As our job market becomes increasingly globalized, more and more languages are being introduced into workplaces. In an ideal world, everyone could understand the language everyone else is speaking. In reality, this is just not the case. Language barriers can curb workplace productivity not only by making it more difficult to communicate with one another but by making it difficult to understand personal conversations. This can build barriers between people instead of doing what language does best, breaking them down.
Speaking a language other than the one spoken by everyone at your workplace may leave others feeling left out or gossiped about. Though this is rarely the intention, it can make creating great personal relationships with your coworkers difficult. Making a comment to your coworker during a meeting in a language other than the one commonly spoken can make others feel like you’re keeping something, even if all you said was “Let’s get coffee after this”.
There can also be safety concerns when considering why people should speak the same language in a workplace. Consider a doctors office where the nurses and the doctors don’t speak each other’s language. This can quickly become disastrous for the staff and the patients.
Working in a space where you feel excluded by languages can sometimes turn people off of language learning and growth. Creating a space in which everyone feels excited to learn about new languages and grow as a team can be beneficial to any workplace. It fosters better personal relationships and encourages people to learn about new things and new ways of thinking.
Why learn multiple languages in the workplace?
- Language is the key to knowledge
- In a workplace, speaking the same language as most of your coworkers can help you stay informed about what’s happening. This can make it easier to be involved in decision making at all stages of a project. Knowing multiple languages can help you stay informed about more of what’s happening in the workplace, especially if your company does not have employees who all speak a common language.
- Language can be a good social connector
- This is incredibly important for people working somewhere that has both an agreed-upon company language and native speakers of other languages. Speaking more than one language can help employees get along both at work and in their personal lives. This creates a workplace in which everyone feels welcome and can work to understand each other.
Benefits of speaking multiple languages in the workplace
There are a lot of benefit for people who can speak multiple languages in their workplace. We’ve listed a few of them here. Speaking multiple languages…
- Increases your self-confidence
- The stumbling blocks of speaking a second language in front of people can help you build confidence. This confidence transfers to your personal life and, eventually, your work life as well.
- Helps you provide better customer service
- In many workplaces, it’s necessary for employees to talk to customers about their product or services. Being able to speak to your customers in their native language can be a huge advantage for many.
- Enables you to respond faster
- If you are fluent in more than one language, you can provide quicker responses to typical questions in the language the person you are speaking to is comfortable with. If you are fluent, this can happen quickly and efficiently.
- Increases your cultural awareness
- Languages aren’t just about grammar and vocabulary. They can provide incredible windows for learning about a new culture. Increasing your cultural awareness can help you be more understanding of the people around you, including your coworkers.
- Improves your internal communication
- If your whole team speaks more than one language, you can communicate with each other more easily and effectively. This makes it easy for you to communicate with each other about the nuances of your work and improve your personal connections as well.
Language Learning Techniques for Your Workplace
There are tons of ways to learn a new language, and learning a language for the workplace is no different. There are some tactics that can help you speed up the process of language learning and help you work smarter, not harder. Here are a few language learning techniques you can give a try at your workplace.
The first thing you should do is create a language learning schedule that fits your work schedule. Be honest with yourself about how much time you have to devote to languages. If you only have five minutes a day, make sure you stick to that five minutes and make it work for you. Creating a schedule that is realistic and achievable is the first step to feeling successful when learning a language.
Next, you need to make some goals for yourself. These can be anything from knowing a certain set of words to being able to use a grammar point conversationally. Tracking your progress can help you feel accomplished while you’re learning and can help you identify where you’re struggling. Don’t be too hard on yourself here, and understand that setbacks can and will happen. What’s important is moving forward with your studying.
Once you feel confident, or even before then, practice your conversational skills on some native speakers in your workplace. This can help you gain confidence speaking and can help you put the pieces of the language you’re learning together. Learning vocabulary and grammar does you no good if you can’t communicate with the people around you. You could even work with someone who is trying to learn your native language and set up a mini language exchange.
Another helpful technique is to listen in on your coworkers speech patterns and try to shadow their techniques. This can help you get a better idea of how certain words are meant to be pronounced or used in conversation. This can also help you to improve your speaking skills when you’re in on the conversation too. We hope these language learning techniques helped!
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