Careers and the Advantage of Multilingualism

For those of you debating on whether or not to start learning a new language or simply continue to improve one in which you already have some degree of proficiency (including English, if it is not your native language,) here is a report with some valuable information - and motivation - for you.

http://www.tirfonline.org/TIRF_Plurilingualism_full.pdf

If nothing else, take a look at the executive summary in the beginning and the table of contents and jump to the sections that interest you most. The gist is that it is a research summary (in very reasonable, non-academic language) that identifies the role of English and multilingualism in the global corporation.

NOTE: While the primary focus is on the role of English in global economic success, there is plenty of direct and indirect discussion about the importance of native English speakers having a working proficiency in other world languages too!

The research questions that guide the study are:

1. What language requirements do global corporations have?
2. What are the economic purposes and benefits of these requirements?
3. How do global corporations assess whether workers meet their language requirements?
4. What have global corporations done to address the language challenges they face?
5. What is the impact of employees’ language abilities on individuals, firms, and economies?

If you want to be a part of the ever-expanding global marketplace and/or workforce, you simply cannot afford to take this lightly. This should be an excellent topic for discussion, so I look forward to seeing your comments!