Foreign-language fluency is essential today in many jobs
CBS MARKETWATCH
 01.19.2004
By Andrea Coombes

Employees now in touch globally from their offices

English-only speakers will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage for a growing number of U.S. jobs in coming years as employers ply global markets.

Being monolingual is about as American as football, but foreign-language fluency is an increasingly significant asset, even for workers who never intend to set foot in another country.

Cheaper communication technology is putting more employees in direct contact with suppliers, customers and colleagues in foreign lands.

"You're likely to be in touch with people from all around the world, even if you never leave your office," said Thomas D. Zweifel, chief executive of Swiss Consulting Group, a New York-based cross-cultural coaching firm and author of "Culture Clash" and "Communicate or Die."

Meanwhile, the explosive growth of Spanish-speaking residents within the United States makes it likely that even the most basic jobs will require, or at least be enhanced by, bilingual skills.

About one in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home, and the number of Spanish speakers rose 62 percent, to 28.1 million, in 2000 from 17.3 million in 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"If you don't speak Spanish in the southern part of the U.S., you're basically not marketable in the tourist trade," said Fariborz Ghadar, director of the Center for Global Business Studies at Penn State University.

Transportation and manufacturing companies also often seek Spanish speakers.

"The important thing about speaking another language is it allows you to stand in the shoes of that other culture and see the world from their point of view," Zweifel said. "You really have to be cognizant of how your product will be received."

That's been a hard-learned lesson for some. Microsoft's decision to have Taiwanese programmers translate Windows software for sale in China backfired when the programmers inserted pop-ups with phrases such as "take back the mainland" and "communist bandits," Zweifel said.

The Chinese government decided to back Linux instead, jeopardizing Microsoft's presence in a market of about 1.3 billion people, he said.

And Clairol's "Mist Stick" curling iron didn't sell well in Germany, where "mist" means "manure." "It was an unfortunate term for a curling iron. No one wanted to use the manure stick," Zweifel said.

As companies realize the need for foreign-language fluency, job seekers without that skill may find themselves relegated to the status of also-ran.

"Most of the big corporations have applicant tracking systems," said Mark Mehler, co-author of a directory of job Web sites, CareerXroads.com. "If they need someone who speaks Spanish and you don't have it on your résumé, you're not popping up. You don't pop up, you don't get hired."

Learning just about any language is likely to aid you in a job search, some say, because job applicants can sell themselves by saying "I'm more open-minded with a broader world view than a typical applicant," said Kevin Donlin, president of Guaranteed Resumes.

* Job seekers eager to position themselves for coming economic shifts should consider these languages:
                                                  
French                                                   
"French is spoken in very large regions of Africa," said Thomas D. Zweifel, chief executive of a cross-cultural coaching firm."The jury is still out on Africa and whether Africa will become the kind of economy that is really competing in the world. If it does, French will become more important again."
                                                  
Mandarin Chinese, or Cantonese                                                   
 "China is the fastest-growing consumer market in the world," Zweifel said. Some estimates point to Chinese becoming the No. 1 Internet language by 2007, he said. "We all think English will always be the number one language. It may
 not be true," he said.
                                                  
Portuguese
The third-largest consumer market by 2010, after China and India, will likely be Brazil, Zweifel said. "Portugal is kind of a best-kept secret" in terms of potential economic growth, Zweifel said, "but it's really Brazil which will have incredible opportunities for people and for business."
                                                  
Arabic or Farsi                      
"Language requirements change depending on what's going on in the world," said Jill Sanborne, chief executive of MyCoolCareer.com, a site aimed at helping teen-agers and young adults choose a career. Since 9/11, "there's been a need for more Arabic and Farsi speakers."
                                                  
German
An economic force in the European Union, Germany's language is increasingly the second language of choice in places like Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, Zweifel said.
                                                  
Russian