The Importance of the English Language for Landing a Job

Why is English Important for Finding a Job?

To put food on the table, a roof over your head, and to live in comfort are some of the greatest things you can do. Having a solid career is an easy way to do those things. Frankly, learning the English language is the key to climb up the business ladder. It will really set you apart from other candidates and allow for you to broaden your horizons. By learning English, you can more easily land a job just because of how many people speak it, the fact that it is the official language of many renowned organizations and world leaders, the plethora of soft-skills that come with it, its ease of learning, and the internet of all things. The English language is perfect for multinational organizations and governmental work.

It Is The Most Spoken Language On Planet Earth

With well over 1.35 Billion overall speakers, English is the dominant language on planet earth (Busuu, 2021). In fact, it is such a popular language that there are twice as many non-native English speakers (743 Million) than there are native speakers (378 Million)(Ethnologue, 2021). The English language is also the official language of 67 countries (Lingoda, 2021) and the secondary language of 27 more (St.George’s, n.d.). Being such a largely spoken language shows how ample of an opportunity learning it can be. It provides you with the ability to speak with roughly a fifth of the entire world population. That’s one fifth of the world that you are capable of working together with in a job or even communicating with if they’re a customer you may encounter. 

It is the Official Language of Diplomacy, Business, and Trade

English is the official language of all that is, well, “official.” It is used for United Nations meetings, international businesses, and even the Olympic committee (Ethnologue). Why? It is straightforward and just so widespread. There are far more non-native speakers of the language because it is a good middle ground of a language. 

It belongs in the Indo-European language family, in which nearly half of the world’s population speaks a language that belongs to the family (Ethnologue). Since English has a lot in common with the other languages in the largest family of languages it is the perfect second language for people to pick up. It is already familiar and a nice mixture of other Indo-European derived tongues. 

If you are working with a Multinational Corporation or Diplomatic entity, chances are English is going to be the language of choice because of its status as the largest language on the planet. Learning and perfecting your English is going to open the door for you to become a savvy global citizen in business or in diplomacy. 


The Soft-Skills of English Communication

As mentioned before, English is spoken by one-in-five people worldwide. If you can effectively master the language, you are able to communicate, manage-conflict, understand greater cultural-contexts such as pop-culture, and have an appropriate middle-ground of expression for other English as second-language speakers. Communication, communication, communication is key. If you can reach the largest audience and send your message effectively, you will succeed in the job-world. If you use English as a bridge language, you’re going to be able to communicate properly to someone else who needs English as a bridge. 



Far Easier to Pick Up Than Most Other Major Languages

Compared to some of the other largely spoken languages, such as Mandarin or Arabic. English is far easier to learn for most people. Especially for those who speak languages that fall under the Indo-European umbrella. The alphabets are similar, there are words that overlap in several languages, and some of them have evolved from each other or another common language i.e. Greek or Latin. That just isn’t the case for many people trying to go into languages like Mandarin that are pictorial based or Arabic which is mostly similar to other Semitic languages. Comparatively, English is much easier to pick-up for many people, especially if you fall under the largest language family, the Indo-European tree. It is practical for finding a job just because a lot of people are also trying to pick it up each and every day.


Most Online Content is Written In English

Despite the drawbacks of the pandemic, it has brought the online world of business to a golden-age. Jobs have changed, working from home has become “the” thing, digital products and services are on the rise - speaking of which, check out our offerings! The opportunities of e-commerce and the digital job market are the future. With that in mind,  it is estimated that 55.5% of the entirety of all web-content on the internet is in English (Unbabel, 2015). Keep in mind, under 5% of the entire world is made up of native English speakers. With these numbers in mind, it goes to show how critical it is to brush up on your English. Learning the language is going to allow you to amplify your voice on the internet, broaden your market, and even heighten your chances of landing a remote-based job. The internet, possibly the greatest human invention, is dominated by the English language. That is a testament to how important it is to learn the language. 



Sources

https://blog.busuu.com/most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/

https://lemongrad.com/english-language-statistics/

https://www.stgeorges.co.uk/blog/learn-english/how-many-people-in-the-world-speak-english#:~:text=In%202015%2C%20out%20of%20the,a%20secondary%20'official'%20language.

https://www.worlddata.info/languages/chinese.php

https://resources.unbabel.com/blog/top-languages-of-the-internet

https://www.ethnologue.com/