| ▲ | NetMageSCW a day ago |
| Somehow I feel like the workplaces with a glass ceiling over bilingual is so small
as to be immaterial. |
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| ▲ | paulhebert a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| Where I live (Oregon, USA) there are very few jobs that require it but a lot of jobs where speaking a second language might get you hired over someone else. Most jobs that are focused on interacting with people benefit from speaking a second language if it’s a common language in your community: nursing, teaching, customer service, social work, etc. I’ve seen job listings mention it as a nice-to-have and know bilingual friends who have gotten those jobs. I only speak one language well but I wish I spoke more. I hope my son (and future other kids) learn multiple languages. But not for job/economic reasons: it just seems good for your brain and interesting for how you think about the world. |
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| ▲ | lotsofpulp 13 hours ago | parent [-] | | >it just seems good for your brain and interesting for how you think about the world. I am fluent in 3 languages, and while it is convenient, I assume claims about it being "good for your brain" are just as pseudoscience-y as all the other claims about what is good for the brain. One of the languages I know doesn't even use a Latin alphabet, and I spent many hours learning it when I was little. And it's basically useless (obviously just my experience) except for communicating with older family members. Once they pass away in ~3 decades, I doubt I use it again. Actually, the biggest incentive for me to teach my kids that language is so that we have a secret way of communicating in public (in the US). But I have failed so far, because it's just a lot of work to teach kids another language when you and your spouse prefer to speak in another, and so the kids are not completely immersed in it. | | |
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| ▲ | socalgal2 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I wonder. In my world, almost everyone I know is bilingual and I would not have met them and worked with them otherwise. So many of my coworkers are from countries where English is not required but they were fortunate to pick it up as a 2nd language for one reason or another and now work in a high paying company that requires English. Still, I get, over all, the number is small. They could have all had a different career in their native language. |
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| ▲ | melvinroest 19 hours ago | parent [-] | | Knowing English as a second language and Dutch as a first language is different than knowing, for example, Dutch as a second language and English as a first. I know people in both camps. I have more respect for English speakers learning Dutch than for Dutch speakers learning English. Even though I respect both. But the simple truth is: there's a lot of incentive to learn English. There is not a lot of incentive to learn Dutch. | | |
| ▲ | ido 18 hours ago | parent [-] | | Also, as an aside: Dutch is probably the closest language to English (aside from very minor or no longer spoken languages). | | |
| ▲ | zofer12 17 hours ago | parent [-] | | no, not really, dutch are close to german. Spanish is closer to english, than dutch. | | |
| ▲ | xattt 14 hours ago | parent [-] | | The Foreign Service Institute has a language difficulty rating, based on the first language of a speaker, to estimate the number of class hours needed to achieve fluency in English. Learning English from Dutch is 24-30 weeks whereas from German is 36 weeks. I am assuming some degree of reciprocity but maybe not. (1) https://dlsdc.com/blog/fsi-language-difficulty/ |
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| ▲ | tezzer a day ago | parent | prev [-] |
| One example: I worked for an Alphabet company with some very, very accomplished people. When the drawdown on the project came, the people who were bi- or multi-lingual all kept their jobs. They were more useful in more situations for a multinational project. The 36 people let go probably wish they'd spent a little more time studying Japanese, Spanish or Norwegian. |
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