make-you-a-better-job-candidate/feed/ 2The post How Learning a Foreign Language Can Help You Professionally & Personally appeared first on Brazen Life.
]]> I believe in the importance of learning a foreign language — it opened a new world to me, propelled my career as a foreign correspondent and helped me set up a business as a content marketing strategist.I guess I’m lucky that I was raised in a bilingual environment — in the Philippines, we have to learn both our native language (Tagalog) and a foreign language (English) as early as primary school. I also have a knack for languages, and I feel quite comfortable speaking and writing in English even though my parents hardly speak it at home.
There are many great things that come from learning a foreign language. Here are four ways that studying a new language can benefit you professionally and personally:
If you’re reading Brazen Careerist, I assume you have the ambition and drive to get ahead and excel at work. That will only happen if you know how to navigate a changing workplace.
In a globalized world where companies cater to an international market, companies increasingly prefer to hire employees with language skills. A 2010 survey of U.K. companies, which was featured in BBC, showed that companies ranked fluency in a second language as second only to information technology when it comes to finding the right candidate. In addition, the average salary of language graduates three years after finishing their degrees was higher than engineering, math, physics and chemistry grads.
Or better yet, being proficient in another language will help you follow your dream of being a location independent professional. The Internet has given everyone the option to ditch the cubicle farm to live and work anywhere. But most of the world doesn’t speak English, and if you want to communicate and survive in another country, you better learn the native language. These days, there also might be better opportunities for American workers abroad. Knowledge of local languages will only help secure those positions.
Understanding other languages will help you get more from your backpacking journeys than cheesy photos or tales of how you blew your money on booze. When you study a new language, you are able to immerse yourself in another culture in a new way. You get to know more about the people you’re dealing with and you have more appreciation for the country you’re visiting.
There’s some debate lately on the usefulness (or uselessness?) of liberal arts degrees. Perhaps you’d have a clearer path to employment if you got an engineering or business degree. But if you’re the type of person who prefers to engage in a philosophical debate rather than puzzle through a math problem, that’s easier said than done. Rather than forcing yourself down a path that doesn’t align with your interests, use your creativity and analytical skills to learn a new language that will give you a marketable skill. Summer is a great time to start a language. You can enroll in a language school this summer or you could hire a tutor, enroll in online language courses or go to a language school on weekends.
Prime Sarmiento writes about learning and career tools for Ahead Interactive. An award-winning business journalist, Prime is helping globally-focused entrepreneurs to communicate with their clients. You can get in touch with her via her website.
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