Languages are said to increasingly gain importance in international business; not only are there still so many countries where English is not spoken as a second language by everyone, there are also many languages which are gaining importance.

My mother’s tongue is Dutch, and I speak an additional four foreign languages, two of which can be utilised in a business environment (English and German). I once worked for a company, which would actually pay an additional amount on top of the monthly salary for each usable foreign language. Up to then I had always seen language as a tool to make myself better understandable in a foreign country, but not as a tool to boast my career and increase my salary.

Today, the world has become even more internationalised, and foreign language is a hot topic. Apart from the fact that learning a foreign language is fun to learn and offers valuable insights in a nation’s culture, some foreign languages are increasingly gaining importance, if this is not already the case. Just consider the fact, that over a billion people on this planet speak Chinese, this is 1/6 of the entire world population. And additionally, many people in Asia speak Chinese as a second language, rather than English. How about Arabic? Hindi? Spanish?

The great benefit for your career and working environment in general is that you are making yourself more competitive by learning new foreign language. Additionally, you are demonstrating your employer, or potential employers and head hunters, that you want to keep learning a life long.

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