Going Global: How Multilingual Fluency IS the Language of Business

Multilingual Americans are steadily growing in numbers. This is a very good thing, especially for people capable of speaking multiple languages since multilingualism has benefits on both personal and business levels that cannot be overlooked.

I was fortunate to experience some of those benefits while in my early twenties when I spent the middle years of the 1990s in Japan as a student and young “salaryman.”  Fast forward twenty-plus years and I still find myself grateful nearly every day for the opportunity I had to learn another language and culture while young.

At Imagineer, most of my colleagues are multilingual. Our common tongue is English, but we’ve got teammates who speak fluent Ukrainian, Russian, Hebrew, Hindi, German, and Spanish, to name a few.  Working with such a wide cast of characters from so many cultural and linguistic backgrounds is amazing. It helps us keep our eyes open to the widest possible world view, find common ground in every circumstance, and better embody our corporate values of openness, integrity, pragmatism, and gratitude.  Here are a few of the other benefits associated with being multi-lingual.

Being Multilingual Builds Respect and Trust

The language of business in most of the world is often seen as English.  However, the benefits of being multilingual helps you convey that you’re not working in a region just for the business.  In an article for The Week, Daniel Everett states that learning the local language strongly conveys a mutual sense of respect and appreciation of your international colleagues and customers.

In my experience working with Japanese co-workers and clients, being fluent in the language and culture was instrumental in establishing myself as not just another vendor, but a trusted partner.  I experienced the same benefit when I worked for a Swedish company for several years. Although my Swedish was terrible, the bits and pieces I was able to string together from time to time helped me build more trusting and mutually respectful relationships with my colleagues.

Creating Personal Opportunities and Expanding Internal Strengths 

Being bi- or multilingual can help up your visibility in the job market.  With more companies having a global outlook, possessing language skills trends well, giving hiring professionals insights about who you are as a potential employee. 

Matthew Kalinowski points out a simple formula: “If there are two candidates for the same position who have the same experience and skills but one of them can speak another language, it’s likely that the bilingual candidate will get the job, especially if the company is global or looking to go global in the future.” For companies striving to expand on a global level, hiring multilingual talent across functions is a sure-fire way to show your commitment to understanding your local customers. 

The Cognitive Benefits

Multilingualism isn’t just limited to getting your foot in the door. Neel Burton wrote about the cognitive benefits of multilingualism and its impact on improving judgment. “According to one recent study, people who think through a moral dilemma in a foreign language make much more rational, or utilitarian, decisions, perhaps because certain words lose some of their emotional weight, or because the problem is seen from a different cultural perspective,” he writes.  This is a crucial skill for individuals in leadership roles that may have to make decisions with the potential to heavily impact their business. 

On a personal note, learning Japanese was a great way for me to truly understand my client’s culture and points-of-view.  In doing so, I learned that fluency isn’t just relegated to understanding words and phrases, but a full immersion of the language, dialects, and culture. As Sean Patrick Hopwood writes in his “8 Reasons Why You Should Learn the Japanese Language,” understanding the language is a doorway into understanding the people and the culture and that’s a skill that’s equally important in business as it is in your personal life.  

This final platitude has been particularly true for me and my wife of nearly twenty years who was born and raised in Japan. Our mutual understanding of the values and cultural heritage of both Japan and the United States of America that are expressed through language have made us stronger as a couple and as parents to our children, to whom we’ve tried to pass on the benefits of multilingualism.