Bilingual Families

For those who work or have worked in the past….. did being bilingual help you snag that job, was being bilingual a requirement, or did being bilingual play any type of positive roll in you getting the job?

Well, I wouldn’t say it’s scored me an ‘official’ job because I’ve never applied for one since the day I became a SAHM. : ) 

But it has gotten me approached many times over to do translations, tutoring adults and children studying EASL, etc…

Yes, I think I’ve seen RN job listing that say Spanish a plus.  And you are correct; if a patient sees medical staff who can communicate with them in their native language it does put them at ease.  : )

Yes, being able to speak different languages certainly opened a lot of doors and opportunities for me especially here in South East Asia. Being bi-or tri-lingual were requirements since I was working in an international environment.

In my first job I was expected to be a fluent French speaker (and having lived in France was a huge boon). In my second and third jobs, I was expected to be a fluent English speaker and was expected to be able to write articles and copy in English. The French came in very handy, too. Most recently, it was huge bonus being able to speak Italian to Italian factories, and French to French ones in addition to my design background. It minimised misunderstandings and just speeded up the whole process. Frustration levels went down considerably (except for me since they were giving me more and more responsibilities).

Right now I have to hone my Indonesian again, so it's kind of back to square one again for me LOL! I can write an article in probably a few hours were it in English but currently in Indonesian it's going to take a couple of days.