More Language Skills for Europe
Most Europeans start learning English as a foreign language in grade school, with some schools starting in first grade if not kindergarten. A very high percentage of business people in Europe speak English fluently (or close to fluent) and all job ads you see for anything but entry-level positions require good English skills.
With that in mind it may be surprising to hear that the European Union is developing a new “multilingualism strategy” due out in September 2008. According to a report by the “High Level Group on Multilingualism”, speaking two foreign languages in addition to the mother tongue should be the goal for EU citizens. Wow, I hope they don’t make that a requirement for citizenship.
Perhaps the Multilingualism group was influenced by a study commissioned by the Directorate General for Education and Culture (of the European Commission) which shows that a significant amount of business is lost as a result of a lack of language skills. Of the 2000 businesses surveyed, 11 per cent had lost contracts as a result of a lack of language skills. (Reminds me of a project my company is bidding on in France; thank goodness we have a division in France to help us out, but we still had to use automated translation to read the French request for proposal and specifications. Refer to earlier post.)
The survey on language skills and business performance sums up with a few suggestions for successful export performance: Take a strategic approach to multilingual communication; hire native speakers; recruit staff with language skills; use translators and interpreters.
As I remarked in a previous post, sending the CEO to a foreign country can also work wonders.
Does your company take a strategic approach to multilingual communication?
References:
Final Report by HLGM at ec.europe.eu
ELAN: Effects on the European Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise. Report by CLIT, www.CLIT.org.uk.
Image from useu.usmission.gov (Marshall Plan poster)
Tags: business survey, CLIT, European Union, HLGM, language skills, multilingualismRelated Stories
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