Most countries in the world require students to take up a second language in school, however, many people are born into bilingual families furthering the number of languages a person knows.
The difference in cognitive skills between monolinguals and polyglots is reason enough to learn a new language, especially at a young age.
Besides the occasional brag, multilingualism can be beneficial for many other reasons. Speaking more than one language can make you more aware of the world and help understand the struggles of another learner.
Here we have highlighted the benefits of being multilingual for a career in tourism:
Cultural Sensitivity
One of the most important skills developed while learning another language is cultural sensitivity. There is no way you will be able to learn a language in isolation from the culture it originated from.
Cultural sensitivity is a valuable skill in the tourism industry as it is a hard skill to train someone in, but extremely important when dealing with tourists every day. This sensitivity and tolerance of another culture are key to avoiding conflicts with clients and recognizing the justification behind a client’s difficult behavior.
Understanding the etymology of commonly used phrases in languages will also clue you into the worldviews and beliefs that other cultures hold. Furthermore, you will be better able to appreciate the turbulent history of some cultures.
Essentially, learning a new language makes you a culturally rich person with an open mind.
Watch this Ted Video to see how a bilingual mind can help you:
Confidence And Self-esteem
Learning new languages requires the student to be open to corrections and even be vulnerable to embarrassing situations sometimes. While these situations may seem horrific at the moment, they generally are more beneficial than language learners realize.
Having the ability to deal with similar situations and putting yourself out there to be corrected instills confidence and builds self-esteem. Both of these qualities are invaluable in the tourism business as you will find that hardly anything goes according to plan.
Tourism jobs held by multilingual people such as flight attendants require immense confidence and self-esteem to handle anything that an emergency might throw at them.
Career Outcomes
Speaking of jobs, being multilingual can open up your field of opportunities immensely within the tourism realm. While travel jobs such as flight attendants or cruise hosts are usually at the top of the list, many other career outcomes require an enriched language experience.
Some common job titles held by multilingual people are in the translating or teaching areas. Language teacher jobs are in demand around the world as globalization is on the rise encouraging people to move between countries and continents. Many of these jobs even require English and a native language mastery to teach English as a second language given its global business use.
Watch this video to see the biggest jobs in Tourism that might be waiting for you:
It might be hard to find jobs if you speak a lesser-known language but job security can be high given the scarcity of native speakers of that language. Translator jobs are perfect for such speakers as you can hold jobs ranging from translating books to even becoming a translator for a political diplomat.
Conclusion
The ability to speak more than one language is one of those few skills that never regret because of its real-life applications.
You would be surprised at how often your understanding of one language can impact your ability to understand the linguistic structures of languages you have never attempted to learn. This is one of the most amazing results of learning a second language i.e. you can easily learn a third one.
If you are trying to get into the tourism industry then this is your sign to start learning a new language today!
