Has speaking Spanish enhanced your work life?

[celebritea]

With the increasing Hispanic population in America, it is said to be a helpful skill to have in the workforce today.

Has it helped you? Also, what field are you in?

[Baburra]

I don't live in the U.S. so I don't get to use my Spanish much at the work place when I did work at an office, but I did have an office ate who was very fluent in Spanish so I got to have some enjoyment at work learning more from him. Also we used to communicate in Spanish for some phrases that served as inside jokes or just things we did not want our boss to hear or understand so it was helpful in terms of giving us a sort of code to work with.

[Igual]

I don't get to use it a whole lot, but since they know that I speak Spanish, occasionally, I get to use it to deal with customers who need help or who have questions.  I did have a job working in manufacturing once though where we had around 100 Spanish speaking people working there.  My job was to help them fill out applications and work forms and then I communicated anything they needed to know and translated memos and the like.

[picklefingers]

It hasn't helped me a whole lot. I'm not at the level where I can switch into Spanish to help customers at the store I work at. It has helped me to catch what people are saying when they switch into Spanish to talk shit. Nothing about me yet.

[petrushka]

One of my main reasons for learning Spanish - apart from my dream of wanting to be a polyglot - is specifically work-related since learning another language apart from English will raise the payrate extravagantly. It hasn't changed my work life yet since I'm still a beginner, but I'm hoping learning a new language will result in better work opportunities for me.

[sillylucy]

It really has! I feel like people are more friendly when they see that I am try to speak Spanish to them. Before they would be really dismissive and upset when I didn't know Spanish.

[Cookiesandcream]

I don't live anywhere near a Spanish speaking country so it hasn't helped me at all. The only person I've conversed in Spanish were my classmates and my teacher. But I've always had a passion to travel and so I'm hoping it will be handy in the future. I just hope I don't lose the language before I can even get the chance to use it.

[Verba]

I am trying to learn Spanish but I can see that it won't really enrich my work life because from where I work, we do not need it. It is a British institution so it is not really necessary. However, I think if I am adequate enough to speak and write it, I believe I can be hired as a translator or perhaps, a writer! Any languages one can learn well may be an additional income or even your bread and butter. Why, you can be a tutor for the language you learn. :-)

[Rosyrain]

Spanish is definitely a plus on the resume and employers are looking for it more and more these days because our Hispanic population is always on the rise. It is really hard to get a government job now if you are unable to communicate in Spanish.  This is why I am trying so hard to learn it.

[czarina84]

I live in a rural community.  So not many people that live here are anything other than white Americans who speak only English.  Sadly, it's one of those "they're taking our jobs" areas.  I have never worked with anyone who spoke another language, although my ex-boyfriend was Ecuadorian and my former best friend was 1/4 Puerto Rican and 1/4 Cuban.  So my personal life was enhanced but not my work life.  I didn't work in construction or factories, which is where most of the people worked who were not Caucasian.  My mother worked in a factory.  She told me about the new employees who worked there.  They didn't speak any English, so she asked me to help her learn Spanish. She wanted to learn Spanish so she could help them learn English. I taught her what I knew (which wasn't much because this was over a decade ago) and bought her a Spanish-English dictionary.  I'm not sure if she ever learned it fluently.  She died a few years after I bought it for her.