Q&A: What jobs can you do with languages?

Hi there, today I shall answer a question that I had been asked a while ago: it is basically about the link between being able to speak many languages and how that may help you find a job. So here's the question to kick us off:

"Dear Limpeh, hello, I love your blog and vlog. I can see from your Youtube videos that you speak many languages. What kind of job would a person who can speak many languages do? I am fascinated by languages and speak a few, but am not sure just what direction that would take my career if I wanted to make the most of my language skills. Could you talk about this topic please and perhaps share your past experiences? Thank you very much for your help."

Well I am most happy to oblige. Allow me to make a few general points about using your languages in the workplace.

1. Quality vs quantity

I hate it when people get really shy about their languages. I have heard people make excuses like, "oh I speak some Spanish because I did it at school but I only use it when I am really desperate, like when I am lost in Spain and need directions, but there's no way I can use it for work as it is not fluent enough I'm afraid and I'm so rusty." Different jobs require different levels of fluency in the language - for example, if you were responsible for putting together the English subtitles of a Spanish film, then yeah, you need to be totally fluent to be able to capture to true meaning of every single conversation that takes place during that film. But if you are working in a hotel and dealing with Spanish tourists who just needs direction to get to the local museum, then the fact that your Spanish may be imperfect doesn't really matter at all, as long as the tourists get the information they need. And then of course, there's everything in between: welcome to the grey area between the dichotomy of black and white.

I worked many years in B2B sales in the financial services sector: the only languages I am truly fluent in are English, French and Mandarin. Yet I was able to use a whole range of languages from German to Spanish to Russian to Dutch to negotiate many deals with clients who were not fluent in English - they were happy that I was making a genuine effort to speak their language and it did feel unfair to conduct business entirely in my preferred language, English when I was the one trying to sell them something. You can always buy in your language, but if you want to sell, you should always try to sell in the clients' language or in my case, meet them in the middle by speaking a mix of the two languages. Of course, I wish I was totally fluent in a lot more than just three languages, but it didn't mean that I was not able to use a language like Russian or Dutch at work just because I wasn't fluent in it, quite the opposite.

2. Directly relevant vs indirectly relevant

I have worked in capacities where I was specifically hired for my language skills (such as when I was contracted to work for Google) and then there were times when my language skills just happened to prove to be quite useful. Let me give you an example: last year, I worked on a commercial where one of the crew members was French and whilst the entire commercial was shot in English, I was able to use my French to establish rapport with that particular crew member. In the media industry, people move from project to project and it is always slightly scary to turn up on set when you don't know anyone on the first day - I always use my language skills to try to charm people, people usually warm to me a lot more quickly if they realize that I can speak their language.

3. Getting ahead of the competition in the application process

It is hard to get a good job these days - say a reputable company advertises that they are hiring and are offering a good package, you can be guaranteed that loads of people will apply for that one position. How do you make sure your CV makes it through the first stages when the gatekeeper is desperately trying to create a shortlist from the hundreds of applications received? Well, even if the job doesn't specifically require any language skills, people are usually impressed with those who can speak a foreign language or three. Why? Firstly, it is a mark of intelligence: it shows that you have a brain that can operate in different languages, thus you should be a pretty fast learner if you can switch from Russian to Korean at the drop of a hat. Furthermore, if you have learnt those languages later in your life, well that shows that you are a fast learner and if you can figure out Welsh grammar, then you have a brain that can make sense of very complex systems. So even if you never actually end up using any of your language skills in that job, those language skills can help you tremendously when applying for jobs in making sure your CV stands out.

4. Your language + another professional trade 

Now I am casting my mind back to my childhood days in Ang Mo Kio, I remember how extremely popular my family doctor was in our local neighbourhood. In particular, all the local elderly folks adored Dr Quek because he could speak Hokkien fluently. The queues at his clinic would always be a lot longer than the other local clinics because the elderly folks liked the way he could explain their illnesses to them in Hokkien - whilst the other local GPs mostly spoke English and Mandarin only. On top of that, Dr Quek's staff at the clinic also spoke Hokkien, so they were able to explain the prescriptions to the elderly customers in Hokkien (as the labels on the bottles and packages were all in English). Whilst Dr Quek is undoubtedly a very good doctor, his ability to speak Hokkien gave him the commercial edge over the other local clinics who didn't offer the same service in Hokkien.

You see, if you had language skills and nothing else, your options can be quite limited to translations, customer service and teaching (and I'm afraid these options don't always command very high pay). The sad truth is that language skills just aren't valued enough these day - but those who are most financially rewarded for their languages skills are people like Dr Quek who are high skilled professionals with some language skills. I have a lawyer friend who is bilingual in Arabic and English - so he handle the legal paperwork for companies dealing with Middle Eastern governments and he is paid a lot more than a lawyer who can only handle legal paperwork in English. Likewise, I have an engineer friend who is bilingual in Spanish and English - his company has many projects in Central America, so he is able to deal with local contractors in Spanish and of course, an engineer who doesn't speak Spanish would struggle to do his job.

5. Which language would be relevant to your area of expertise?

There are some jobs where you know exactly which languages you need - I remember years ago when I worked at a company with projects in Geneva and Shanghai, thus my French and Mandarin language skills were directly relevant. Then in my next two jobs, I had no idea what languages I was going to need because both companies were dealing with investors all over the world - so I had moved from an environment where I was using the three languages I was totally fluent in to an environment whereby I had no idea what languages I may use the next day. Some jobs will have predictable routines whilst others will be more unpredictable and take you by surprise; a good example is when my somewhat limited German language skills landed me a major role in a popular German drama series last year - the opportunity came along and I rose to the challenge. The fact that my German wasn't perfect didn't bother them as long as it was good enough - which it was. I may be doing more work in Germany this year, so perhaps that's a good reason for me to improve my German.

6. Some languages will be more useful to you than others. 

Well apart from English, the one language that I have used the most in the UK is actually Mandarin - this is bizarre because it is in fact my third language but as explained in my previous article, many British people assume that it must be my mother tongue and that I must be totally fluent in it; so I am often entrusted with anything requiring Chinese language skills. I have also found French incredibly useful of course, because I am totally fluent in it and thus can function in a French-speaking work environment. Another language that I found useful was German, given the complete scarcity of Chinese-looking German speaking actors in Europe, I found myself in a very niche market indeed. I have barely used my Spanish and Italian I'm afraid, despite the fact that I am competent in both languages. And despite some initial interest in my Welsh language skills, I found it very hard to get much paid work with my Welsh language skills. I have found my knowledge of Malay very useful when traveling around Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia - but there is zero demand for it in Europe. Oh and ironically, the list of competent Hokkien speakers working in the media industry in London is very short and I've only used it three times professionally, but each time I was paid very handsomely for that rare language skill. Such is the nature of contract work for specialists like me.

7. Part time contractor vs Full time job

Some people are able to find a full time job that which require their language skills - but in some other cases, if you have a rare language skill, then you may only be required for very short term projects but in order to find a language specialist for this short term projects, the pay tends to be pretty good. Let me give you an example: there was a documentary that was shot in Taiwan about the education system there. The production company needed subtitles done but found that their Mandarin translator couldn't understand the Hokkien spoken by the locals - so they hired me as a Hokkien translator to help finish the subtitles for the scenes were the older Taiwanese people were speaking to each other in Hokkien. I was actually quite highly paid for my ability to translate Hokkien to English for that project - but of course, it was a one-off and I wouldn't be able to make a living as a Hokkien language specialist in London. There are plenty of language specialists who do offer their services on short term contracts: but the hourly rate of a rare-language translator (ie. that of Hokkien) would be far higher than that of a Mandarin teacher at a school in London because the Mandarin teacher has a much more steady stream of work. 

8. Sometimes you may use your languages, sometimes you won't.

Many people often ask me why I am not using my languages more at work, like I should be working full time in a job that fully utilizes the fact that I speak so many languages. The answer is simple: I don't have to - I have other skills to offer and as long as I can make a decent living, earn enough money, I don't need to use all my skills all the time. Take for example the fact that I am actually pretty good with dogs (which is why I enjoy walking my sister-in-law's dogs): if you saw how I am with her dogs, you may suggest, "hey Alex, why don't you go work somewhere with animals like Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, you are clearly good with animals." Just because you have a skill doesn't mean you need to use it to make a living: so don't be too fussed if you are not using your language skills in your current job. Maybe there will be opportunities in the future, maybe not - but as long as you are happy doing what you are doing and you feel you are getting somewhere in your career, then don't worry about not using every single skill you have. 

Okay, so that's it from me on this topic. I hope I have given you some insight into the role of languages in one's career development and have given you plenty of food for thought. What are your thoughts on the issue? Are you multilingual? If you do have any questions on the issue, then please leave a comment below and let's talk about it.