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