Is a second language an advantage, or is one enough?

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0daedf38-16af-11e2-b1df-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2No4bHC9g

October 25, 2012 10:22 am

By Tim Smedley

As business becomes increasingly global, many argue it is important for job candidates to learn a second or third language; others disagree, asking why native English speakers should bother to learn other tongues when English is the dominant global language of business.

Andy Dallas, a director at Robert Half Financial Services, is more inclined to agree with the latter view: “Globally, financial services continues to be an English-dominated industry, with many of the international financial centres of Asia and Europe adapting their practices to work in English.

“In the UK, there isn’t great demand for foreign language skills, which are often seen as an asset rather than a requirement for potential hires.”

Many in financial recruitment concur. Jane Kirk, a partner at Armstrong Craven, the executive search firm, says she has not seen any increased demand for language skills because “English remains the main business language in the global market”.

Backing her up is a British Chambers of Commerce survey of more than 8,000 businesses that found in the first quarter of this year that 96 per cent had no foreign language ability for the markets they served.

However, some believe the UK’s mono-lingual tendencies are a concern, both for the competitiveness of British business and for career prospects within multinational organisations.

Adam Marshall, director of policy at the BCC, is one of them: “I think one of the lessons we’ve learned from the history of international trade is that complacency breeds decline. If you have a business community that is so assured of its inalienable right to trade into a certain market, you can rest assured that a competitor will come along, whether from their own country or another, and try and steal that market away from them with a better-tailored product.

“Language learning is of huge importance to future prospects, particularly in those markets where English is less spoken and less used in the regulatory and governmental environment.”

Recruiting candidates with language skills, might also help to avoid some of the costly and well-known translation errors, such as Chevrolet launching its Nova car in South America despite “No va” meaning “Doesn’t go” in Spanish.

“Such mistakes can be simple and banal, or cause serious cross-cultural offence,” argues Mr Marshall. “So it is incredibly important for senior executives to be culturally sensitive and where possible to have some sort of language knowledge, which goes for various levels throughout a business.”

If a company deals with a key non-English speaking market, then hiring employees with knowledge of that language is useful and helps with understanding the needs of that market. “With language learning comes cultural understanding,” argues Mr Marshall, “and cultural understanding can lead to business deals.”

Ms Kirk agrees that language can demonstrate a good understanding of business culture, which can be vital when recruiting for certain positions.

Brazil is a good example of a current growth market where language skills are valued. “Language barriers have presented issues for many exporters to Brazil,” says Mr Marshall. “What many people tell us is that it’s not a problem speaking to the businesses they deal with, but it is a problem when dealing with the state agencies.”

Ms Kirk also finds that in Brazil “there is a deep preference to do business with a Brazilian, so non-nationals should speak Portuguese”.

But even in well established markets, such as Japan and China, English speakers are not as common as some might assume. Tony Vardy, managing director of Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann, the executive search and leadership consultancy, identifies foreign language skills as being more advantageous in parts of the world where English tends not to be the second language of choice. A Brazilian businessman, surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries, is more likely to learn Spanish than English.

“As emerging markets have developed much more quickly than most of Europe and the US in recent years,” says Mr Vardy, “companies and senior executives increasingly have a broader international outlook and languages not widely spoken in the west are therefore becoming more important.

“The ability to speak languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Russian and Portuguese has increased in value and will continue to do so.”

Even if a role does not require any language proficiency, employers often view knowledge of foreign languages as evidence of a wider willingness to learn and adapt, says Mr Vardy: “This is often as valuable to employers as fluency in a specific language.

“While not always requested in the position specification or candidate profile, senior hiring executives look favourably upon foreign language skills, and we expect their importance to increase as time goes on.”

Mr Dallas says roles in finance that rate language skills highly when recruiting can include front office and trader roles. He says: “These may find additional benefit, especially if they work for a foreign institution.

“There have been a few cases of foreign companies moving their headquarters to London, and this has also prompted the need for individuals with foreign language skills for these companies specifically.”

Mr Vardy highlights demand for executives with “a hands-on role managing employees, or selling products and services to consumers, who speak a different language”.

The expatriate placement is the most obvious area where language skills are beneficial. Mr Dallas believes those looking into international opportunities “should look to enhance their foreign language skills, particularly Arabic and Asian languages where much of the growth lies.

“Not only will it give you a competitive advantage during the selection process, it will allow you to adjust more quickly both to your professional and personal environments. For senior managers, it also demonstrates to future employees that you are invested in the organisation and business community.”

The conventional wisdom remains, however, that simply speaking English is enough, for now. It is becoming more commonly spoken in all business markets, and is unlikely to be toppled as the international language of business for the foreseeable future.

This, however, is a double-edged sword: as more markets become fluent in English, the more competition native English-speakers will face. On top of that, the multinational understanding of these changing markets will help them access other markets that might remain closed to mono-lingual British businesses.

“We are lucky, we do have a natural advantage in the English language which is the world’s commercial language,” says Mr Marshall. “But simply having the world’s commercial language does not mean we have a lock on the business.

“I think executives in business in the UK are very complacent about this issue. Those that are more forward looking will be taking steps to ensure they have the talent required on their staff. When winning business abroad on the strength of a product, in a highly competitive environment, small things can make the difference.”

Being multilingual will always be an advantage, says Mr Dallas.

And while Mr Vardy concedes that most native English-speaking executives have so far managed to get by successfully without foreign language skills, he adds that “as businesses increasingly operate in a more sophisticated global marketplace, single-language leaders may become an endangered species”.

英國人需要學外語嗎？

http://big5.ftchinese.com/story/001047299

2012年11月06日 07:34 AM

自由撰稿人 蒂姆·斯梅德利 為英國《金融時報》撰稿

隨著企業國際化程度日益增強，許多人認為求職者學習第二或第三門語言具有重要的意義；還有些人則認為，既然英語是全球主要的商務語言，英語母語者又何必花費精力學習其他語言？

 

Robert Half Financial Services董事安迪•達拉斯(Andy Dallas)更贊同後一種觀點：“全球來看，金融服務業的用語仍以英語為主，亞洲和歐洲的很多國際金融中心都在做出改變，在工作中採用英語。

“在英國企業對外語技能的需求不高。求職者的外語技能往往被當作一種優點，而不是一項要求。”很多從事金融業招聘的人士對表示贊同。高管獵頭公司Armstrong Craven合夥人簡•科克(Jane Kirk)認為，對語言技能的需求並未增加，因為“英語仍是全球市場的主要商務語言”。

英國商會(British Chambers of Commerce)今年第一季度對8000多家企業進行的調查印證了科克的說法。該調查發現，96%的被調查者並未掌握適用於所服務市場的外語技能。

然而，有人擔心英國的單語傾向會影響英國企業的競爭力和國民在跨國企業中的職業前景。
英國商會政策主管亞當•馬紹爾(Adam Marshall)便持此觀點：“我認為我們從國際貿易史中學到的一條教訓是，自滿使人落後。如果一個商業團體確信自己對於在某個特定市場開展業務擁有不可剝奪的權利，那麽毫無疑問將有本國或別國的競爭對手加入進來，努力通過更有針對性的產品奪走它們的市場。”

“學習語言對未來的商業前景具有重要意義，日常對話中及監管、政府環境中較少使用英語的市場尤其如此。”

聘用具備語言技能的求職者也有助於避免某些代價高昂而廣為人知的翻譯錯誤，比如雪佛蘭(Chevrolet)在南美洲推出了Nova汽車，而“No va”在西班牙語里的意思是“不走”。
“這些錯誤可能很簡單、很平常，也可能在其他文化中造成嚴重的冒犯，”馬紹爾說，“因此非常重要的一點是，高管應具有文化敏感性，可能的話要掌握一些語言知識，這對於企業的各級別員工都是適用的。”

如果公司在一個重要的非英語市場做生意，那麽雇傭懂得當地語言的雇員是有用的，並且有助於理解該市場的需求。“在學習語言過程中可以瞭解當地的文化，”馬紹爾認為，“而對文化的瞭解可以促成商業交易。”

科克也認為，語言能力能夠展示出對商業文化的良好理解，這一點在某些職位的招聘中可能是至關重要的。

巴西便是一個語言技能受到重視的增長型市場。“語言障礙給很多向巴西出口產品的公司帶來問題，”馬紹爾說，“很多人告訴我們，語言問題並非存在於與企業的交流中，而是存在於與政府機構的交流中。”

科克還發現，巴西人“嚴重傾向於與巴西人做生意，因此非巴西人應當跟巴西人說葡萄牙語”。

不過即使在日本和中國等英語已經具有重要地位的市場，英語仍不像一些人想象的那樣普及。獵頭和領導力咨詢公司Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann董事總經理托尼•瓦爾迪(Tony Vardy)認為，在英語不是首選第二語言的地區，擁有外語技能更能體現出優勢。巴西周邊是西班牙語國家，所以巴西商界人士更有可能學習西班牙語，而不是英語。

瓦爾迪說：“由於近年來新興市場的發展速度明顯快於歐洲大部分國家和美國，公司和高管逐漸具備更廣闊的國際視野，因此在西方沒有得到普遍使用的語言如今變得更加重要。”

“會說漢語普通話、阿拉伯語、俄語和葡萄牙語的能力越發得到重視，這一趨勢還將繼續下去。”

瓦爾迪說，即便一個職位對語言能力沒有要求，通常雇主也會認為，會外語表明一個人願意學習新知識和適應新環境：“對員工而言，這往往與精通某一門語言同等重要。”
“盡管在職位說明和求職者資質中並不總是會提出相關要求，但高級招聘人士的確青睞外語技能，我們預計外語技能的重要性將與日俱增。”

達拉斯說，在金融行業，招聘中高度重視語言技能的可能包括一線崗位和交易員職位。他說：“尤其是當一個人在外國機構工作時，語言技能可能擁有額外的優勢。”
“一些外國公司將總部搬到了倫敦，它們對擁有外語技能的人才產生了特殊需求。”
瓦爾迪著重講到了對“直接管理員工或向消費者銷售產品服務、會說不同語言”的高管的需求。

外派工作是語言技能最能發揮用處的一個領域。達拉斯認為，那些尋找跨國工作機會的人“應當著意提高外語技能，尤其是阿拉伯語和亞洲語言，因為增長集中在這些地區。

“這不僅讓你在遴選過程中擁有競爭優勢，還能讓你更快地適應職業和人際環境。對高管來說，這還能向未來員工證明你在這家企業和商界付出了努力。”

但就目前來說，傳統的認識仍然是：會說英語就夠了。所有商業市場對英語的使用愈發頻繁，英語作為國際商務語言的地位在可以預見的將來也很難被撼動。

不過，這種情況是一把雙刃劍：隨著更多的市場英語水平提高，英語母語者也將面臨更激烈的競爭。此外，瞭解多國情況、洞悉這些變化中的市場，將幫助他們進入那些排斥只會英語的企業的其他市場。

“我們很幸運，英語是全球商務語言給我們帶來了天生的優勢，”馬紹爾說，“但僅僅掌握這門全球商務語言並不意味著我們就一定能獲得業務。”

“在我看來，英國企業高管在這個問題上顯得十分自滿。比較有遠見的人會採取行動，確保員工隊伍中擁有需要的人才。如果要在競爭激烈的環境中憑借產品的實力贏得國外業務，小事情也能成就大不同。”

達拉斯說，掌握多門語言始終是一項優勢。

瓦爾迪承認，大部分以英語為母語的高管沒有吃過不會外語的虧，但“隨著企業運營的全球市場環境越來越復雜，只會一門語言的企業領導可能將成為瀕危物種”。

譯者/徐天辰