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Language
skills
wasted
by
world's businesses
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According
to a recent survey on languages at work by languageadvantage.com,
English is still the world's language for business. But people are
using other languages at work alongside English - mainly French,
but also Spanish and German.
Amazingly, there
is a massive untapped talent in the workplace, with around 50% of
respondents having language skills that they are not using at work.
These are primarily French, German, Italian and Spanish, although
a quarter of respondents speak other languages that are being wasted.
Many can speak two or three languages on top of English.
Three-quarters
of respondents are employed in multicultural and multilingual workplaces
across the globe. It is not surprising, therefore, that up to half
have come across language and cultural barriers, and 15% actually
admit to losing business due to difficulties in communicating with
people from different cultures, speaking different languages.
Over 50% of
respondents are learning a language and Spanish has overtaken French
as the favourite language to learn. Some are currently learning
two or three languages. Four respondents from across the world won
BBC Languages Packs to help them learn their chosen language.
The Languages
at Work 2001 survey has been carried out as part of the European
Year of Languages 2001, of which languageadvantage.com is an official
partner. Businesses and international organisations across Europe
and the rest of the world should use the European Day of Languages
on 26 September 2001 to reflect on whether they are using the languages
talent in their workforce to best advantage. Perhaps there is a
need to take international communication and relationship building
more seriously, given the competitive threat from businesses in
some countries who have language strategies in place which offer
their employees language training, cross-cultural training and the
opportunity to work with their languages. In this way, organisations
will be able to readily respond to all their customers, wherever
they come from, and whichever language they may speak.
Full survey
results will be available for the business day at the London Language
and Cultural Learning Show 2001 in London on 2 November 2001. 534
visitors to languageadvantage.com completed the survey during the
summer of 2001. Visitors came from over 50 countries, speaking over
50 languages.
For more information
about the Languages at Work 2001 survey, please contact
Sarah Carroll or visit www.languageadvantage.com
Languageadvantage.com believe that you can get competitive advantage
from communicating effectively with people from different cultures,
speaking different languages, whether they be employees, customers,
suppliers or alliance partners.
For more information
on BBC Languages, visit www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages/.
For more information
about the European Year of Languages, please contact CILT at www.cilt.org.uk.
There is a programme of events planned for the European Day of Languages
2001, and the rest of the year, across Europe.
For more information
about the London Language and Cultural Learning Show 2001. Details
changed.
The London Language and Cultural Learning Show 2001 is the UK's
only exhibition and conference dedicated to the promotion of languages,
cultural language services and new technology for language learning
and teaching. Languageadvantage.com will be running the Internet
Café at the Show and will be presenting the full results
of the Languages at Work 2001 in the European Year of Languages
Pavilion on 2 November 2001.
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