THE BILINGUAL JOB FAIR BLOG

The Top 5 Advantages of Having a Bilingual Staff: International Company Travel

April 14, 2010

Advantage #4: Traveling overseas can be easier because the company has their own ‘tour guides’ who speak the native language and can communicate with local residents.

Picture this.  Your company is expanding into Brazil and you have to hire a General Manager, who will be in charge of your expansion…but you do not speak Portuguese.  You have to conduct focus groups as well, to see about the feasibility of bringing various products into Brazil but you are concerned about communicating with the local residents, and describing your products well enough to the target market. Can you imagine the position you will be in?

When a company has bilingual personnel, the bilingual employees can travel with management, and the company’s representatives can have their own local connection to the market.

As I indicated in ‘Advantage #3’, the bilingual employee can understand the market better and can provide a better cultural identity with the local residents.  Picture the Brazil example I provided above, but now add a couple of dynamic sales people to the trip with you and a product engineer who speaks Portuguese.  The trip would be easier because there will be true contact, accurate positioning of the products, and communication of the bilingual employees with the Brazilian market and with the future customers.

Language is a critical aspect of connecting with a culture.  Bilingual employees provide that connection.

Filed under: Advancing your Career

Tags: bilingual, bilingual skills, bilingual staff, corporate culture, languages