Why OTHER Languages?

Why GO International?

Jerry Donahue

Director, Career Services

St. Norbert College

Joe Tullbane

Associate Dean for Int’l Education

St. Norbert College

The Basics

• Research:

Every additional year of foreign language = Higher math and verbal SAT scores

• Your analytical and interpretive skills improve

• This gets the attention of any college admissions board!

Office of Foreign Language Programs, New York, retrieved 2/3/06.

The Basics

• Young people with two languages seem to have:

a. greater mental flexibility;

b. superior conceptual skills; and

c. more diversified mental abilities

• Rigorous high school programs, which included 3 years of a foreign language study = better grades in college

Robinson, D.W. (1992). The Cognitive, Academic and Attitudinal Benefits of Early Language Learning. In Met, M. ed. Critical Issues in Early Language Learning. White Plains, NY: Longman

So I Speak Another Language!

• Increases your job opportunities

• Helps you develop cultural sensitivity and global

understanding

• Improves your English in every way, which is valuable to

any and all potential employers

• Offers you more travel abroad opportunities

Global Issues

• Issues facing business, government and society are increasingly international

• We must do a better job of producing leaders with the international skills

• Disturbing facts• Only 10% of U.S. population has a passport

• Only 1% of U.S. college students study abroad

Careers

• More companies today are global

• Employees who can communicate with and understand other cultures are desperately needed

• Knowing another language = an employment advantage

• You can work with more people in more places than those who only know one language

Careers

• You will have more opportunities in most fields:

government, business, law, medicine

and health care, teaching, technology,

the Armed Forces, communications,

industry, social service, and marketing

• Languages make you a bridge to the world

Example: Why Learn French?

• Spoken in 5 continents by more than 200 million people in 43 countries

• It’s an official and working language of the U.N. & the E.U.

• It is the second language of the Internet

• American companies have more than 2,000 subsidiaries in France, 1,200 French companies have subsidiaries in the US

• Official language of trade in over 25 African countries

Useful for Careers in…• Art

• Architecture

• Cinema

• Cuisine

• Civil engineering

• Diplomacy

• Fashion

• Film studies

• International studies

• Literature

• Medicine

• Religious studies

• Science

• technology

Global Role

• The US is the world’s leader

politics, business and industry and the

DEMAND for foreign language speakers

will continue to grow

• Interpreter and translator jobs will grow

faster than the average through 2012

Global Role Cont.

• Don’t stop learning after high school!

• Use it and study it more in college, on the job, your community, to study abroad.

• Learning one new language will make learning another easier

Office of Foreign Language Programs, New York, retrieved 2/3/06.

Why should you gain

international experience?

Understand the world and our own society

Explore new interests

Gain a competitive edge

Take control of your future