How learning another language enhances your human capital and increases your earning power
If you have ever thought about learning a second language for personal reasons, you might not be aware of how versatile the benefits of that knowledge can actually be. No matter what level you are at in your career, putting in the effort to become bilingual will pay you back across many areas of work. Gone are the days when being bilingual simply meant an extra fifty cents on the hour against monolingual co-workers. Keep reading to discover all the rich and fruitful ways a second language can benefit your career.
First and foremost, demand for bilingual workers in the United States has been on the rise for at least a decade. A 2017 study by the New American Economy found that “employers added jobs at a much faster pace for bilingual individuals than they did for U.S. workers overall,” and that the demand spread across both low and high-skilled positions.¹ On one end of the spectrum, general support roles such as customer service, sales, and restaurant staff have endless demand for bilingual employees. The same New American study states that “the ability to relate to people is critically important to the success of customer service representatives, the occupation that accounted for the largest share of bilingual job listings.” Not having staff available to assist customers in their native language instantly cuts out that potential customer base and can even lower overall customer satisfaction and brand favorability. Depending on location, that could equate to thousands of dollars in lost revenue. For many industries, it is more cost-effective to hire bilingual staff at a few dollars extra per hour than it is to lose out on market share. Our melting pot-of-a-country means that stores and businesses display their “se habla español” and [insert any language other than English] signs with great pride. One does not need to be highly proficient in a second language to have value, either. In many scenarios, basic conversational skills in a second language are enough to assist patrons.
On the other end of the spectrum, supervisory and executive bilingual workers are just as invaluable. While supervising a predominantly non-English speaking staff (as is the case in many areas and/or lines of work), there is a need for management to be able to communicate effectively with their team. Utilizing bilingual employees for assistance with interpreting is not always favorable in instances of private HR conversations or concerns regarding pay and performance, nor is it cost-effective to contract a professional interpreter whenever the need arises. A bilingual leader quickly bridges this gap and allows business to continue without interruption, regardless of language. Upper-level executives often work or collaborate with foreign individuals and countries and thus have an obvious advantage in being bilingual. Adding a second language to your resume often results in higher starting pay or at the very least, a competitive advantage in the hiring process. It also means your time unemployed and between jobs is reduced, resulting in an increased lifetime earning potential. A Language Magazine article wrote, “...it is becoming obvious that linguistic and cultural fluency enhances one’s human capital…more and more, at equal technical skills, a bilingual individual will be chosen over a monolingual person.”² We begin to superficially see how more money and opportunities can be earned in obvious bilingual advantages, but the benefits go much further than just the words themselves.
We have hinted at international business and the global economy as reasons why learning another language can be beneficial. Clearly, there needs to be a shared tongue in order to transact. We can further dissect the benefits beyond basic linguistics. It has been shown that bilingual individuals share “unique transversal competencies that are becoming increasingly important in a more internationally integrated job market,” to include increased cultural fluency and more opportunities.² It should not be taken for granted that language and mutual understanding runs deeper than words. Especially when conducting business in another language, a certain degree of tact and appreciation for cultural norms is necessary for closing deals and developing long-term relationships. It has also been found that “being bilingual helps develop more adaptability and social, emotional, and interpersonal skills.”² Having a predisposition to better communication and listening skills as a result of being bilingual certainly helps in business, and is advantageous in one’s personal endeavors, as well. Even without utilizing a single word of a second language on the job, one would nonetheless prosper by having enhanced communication skills.
Beyond these interpersonal benefits, it has been vastly studied and concluded that bilingualism offers numerous cognitive advantages that are valuable in the workplace, including enhanced multi-tasking skills, increased executive functioning, and better decision making. The mental process of linguistic task switching that happens in a bilingual individual’s brain is in constant use, and it therefore develops a much higher capacity than that of a monolingual individual, resulting in enhanced multitasking capabilities.³ It is also known that bilingual brains constantly activate both languages and are “better at filtering out the competing words because [they] are used to controlling two languages and inhibiting the irrelevant words.”⁴ This filtering process constantly exercises inhibition - one of the hallmarks of executive functioning and an important skill to have in a competitive work setting. In addition, a major finding of a 2012 study on decision making in foreign languages found that bilingual individuals were less influenced by emotion and instinctive responses when operating in their foreign language, resulting in the use of cognitive resources and deliberative reasoning in decision making.⁵ This type of decision making is invaluable in business settings, especially in highly-skilled positions but also in entry-level positions and those with high customer contact.
The overlap of personal and professional benefits of learning a second language is great. It is difficult to find any pastime or hobby that houses as much power and potential as that of acquiring another language. To further add to this list of personal benefits, knowing more than one language - even at a basic skill level - often lends itself to higher perceived intelligence and respect from others. Knowing the cognitive value associated with bilingualism, it is not hard to see why. Whether you had the fortune of growing up in a bilingual household or have the desire to learn a new language later in life, the associated benefits will naturally ensue.
To acquire a second language at any level is equally progressive as it is patriotic. The idea of expanding our own skills and accommodating others as opposed to expecting conformity is not shared everywhere. Despite being rich in diversity, the United States is still “the only developed country in the world for which language learning is not a recognized priority.”⁶ To embrace and share language with members of our diverse society is arguably one of the highest forms of respect and civic engagement that we can demonstrate with one another. As quoted in Language Magazine, “in a world charged with ambiguity and global challenges, the capacity to understand and appreciate the viewpoints of others is a stepping stone for success.”² If in pursuing that capacity, we also expand our own earning potential and cognitive abilities, why wouldn’t we?
Not lost in translation: U.S. Jobs Market Needs Foreign Language skills. New American Economy Research Fund. (2019, July 23). https://research.newamericaneconomy.org/report/not-lost-in-translation-the-growing-importance-of-foreign-language-skills-in-the-u-s-job-market/
Lazar, M. (2021, September 8). The bilingual advantage in the global workplace. Language Magazine. https://www.languagemagazine.com/2018/06/07/the-bilingual-advantage-in-the-global-workplace/
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2016, March 15). Bilinguals switch tasks faster than monolinguals, NIH funded study shows. National Institutes of Health. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/bilinguals-switch-tasks-faster-monolinguals-nih-funded-study-shows
Deardorff, J. | B. J. D. (2023, May 18). Bilingual brains better equipped to process information. Northwestern Now. https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2014/11/bilingual-brains-better-equipped-to-process-information
Caldwell-Harris, C. (2012, July 3). How knowing a foreign language can improve your decisions. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/foreign-language-improve-decisions/
Language Connects Foundation. (n.d.). The benefits of learning languages. Language Connects Foundation. https://www.languageconnectsfoundation.org/connect-with-language/the-benefits-of-learning-languages