Today, no student in Germany graduates from high school without the knowledge of at least one foreign language. But for many, learning languages is over after that. However, language training benefits both our cognitive abilities and our careers. So, should we put more time and effort into learning a second or third language? How important are foreign languages in our careers, and how does language training help us personally? We’ll get to the bottom of these questions in this article.
What are the benefits of language learning?
Parents are familiar with the situation: “Why should I learn another foreign language or improve my English?” asks their child, holding their smartphone in front of their face. They all know their way around translation apps, and a smartwatch helps with classwork where memory fails. Life can be so simple! Many years sometimes pass before we realize why it is worthwhile to continue investing in our language skills after school, training, university, and jobs. It really is wasted time if you take a closer look at the positive effects of language training as well as the benefits of language learning.
1. Language training is brain training
Being proficient in more than one language is a massive challenge for our brain and, according to neuroscientists, even ensures that the grey matter grows and becomes better networked. This is relevant for mental performance at the age when we are still in the process of making a career and holding our own in a job.
Nevertheless, it also pays off when we get older and the grey matter begins to shrink, but our mental performance is still needed. Thinking and speaking in more than one language particularly challenges the executive functions of the brain. They ensure that we can concentrate and maintain focused attention.
With multilingualism, the brain succeeds even better in concentrating on relevant information and blocking out irrelevant information – simply because it is geared to maintaining an overview in linguistic confusion and distinguishing the important from the unimportant.
That helps the brain and makes the brain volume grow in the respective areas, similar to how a muscle grows when you train it. As a result, foreign language training also ensures that cognitive performance improves, based on executive functions: flexible switching between tasks, for example, inhibitory control, working memory and attention control. We benefit from this, even more, when it comes to tough and demanding jobs. Which second language learned is irrelevant for this and instead, what matters is how well the language is known, how often we use it, and grammatical accuracy.
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2. Language determines thought
Ego cogito, ergo sum, “I think, therefore I am,” once said the French philosopher René Descartes. Descartes, who lived in the 17th century. He wrote numerous texts and books either in his native language, French, or in the language of the clergy, Latin. What he could not yet have foreseen is how language determines our thinking and thus also our culture.
We have scientists at the Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, to thank for the proof that our mother tongue influences our perception of the world around us. For decades, researchers wondered why some cultures do not have words for spatial descriptions such as “right” or “left”, yet people can still orient themselves. The assumption was that they also imagine spatial relationships differently and think of them differently.
Using scientific measurement methods such as EEG and visual field measurement, the researchers launched comparative language studies with native English, German, and Dutch speakers. They found that linguistic structures (here, grammar) that people grow up with significantly influence cognitive processes, for example, how we perceive images or movies. The German and English subjects demonstrated specifically that the native German speakers tended to fixate on and respond to the goal of a storyline. In contrast, the native English speakers tended to pay more attention to the storyline itself.
Anyone who has studied a bit of the English language can understand this: while the progressive form, represented by the “ing” ending of the verb, is frequently used in English, there is no equivalent in German grammar. So, if the next round of negotiations with your English colleagues takes a little longer, that may be because to them, the negotiation is more important than the result. What we perceive as a cultural difference can be better understood and possibly even overcome with language training.
3. Emotional distance for better decisions
Foreign language skills also help when it comes to making more rational decisions, maintaining emotional distance and taking advantage of attractive opportunities. That’s what researchers at the University of Chicago have found, and according to the study, “The Foreign Language Effect: Thinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Biases,” a foreign language provides a distancing mechanism that moves people from the immediate intuitive system to a more deliberate mode of thinking.
For the study, the researchers worked with English-speaking students who had learned Spanish. The experiment, which involved making a financial decision, was conducted by one group of students in their native English language and the other in the foreign language, Spanish. The experiment examined how likely students were to make attractive bets depending on which language they viewed their options in. When the investigation was conducted in their native language of English, students thought emotionally and made short-sighted decisions. In the Spanish-language experiment, by contrast, they made a more rational decision.
As perhaps the most important mechanism for this effect, the researchers defined that a foreign language triggers less emotional resonance than the native language. Which has the advantage that decisions are less motivated by fear, and opportunities are more likely to be taken. The research report says the new findings are relevant to how people make decisions in a global society, as more and more people use a foreign language every day. Thinking in a foreign language could be very beneficial when making decisions in a business environment or around personal finance.
4. Foreign languages as a success factor in the global economy
In its IW Future Panel, the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft (Institute for the German Economy) also states that foreign languages are an essential success factor for the economy. The success of traditional industrial sectors can only be achieved if they can hold their own in the face of structural change with megatrends such as globalization and knowledge intensification. The fundamental basis for globalization and knowledge intensification is communication, which must function smoothly beyond one’s borders to be successful. Knowledge of foreign languages and cultures is therefore essential.
For example, we don’t deny that translation apps can be a first aid when writing emails in a business context. However, they do not make language learning superfluous. Even apps that are described as working with artificial intelligence are only really suitable for translating factual texts. They don’t understand emotions, for example, which can easily lead to uncomfortable misunderstandings. To be able to check translations, you need your language skills. In oral business communication, translation apps are, in short, a disruptive factor, as anyone can easily imagine. First speaking or typing into the app, then listening to or reading out the translation before the other person responds in the same way – conversations quickly take three times as long. Not to mention that this approach is not indicative of professionalism.
What is more certain here is that only those who can express themselves accurately while being aware of cultural peculiarities will achieve their goal and develop further, both professionally on the job and on the emotional side, whether as a team member or as a team leader. Knowing more than one language also promotes soft skills such as empathy, which are necessary for healthy employee relationships, tolerance and respect, and improves adaptability to new work cultures.
Why are language skills so crucial for careers?
Anyone who wants to pursue a career today no longer needs professional expertise. In recent years, soft skills such as general communication skills, networking, understanding of different cultures, and presentation skills have become increasingly important. In addition, there are essential skills such as digital competencies. Against the backdrop of the globalized economy, the willingness to pursue an international career is also desirable, and participation in appropriate further training programs such as company language courses is welcomed by companies. Let’s take a look in detail at the advantages foreign language skills offer employees and companies:
1. Communication by all means
Communication always consists of more than speech and words. Facial expressions, gestures and intonation are also important. Suppose even just one part is missing, for example, because you can’t see each other on the phone and it isn’t easy to understand the emotion of the other person. In that case, your language skills must be all the better to communicate without misunderstandings. Also, important to know: How do I answer a question that might be answered differently in a foreign culture other than my own?
2. International career as a manager
Even better knowledge of a foreign language should be considered if you as a manager want to communicate. After all, success also depends on how well the exchange with the team works. A lack of language skills, on the other hand, can have a severe impact on acceptability and thus also on the results of joint work and can be detrimental to one’s career.
In any case, the following applies: If you can not only discuss business topics ideally with another individual, but also master small talk and know how much small talk is required on which topics in the other culture, you will have an advantage and make faster progress, both in the project and in your career.
3. Networking for your next job
With the international business communities on the Internet came a whole new opportunity to launch a global or national career. Provided you know what to respond to and how best to respond to a statement and draw attention to yourself with short but meaningful and opinionated posts. In doing so, one can quickly discover that it is more challenging to make a statement in just a few words than in a long text. A special tip: Many members of business networks belong to the English-speaking world. However, this is not the only language used. The difference between British and American English can also be seen particularly well when you look at short posts.
4. Not all presentations are created equal
The success of a presentation usually depends on three things: How well the relevant slides are prepared visually and with text, whether the topic is exciting and entertainingly structured, and of course, how it is presented. This often involves more pitfalls than it sounds at first glance, and this is true even for such seemingly simple translations as from English to German and vice versa. The reason is that what is needed here is not a long text but short and precise expressions that need to be well formulated and require in-depth knowledge of the language to achieve the desired effect. The way of presentation also differs from culture to culture. Facts and figures are not necessarily the key to success everywhere. It is also vital to engage the audience and reach them with your topic.
5. Intercultural training included
Language is not an artificially created structure but a living, verbal and written communication tool that is constantly changing. How we speak and express ourselves is directly linked to our culture – and differs, even though the world feels increasingly interconnected. It helps enormously to put yourself in the foreign culture’s shoes and understand how they perceive the world. This means that nothing can stand in the way of an international career.
Language training pays off
Foreign language skills not only help you communicate better in a language, but they are also beneficial for establishing social contacts, understanding foreign cultures, decision-making and mental performance. Whether in everyday life or at work, there are plenty of good reasons to learn a new language or expand your existing language skills.
