by guest blogger Georgia Taylor
I was 14 when I first felt the power of knowing a foreign language. My two brothers and I had all chosen German as our foreign language elective upon entering high school. It wasn’t long before we discovered that we could use this new knowledge to an excellent advantage. The secrets that we siblings kept could now be shared openly, at the dinner table even, without our parents understanding a word we said! We happily schemed together from that moment on. In fact, we planned an entire 25th Anniversary Surprise Party for our parents right under their noses. They never had a clue.
Having only just begun to study German, I’m sure that my brothers and I had the grammar all wrong or, more than likely, we ignored it completely, but we were able to string enough words together to communicate with each other. This brings me to my point…the power gained from learning a language is the power to communicate, to reach people in this singular way that no amount of words in your own language can do. And no – you need not study endlessly to reap the benefits. Operating in the global business world first requires establishing global relationships. Having the ability to utter even just one phrase such as, “It’s nice to meet you!”, and being able to use it sincerely establishes a more intimate rapport than elaborate proposals or spreadsheets ever will. For me, foreign languages are like secret codes; if I can break the code, I can enter that world. In truth, knowing any part of the language of the world through which you wish to navigate gains you entry as much as your passport. With a slight adaptation, consider this old adage: Actions speak louder than words from your own language. Your actions of taking even a minimal amount of your time to learn any of the language of those with whom you want to communicate is concrete proof of your sincerity to establish a connection. This action supersedes any message of the same you may put forth, no matter how flowing, in your own language.
I want to repeat a prior point – you need not study endlessly to reap the benefits. Gone are the days reminiscent for some of you of high school foreign language classes where you never uttered a word of the language until you could conjugate every verb in every tense. You didn’t learn your native language that way and you needn’t learn a new language that way either. As an instructor for Language Intelligence, I believe in a communicative approach for language training. We know you want to use your new language skills from the beginning in the way language is intended to be used – as a means to communicate with another person and them with you. Your needs dictate the course of your study; your progress sets the pace. And always, productive use of the language is the guiding principle.
My first experience in learning a language established clearly how powerfully advantageous this endeavor was. Since then, my on-going love of languages and foreign cultures has brought me advantages I never could have envisioned at the start. It has given me a career I’m passionate about; it has taken me across continents. The insight and first-hand knowledge I have gained from face-to-face interactions with cultures different than my own far exceeds the level of understanding that merely reading about them, no matter the depth, could have provided.
