Importance of Foreign Language Fluency in Business

[srhbusiness]

Hello to all users here! My name is Steven and I'm writing an article on the importance of being fluent in a foreign language in the business world. I have found some articles on the web on the subject, but I wanted to gain more input from all types of business people (including small business persons). So, I wanted to ask you all here on small-business-forum; Why is learning/being fluent in a foreign language important and vital to your business? Are there any reasons any of you all can think of that shows learning/being fluent in a foreign language is not necessary for a business? Obviously there are different types of businesses out there with different needs, so I would like to get as much input as possible from you all. Thank you for taking time for reading this post and I hope to hear from you all soon.

[nealrm]

I'll help. I was an engineer for over 20 years. I spent time in both research and manufacturing. In manufacturing, I dealt with suppliers both nationally and inter-nationally. The number of times that I had to have a foreign language amount to ZERO. Most of the worlds business is conducted in English. I have also traveled to both Mexico and Europe, in both cases outside of the tourist areas, again I never needed anything other than English. Last, unlike Europe, throughout much of the US you have to drive hours to find a significant population that doesn't speak English. So the idea that one much be fluent in a foreign language is a bunch of liberal BS. It is a waste to force high school and college students to learn a second language, when their chance of using it continuously so they remember it and can use it is very limited.

This in no way means that if you are planning to move to where a different language is spoken that you shouldn't learn that language.

[Harold Mansfield]

Hello to all users here! My name is Steven and I'm writing an article on the importance of being fluent in a foreign language in the business world. I have found some articles on the web on the subject, but I wanted to gain more input from all types of business people (including small business persons).

So, I wanted to ask you all here on small-business-forum; Why is learning/being fluent in a foreign language important and vital to your business?
It's not. Plenty of English speakers in the world for me to make a living. People do what I do in every language so it's not like the market isn't being served.



Are there any reasons any of you all can think of that shows learning/being fluent in a foreign language is not necessary for a business?
See above.


Obviously there are different types of businesses out there with different needs, so I would like to get as much input as possible from you all. Thank you for taking time for reading this post and I hope to hear from you all soon.

This would probably be different in Europe where the countries and languages are so close together. But in the U.S. it's not unless you are targeting a specific market. Plenty of businesses "se habla Espanol", and "Press '1' for English". No to mention a variety of other languages to serve whatever market they're in or want to target.

Just don't see it as important for me and what I do, and who I do it for.

I am however working on an Android App, and I'm sure I will slowly have that translated to many languages.

[BizAdvisor]

Just as the USD reins supreme, as far as the top global payment currency, English is also the most dominant global language used in business. Because of this, by default, Americans have an advantage in business with or without fluency in secondary languages. The importance of fluency in other countries is obviously much different.

[Harold Mansfield]

Just as the USD reins supreme, as far as the top global payment currency, English is also the most dominant global language used in business. Because of this, by default, Americans have an advantage in business with or without fluency in secondary languages. The importance of fluency in other countries is obviously much different.

Unfortunately that's the way I see it too. English is the language of business around the world. If you want to do business with me the burden to speak English is on you. Not on me to learn your language. ESPECIALLY inside America.

Again, I don't target a non English speaking market because I only speak English. I've had clients from all over the world..some with limited English skills but we made it through. I'm sure things would have been smoother if I knew French, or Icelandic..but there's just no way for me to know every language of everyone who may call. And since ALL of my marketing and targeting is to English speakers, that's who I'm expecting. No one who doesn't speak and read English would even be able to find me.

Now if I were to go to France looking to do business it would be a little arrogant to think I could do that without knowing how to speak any French. But here in America, the burden is on others to learn English. Just like in every other country in the world.

[Bobjob]

I'm a rep for a German company. It's not vital I speak German, but if I did I believe it would be endearing to them.

I don't see learning other languages as vital, but I believe it is a great idea. These days apps make learning more feasible.

[Harold Mansfield]

in a pinch Google translate is awesome now. You can literally have a back and forth conversation with someone pretty effortlessly. I've also seen new earpieces coming out that translate the same way on the fly,. Of course both people would need a set, but still...the world is getting smaller. Getting much easier to communicate with people almost anywhere.

[turboguy]

Google translate is a nice tool but less than perfect. Perhaps in time it will be close to perfect. We deal all over the world but seem to get by in English for the most part. It is helpful that English seems to be the worldwide language of business to some extent. There have been times when having someone on the staff who spoke Spanish would be a benefit. We occasionally get calls from someone who only speaks Spanish and they hope we have a Spanish speaker on our staff. We did at one time but don't now. We try to get them to email so we can use a translation program.

[billbenson]

I spent 10 or so years managing Latin America as a sales guy. While I agree with what has been said above; employers don't look at it that way. Employers are pretty much idiots. They think you need to be Latino to sell into Latin America. The t most Latin countries have their own culture and may not like other Latin cultures. This may apply to other countries and cultures, I don't know.

But your problem is not your skill in language and culture, but rather getting employed by a US company to work there.

On edit, most professionals including doctors have been educated in the US. I would assume the same is true for Europe - Quality schools in the UK, France Etc.

[Pita]

I lived in the Netherlands for nine years ('05 to '14). I worked in English, conducted personal affairs in (mostly) English, and when I travelled throughout Europe I was able to get by quite well using English and a smattering of words I would pick-up in the language of the country I was visiting at the time. As mentioned above the international language of business is English. In northern Europe English is widely taught in schools and most professionals are fluent in it. Southern Europe not so much.

While there I thought of learning a language, but which one? Dutch is only spoken mostly in Holland, parts of Belgium, and a few islands in the Caribbean. I didn't live in France, Spain, Germany or Italy so I saw no reason to try to learn those languages. English works just fine.

I did have to visit an emergency room in Ponferrada, Spain, not to long ago. The doctor didn't speak any English and I didn't know enough Spanish to explain the problem. He and I were able to communicate great using only his Apple iphone as a translator.

My partner is French Algerian so she speaks French and Arabic. We are a French creperie so her ability to speak French adds some charm and some of out customers who want to practice their French enjoy it, but it is by no means necessary, especially in Norfolk, VA.

[KristineS]

It isn't. We do have Spanish speaking employees and managers in our California plant, and can call on them when necessary, but it's very rarely necessary. Even when we do encounter someone who isn't necessarily fluent in English, they can manage enough to get their meaning and order requirements across. I like the idea of learning languages just because I like the idea of learning languages, but I don't think it's necessary for me as part of the business. We deal with international clients and I've never had an issue understanding them or making myself understood. English has pretty much become the universal language, at least for business transactions. Knowing another language would, of course, have more importance if I was living and working in a country where English was not the first language, but I'm not, so it doesn't.

[Harold Mansfield]

So I'd like to flip the question. Is learning English important in business? I'd say yes. Especially IN the USA.

I like to tell the story all the time about the kick ass Thai restaurant that used to be in my neighborhood. Seriously awesome food, fresh ingredients and reasonably priced. But ordering from them was so painful because no one who answered the phone spoke English well. It would take 10+ minutes or longer by the time you got through the credit card numbers. Many times I'd order from somewhere else just because it was easier.
They also didn't have a system set up where your phone number would give them your address. It was a nightmare putting in an order

They eventually closed. Since it was all take out I have to believe not being able to take orders efficiently was one of the biggest factors if not the only one.

They cooked awesome food, but they dropped the ball when it came to running a business, and some English language skills may have saved them.

[Bobjob]

I know. If they don't speak english their accent is so strong you cannot understand them. I feel terrible for both parties when this happens. I would avoid the trouble as well, even if the food was delicious. As a decent person I would want to reach out to the owner to assist but you never know.

I know a guy who sells Cummins marine engines down here. We have a strong asian population in the Bayou that are shrimpers. He said many occasions they will bring their child in to translate the deal of purchasing the engines. An 11 year old, brokering maybe a $25,000 deal. :)

[damienzero]

This is coming from a perspective of working as a salesman for door 2 door and telemarketing companies.

Is learning/being fluent in a foreign language important and vital to your business? No, most of the people I came across and talked to were fluent English speaking customers. But, every now in then are sales team would come across an only Spanish speaking person. Being the only bilingual sales rep in those situations I had complete ownership of those leads. It was nice and many of the other sales reps were jealous, but even with that advantage there were still other reps that would leave me in the dust. What I trying to say it doesn't matter how many languages you don't know, what matters is how much effort you put in what you do know.

[LostInIT]

I have to say that I am quite surprised by the overall sentiment in this thread! I feel like it actually is important to know foreign languages in business, but your comments made me think about it some more. Now I have to say, I am not so sure.

I think it depends on many factors, like what industry you are in, whether your business is just a local one or whether you deal online, with foreign customers and/or suppliers and so on.

In my experience, I have found it absolutely vital to know foreign languages in every venture I did. Even when you don't actually need the foreign language to communicate with the other person/client/customer/etc, it is often a great ice-breaker and a trust-building tool when you know the language, can use it to an extent and have a knowledge about the other country's culture. It can also prevent some misunderstandings (I wanted to give you one actual example out of many from my experience but it was just a huge wall of text to illustrate one point, so I decided against it :) ).

But to be fair, all this probably doesn't apply if your business is just a car repair shop that deals with local people or similar. There might be times when some tourists need your help or something, but overall the knowledge of a foreign language won't be of much importance to you. (Unless you use it to source car parts from other countries, for example... Hmm.).

However, the original question was, I believe, about the importance of language fluency. Now that I think is even more difficult to answer, but honestly, fluency in other languages is probably not important, unless you are a person responsible for writing content in that languge. In other circumstances, it's just important to be able to communicate and get your point across in the language, not to be absolutely fluent. And even then, lots of work can be done by general machine translators like Google Translate or specialized ones like YarakuZen for Asian languages. This makes it pretty easy to do simple deals around the globe.

Afterall, you sometimes see even CEOs of huge corporations or their marketing folks that can't really be considered fluent in a language, but they still manage to get their point across, sometimes even in front of huge audiences.

So, yeah. Take your pick. As I said, I am still thinking about this topic from time to time but all I can come up with is: it depends.