What jobs have you had because you spoke a foreign language?

[Colebra]

I'm trying to see how much it would benefit me at this point, to put some real hours aside for learning.

Also: For those jobs, did you need to have a formal document, or was your experience enough?

[Trellum]

I got my first job as a freelance writer thank to the fact I'm bilingual.  All it took was an interview and for me to show the guy my writing skills.  After that he agreed to hire me, we set a date and we finally met face to face. I signed the contract and all went smoothly.

So yeah, it was that easy for me, but that doesn't mean it is like that for most people.  It really depends on the nature of the job, but hopefully this will give you and idea.

[deathbyprayer]

I was once hired, well not really hired because I'm already hired, by my boss to accompany him to meetings with his Japanese business partners since I know Japanese and I'm half Japanese. It was really cool since I get paid extra whenever I have some translating to do for my boss.

[Baburra]

I've been able to make some side income from writing that I otherwise would never have gotten if I didn't have a sufficient knowledge in English, but that's about it. I honestly don't try hat much to take advantage of it because I'm more interested in other things in terms of work, but it is very helpful and surely a great advantage.

[pcgamer]

I have managed to get this job because of my strong grip of English language. English is the second language here. If you won't learn it, you re not going to get good job.

[Kektheman]

I've never had a job because I spoke a foreign language before. But I have friends that work as museum guides, and they need to know English + another foreign language to work there. You could look into that, but you would have to get certified as a guide. I don't think it takes much time though.

[Traveler]

I worked as an English teacher in China. Yes, English is my native language but it is a foreign language in China, so doesn't that count? Haha.

Other than that, no. But in the future, if I can get good at Spanish I will apply to some jobs that require it in the U.S. or Latin America.

[RealSugar]

I got a job at an American company in Argentina because I could speak English. Half my team was in the US. I'd guess it'd be more difficult if English is your first language, to find a job that requires something other than English. Either way, a second and third language will make your resume look cool for any job.

[sidney]

English in the Philippines is technically a foreign language, but it is so widely used over here that it's not considered foreign anymore. I actually managed to land a job in the human resource department before and I think me being fluent and articulate during the interview helped me land the job.

[wayzteacher]

I'm Filipino and English is a second language to me.

Currently, I'm an online English tutor teaching Koreans.  So, you can say, I got this job because I know how to speak a second language.

In the past, I was recruited from the Philippines to be a language teacher in an American public school  So, due to my ability to speak English, I was able to work in the US.  However, I also need credentials to make it official. I have a degree in education, major in English and a teacher's license.

I think being able to speak a second language can be an advantage but it really depends on what job you are targeting.

[primalclaws1974]

I have not gotten a job based on being bilingual, but I can guarantee that it is a handy skill to have in the job market. Almost every application I have filled out has asked what languages I speak. There are numerous jobs for translators. I think that would be a fine job to have.

[anna3101]

I've changed my job to something rather language-unrelated but previously I worked in customer service for many years, and I can say that companies employed me exactly because I spoke a certain language or languages.

In the Russian/Polish job market having a university diploma is obligatory, however, luckily for people like me, mostly employers don't care about your specialization. You can graduate in archeology and then work as a marketing specialist, or specialize in architecture and then become a programmer. It doesn't matter that much. What matters is your experience and your practical skills.

When it comes to languages, I've never had to show any formal documents, certificates etc. I don't have any because my preferred learning method is learning by myself, at home Recruiters check your language level during the job interview anyway. Sometimes they even do it several times to make sure you can not only speak but also write coherent paragraphs / create reports with specialized vocabulary etc.

 

[宇崎ちゃん]

My business life is rather complicated.
On one hand, I'm a self-employed game developer, games journalist and web developer at the same time.
On the other hand, I work for a web design company on a part-time basis, where I perform my web development activities in.
On yet another hand, I will probably become a student again next year. But that's unsure for now.

But for my games journalist job, knowledge of Japanese is a required task for me, since most of my viewers are from Japan and so most of the games 'discussed' are.
And since Nintendo launched a new developer portal that merges Japanese and Western developer portals, knowing Japanese is apparently a pseudo-required task for this one too. I can't disclose why though.

[hungary93]

Oh, speaking english as a young teenager really helped me to score good paying jobs while I was still in high school. I worked as a not professional translator many times, also tour guide also "that kid who speaks english". So many pocket money for young me, yeah!

[Miya]

I got the job I have now because of my Japanese ability. My Japanese is far from perfect, but what I knew at that time got me a job. I'm a teacher in Japan so I had to have Japanese ability. But I don't think all jobs require foreign language ability. It's nice to be able to speak more than one language, but it's not always necessary. Whether you want to study another language or not depends on the kind of job you want.

[Chris_A]

I got a few freelancing jobs as a translator, because I know German well. And they paid really well. For example, I had to translate two A4 pages of content from Romanian to German, and I earned 25 euros by doing so. And the best thing is, that I was able to do the job in about 3 hours or so. Really good money for the time invested.

[rcdpink]

With modern technological advances you can begin to learn a foreign language and master it within a few months. What you really need is a lot of interaction with native speakers of the language that you plan on learning and you can do a lot of this through social media and listening/watching audio visual media. I am very glad for the hours that I invested in learning Spanish while I was in high school. It was for this very reason that I was hired by Amazon to be a consultant. I got my certification in the language and so I would advise you that even if you do not see the immediate benefit of learning the language that you are interested in, it is still a good idea to put some time into studying it..

[Wanda Kaishin]

With modern technological advances you can begin to learn a foreign language and master it within a few months.

In that case, I bet your version of "master it" and mine are very different.

[agentzero]

Pretty much any job I ever applied to where the position required a portion of the interview to be in English. I can speak few accents of English (no idea where I picked that up, I've never even been in an English speaking country, or I don't really know different accents, just ways to imitate them enough for people to be fooled?) and American is one of them (my default actually, and also the one people consider a default accent around here (which is weird, but that's another topic)) and like to show off when I'm asked a question. It immediately gets me bonus points and interviewers have always been impressed. 

[Heda]

Teaching kids IN that language, teaching kids that language..didn't need the certificate but I have one..having a certificate always looks better on your CV!

[pesic87]

I have done a lot of teaching. I have obtained BA in English language and literature. So far,  I have gave lessons in a private school to kids who were between 8 and 12 years of age. Other than that, I worked as a nursery teacher in an international nursery, working with babies, toddlers and kids up to 6 years of age.
I give private lessons in English, too.

Apart from teaching, I have done a lot of translating jobs, both translating papers, documents, books,etc., and doing interpreting jobs for foreigner coming to my country.

 

[KimmyMarkks]

I personally don’t speak a foreign language fluently however I know in many positions in my company they prefer someone who speaks certain languages.  This is because we work with the international markets on a daily basis.  While our international counter parts do speak English there is still a language barrier.  When we are hiring for positions that correspond with these markets we really look for someone who speaks that language.