How Speaking a Second Language Can Help Your Career
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Being bilingual can be a fantastic career boost. And not just because it opens up your options for international travel. If you can learn a second language, it automatically opens your mind to new perspectives and fresh ways to solve problems.
“Matt, is that really true?”
Well, science has also proven that your personality, or at least your mindset, can change when you speak different languages. One study showed that bilingual Mexican Americans who took an English version of a test scored higher in attributes like extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness versus when they took it in Spanish.
“Language cannot be separated from the cultural values of that language,” says Nairan Ramírez-Esparza, an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Connecticut, who ran some of these tests.
This isn’t to say that one language or culture is better than another, of course. The takeaway is that speaking more than one language gives you a powerful advantage in being able to see multiple points of view and think in an innovative way.
