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Business benefits of a second language

By Mark Hall

(IDG) -- A good friend of mine works as a consultant in a multinational IT professional services company in Germany.

Despite exceptional technical knowledge, excellent people skills and solid organizational prowess, his career has plateaued.

That's because unlike many of his lesser-talented colleagues who are passing him by, my friend is that rarest of birds: a German who speaks only German.

In the United States, IT professionals seldom think that knowing another language will help their careers -- unless you're talking about Java or C++.

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Most global IT operations use English to communicate. And computer technology is being credited with (or blamed for) the increasing dominance of English as the language of business, as well as the spread of Spanglish (a mix of Spanish and English) and "Denglish" (a German and English patois).

The rest of the world's rush to speak our native tongue has made it almost unnecessary for us gringos to learn any other language.

Almost.

As you rise up your career ladder, it might be wise to learn another language or two.

Multilingual skill are prized by high-level executives in global companies. CEOs who are native speakers of Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew or Japanese are running U.S. companies today. They also speak English, of course. But your being able to communicate in their mother tongues is a definite career plus.

And when a manager decides whether to promote one of two people with identical technical skills, the better communicator is more likely to get the nod.

At Shell Oil, for example, IT managers are encouraged to study other languages, and the company even pays for approved courses. Although Shell uses English for most of its IT operations, its help desk staff -- housed in three locations around the globe -- must be able to resolve problems for employees speaking everything from Finnish to Farsi.

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The company is also embarking on a major knowledge-management program. Executives there think this work will give them a significant competitive advantage as they create an accessible hierarchy of data, information and knowledge about various lines of business, from drilling to metallurgy.

Yet linguistics remains one of the biggest problems that Shell faces in trying to tap its deep well of corporate knowledge. It's no small task to make a multilingual knowledge base accessible to any expert in any language anywhere on the planet.

In a global corporate environment, speaking the language of both your competition and your colleagues will translate into significant business and career advantages. It's never too late. Even my German friend has begun studying English.