Beside upgrading yourself in your own line of work, have you ever thought of learning a new language? Let us today explore why it is important to be multilingual instead of having only English as your native language.
1) Going Global Local companies are recognizing that your own country is only so big and the world is your oyster if you played it right. More and more local companies are expanding into international market and the smart way for you to seize the opportunity and have the upper hand if you have skills that they need but most importantly, if you talk the same language but walk your company’s culture, you are priceless.
When local companies delicately venture out to the open wild, the last thing they’ll do is to hire someone externally and screw their perhaps only chance to dip their toes in that particular country. What they like to do is to send someone senior to go over there and check on the market. It’s a smart move however, not familiarize with the country’s culture in addition to not speaking their language puts the person from your company a disadvantage. Thus in my experience, I have seen plenty of companies run home with tail in between their legs.
So what does it have to do with you? You are not a senior manager or in the top management, you don’t get to be send on a business trip even if you volunteer to go for free. One golden word: Opportunities!
With expansion means there are likely to open up more positions to handle the new workload as well as new areas to be develop. Before your top management had time to look externally for people who have the language skills and the experience dealing with that market, you can offer yours first. Your own unique selling point is that you are well versed with the internal culture and the work flow of the company and you are expert at your current position but is that enough? No. Because everyone in your company have the same advantage too.
Not having the experience of dealing that market has placed you in a disadvantage position however, there is still ways to distinguish yourself from your colleagues. One obvious skill that is a need to have is language. The key to any successful relationship even workforce is communications. Your company would also want to put people they trusted and worked with in a new area and not to take risks to bring in someone from outside. Remember, your company has more to lose if they fail in an overseas venture.
2) New Foreign Company Being multilingual, allows you to tap into various markets that your company is already doing. This opens up many different positions for you. Say you are a technical support expert, you not only able to support any countries that speaks English but also the language that you are proficient in. It’s an add-on bonus for you and your employer as he will be able to assign more accounts for you to handle.
Even if you are not confident in your new language, you can use this opportunity to practice around your colleagues as your company probably will have people who are speaking in that language as their native tongue.
3) Speaking in terms Many of us have to work along with vendors whether you belong in a small company or a huge one. It’s a lot more common to outsource non core business externally. While you might have dealt fine with a local supplier, you definitely can help your company to save some costs when you are able to locate suitable suppliers outside the perimeters of your own country.
Take example, China is the currently the world’s most used manufacturers and they probably quote much cheaper than your local suppliers. Then we have Vietnam and the upcoming India. If you speak their language, you definitely have an edge here when dealing with external suppliers. Your company will definitely appreciate you thinking out of box and valued you even more for caring about profits.
So have I convinced you to pick up a new language? I’m bilingual with both English and Chinese as my own native tongues but it hasn’t stop me from learning another new language, Malay.
Come and follow me at my Twitter MiddleMe_net and receive not only updates from me but also benefit from some of the articles I have been reading as well.
Have an Amazing Weekend!
Σχόλια