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Languages and career | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| albysky Triglot Senior Member Italy lang-8.com/1108796Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4387 days ago 287 posts - 393 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German | Message 1 of 14 10 November 2013 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you are not an interpreter or translator , do you think it is better to know 2 or 3 languages very well like
C1/C2 or 5/6 at a more intermidiate level like B1/B2 ? Edited by Fasulye on 24 January 2014 at 10:12am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| betelgeuzah Diglot Groupie Finland Joined 4400 days ago 51 posts - 82 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Japanese, Italian | Message 2 of 14 10 November 2013 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Most definitely 5-6 at B1/B2.
I think it will give the most bang for an average employer's buck unless the job requires very good understanding in the languages. EDIT: I must say that English as C1/C2 is a no-brainer though. Maybe Italy is different but if the country is any smaller in size, good English is a necessary asset in most places. Edited by betelgeuzah on 10 November 2013 at 5:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4706 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 3 of 14 10 November 2013 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think B2 is where things start being very useful. B2 should really be the minimum.
7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Maralol Nonaglot Newbie France Joined 5017 days ago 35 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Spanish, French*, English, German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Catalan Studies: Polish, Danish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 14 10 November 2013 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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It depends on the job, really.
Sometimes recruiters are happy if the candidate has a B1 knowledge of a given language because even if they aren't fully functional it's still a good way to break the ice and have a privileged relationship with clients. Edited by Maralol on 10 November 2013 at 8:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 14 10 November 2013 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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If your job involves having the same easy conversation over and over again, and your customers come from many countries, having a whole bunch of solid B1 languages would certainly be useful. B1 is high enough that you can engage in face-to-face interaction on familiar, everyday subjects and expect to communicate reliably. If you work in a restaurant or a hotel, for example, you could do a lot with B1.
If you actually need to use a language professionally, however, it's a different matter. By "professional", I mean any white-collar job that involves lots of reading, writing, persuading, presenting, selling, and other activities along those lines. In that case, I agree with Khatzumoto:
I'm a pretty solid B2 most days, with a few individual skills in the C1 range, but if I had to work exclusively in French, it would be a challenge. I could certainly be a very effective "junior code monkey", but I would have a hard time pitching projects to clients or talking groups of people out of making disastrous mistakes. This is where I really feel the limits of B2. It's perfectly fine for basic socialization with groups of native speakers, and for communicating complex ideas one-on-one to patient and sympathetic listeners. But if I'm in a group of natives, and nobody's especially interested in my opinion, I can't "take the floor", get everyone's attention, and make a point persuasively. Or at least I can't do it without imposing on everybody's good will. And this is where Khatzumoto's "sharp knife" metaphor appeals to me, and why I still haven't started learning Spanish. Edited by emk on 11 November 2013 at 4:23pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5129 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 14 10 November 2013 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
There's no reason a person can't be at a very high level in 2 or 3 languages and intermediate in several others. Most people I know (and I include myself in this) gained C1 or C2 level while living and/or working in the target language's country, then go on to study other languages, fully recognizing that an advanced level in those languages isn't necessary to be able to do many things. R. == 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6902 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 7 of 14 10 November 2013 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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All depends on the job and specific languages. I would say that 2-3 C1/C2 languages might be more useful (provided that these are the languages needed by your employer). Generally, it's not about the number of languages, though (I don't think there are that many jobs were 6 languages are needed :)) but about whether you speak what your potential employer needs or not.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4621 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 8 of 14 10 November 2013 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I find written translation tasks easier as I have time to think exactly how I'm going to phrase things and
unfamiliar technical vocabulary can be looked up. Thinking on your feet is certainly more stressful. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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