Becoming bilingual could increase your expat salary

Learning new languages can help you widen your career prospects.

This is especially applicable in the context of working abroad since the more languages you know the higher your chances of obtaining work in your chosen job sector, rather than just settling for a lower level job that uses your native language rather than your actual job skills and experiences.

While most people tend to assume that the only language needed for jobs abroad is English, this is really a mistake. Ordinary working personnel in low-scale jobs do not know English and most persons in the 40-60 age bracket only know and converse in their respective national language. For this reason learning foreign languages is especially important to get access to high-paying expat jobs. Learning new languages opens careers prospects, especially in marketing and sales jobs.

Not surprisingly, studies from recruitment agencies dealing in languages reveal that learning a new language could increase wages by as much as 10-15%. With the expat jobs market becoming increasingly competitive, it really pays to know an additional language or two to help you stand out from other candidates. Learning foreign languages could also prove to be a huge boost to your CV. Most jobs abroad tend to prefer candidates who have knowledge of other languages as well. One classic example of this is Alex Bertolotti who had mastered German and French when at school but started learning Russian during night classes while he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC. He is now head of the Russian desk at the company and though he usually conducts meetings using translators he has found knowledge of Russian extremely useful in the job.

One of the other interesting elements about learning new languages is the interesting work that may be sent your way. If you wish to work abroad learning new languages is imperative for your expat career. Countries like Ukraine or Kazakhstan will not have English-speaking employees so knowing Russian in this case is extremely helpful. In the context of businesses too, with more expansion plans and business partners now being from other countries like Russia, the Middle East and continental Europe, expat jobs demand mastery of new languages.

Another major advantage of mastering new languages is that customers can choose to send important documents in the original language without translation. This is a huge timesaving initiative, especially in the context of urgent tasks. Work abroad these days is all about using innovative ways to speed up turnaround times and learning languages is a great way to reduce translation times. Learning the native language can also help recruiters when it comes to expat jobs. It builds better relationships and hones the soft skills element of certain jobs. It also enables businesses to build stronger relationships and improves client retention when they speak the local language.

Apart from the vocabulary and grammatical aspects of a new language it is also crucial to learn the cultural aspects. For example, in Germany handshakes entail the completion of a deal and missing deadlines is considered a huge taboo. Understanding these cultural aspects enables employees to widen career prospects when they work abroad, while also ensuring they do not accidentally offend the native employees.

Out of all the new languages you should consider learning, Spanish tops the list with German being the second most important language. Languages such as French, Dutch and Italian are also considered useful languages in the context of expat jobs. Nordic languages are also extremely useful especially if your jobs abroad are in the telecom, IT or technology sectors.

Expat-Daily.com » Career Advice