We’ve all heard the word “globalization.” The phenomenon has various effects in our lives. One of them is the necessity to be able to communicate with people in different parts of the world. As traveling, working, immigrating, and living abroad become more common, increasing numbers of people are multilingual. Government jobs pay a bonus for each foreign language an employee can speak.

Even if you don’t engage in international business, being multilingual is important.

According to United States Census Data, 20% of US households speak a language other than English. Politicians and companies are targeting their messages to non-English communities in the US. One of the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary debates was telecast in Spanish. In the 2006 California, Democratic Gubernatorial race, the candidates’ Chinese speaking family members made campaign announcements in Mandarin. The reality is that we have to be multilingual to thrive in this globalized economy. Young generations see the necessity to learn foreign languages for their careers.

I got my first job out of college because I spoke Russian. The local division of the Department of Commerce’s Export Assistance Program was going to help host a summit between United States Vice President Al Gore and the Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin in Silicon Valley. The office needed a Russian speaker to help the Russian VIPs attending the summit. I had to get a special security clearance to participate. Not only was I the Russian speaking guide, I also listened to presentations by the CEOs of major Silicon Valley companies. I was only 21 years old. Without my Russian knowledge, the doors of this high-powered summit meeting would have been closed.

A few months later, my Spanish skills were in demand. The Argentine Secretary of Communication was visiting Silicon Valley on a trade visit, and I was the only completely fluent Spanish speaker in our office. Even though I wasn’t even old enough to legally rent a car, my boss convinced the car rental company to let me drive the Argentine Secretary of Commerce and his entourage around in a rented van! Like with the Russian delegation, I attended meeting with top Silicon Valley executives whom I would otherwise not have had the opportunity to meet. Being in an Argentine environment was wonderful practice for me because I was going to Argentina the following year as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.

Neither of these opportunities would have been available to me if I didn’t speak Russian or Spanish.

Imagine that foreign languages are like keys, both in the musical and physical sense. The more keys your voice can produce equals more physical keys you have to open doors to new horizons. Let me open up your world to the sounds of other languages. It will open doors you never knew existed!