If you speak a second (or third or fourth…) language, you may be way ahead in terms of your cognition and your career. And if you don’t, it may be an especially good investment of your time and effort—because the payoffs for being bi-lingual or multi-lingual are significant in terms of everything from pay and performance to your thinking and your relationships.
In a competitive job market, it makes sense to set yourself apart—and being multi-lingual may be exactly what you need to enhance your value to your current employer or a potential employer.
Reap Big Rewards
Benefits of speaking more than one language have been demonstrated in multiple ways. For example, students who knew more than one language performed two to three times better on exams compared with students who knew only one language, according to a study at New York University. And a study published in the Journal of Language, Identity and Education, found multi-lingual students performed better on all subjects, especially science and geography.
In addition, when people were multilingual, they experienced tons of additional benefits. They demonstrated greater ease in learning and complex thinking, creativity, mental flexibility, interpersonal and communication skills, and even a delay in the onset of age-related mental decline, based on a macro analysis by the Academy of Finland.
Increase Your Salary and Advance Your Career
Beyond the cognitive benefits, people also experience boosts in jobs and pay. Fully 40% of multilingual employees said language skills helped them land a job, and they earned 19% more than single-language speakers. They were also more likely to have received a raise in the last year, according to analysis by Preply.
Those who speak only one language also see the discrepancies. In fact, 48% of those who speak just one language feel they are at a disadvantage, and 85% of people wish they could speak another language. In addition, 61% thought speaking more languages would help them professionally, and 79% were willing to learn another language for a job, based on Preply data.
In addition to pay and promotions, people in the Preply poll also believe being multilingual results in a variety of advantages including personal growth, cognitive benefits, cultural understanding, adaptability, enhanced communication with diverse colleagues and clients, greater cultural sensitivity, better networking, the ability to work abroad and ease when traveling.
These are in addition to the belief that speaking multiple languages delivers more job opportunities, higher earning potential and competitive advantage when applying for jobs. All of this is based on the Preply poll.
Choose Your Language and Location
Interestingly the Preply poll found the following languages were associated with the highest average pay: Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese, French and Mandarin.
And their analysis of job postings found 86% mentioned a preference for Spanish language skills and 70% a preference for English.
The cities where multi-lingual workers received the biggest boost for their skills were: Fremont, CA, San Francisco, CA, Newark NJ, Reno, NV and San Jose, CA.
Build Your Language Skills
So how do you build your language skills to partake in all the benefits they offer? Take these simple steps.
- Just Begin. Plenty of people want to learn a language but a much smaller proportion actually take action to advance their learning. Find a class, obtain an individual learning program or partner up with a primary speaker of the language you want to learn. The bottom line: Just begin. Start somewhere in order to make progress in your goal.
- Commit and Invest. Ensure your learning regimen is regular and disciplined. It will take effort and time to gain acumen, so set a program and follow it with rigor and regularity.
- Immerse Yourself. One of the biggest challenges with acquiring a language is that you may not be exposed to it except during your learning periods—but you’ll deepen your understanding and gain capability more quickly if you can immerse in the experience. Travel if you can, join a community of those who speak the language and even look for movies or shows in the language—so you can expand your exposure to it.
- Manage Your Motivation. Reflect on your “why” for learning the language and keep your motivation top-of-mind. Perhaps you’re learning so you can communicate better with family members or friends, or so you can enjoy travel to more places with greater ease. Or you may be learning so you can advance your career or increase your salary. Any of these reasons can offer terrific inspiration for action—when you remind yourself of the benefits you’ll achieve.
Worth the Effort
The evidence is clear that speaking more than one language has huge payoffs, not only in pay or performance, but also in your esteem, relationships and personal fulfillment. So take action to learn another language and get ready to reap the rewards.
Read the full article here
