15% more earnings for bilingual skills
I have been looking around at how much people get paid for being bilingual. If you are talking apples and apples, bilingualism will reward you with about a 15% increase per year in your pay. However, this is for basic job. The reward for a professionals, will be a higher, as one will have a specialty niche market that others can not focus on. For the entrepreneur, you can count on saving of about 300%. 300%, if you can off shore your vital functions to an area that cost less than your backyard, even your support functions. Lets say you speak Ukrainian and have traveled to Ukraine and know the country and the people, there is no reason you can not do what you do with help from Ukrainian workers or even base yourself there. Therefore, bilingualism has many rewards, the least of which is financial. Most people I feel do not know how to leverage their bilingual skills. Further people born with the bilingualism often do not market their skills as effective as those who learned to be bilingual. The world pays on what you can do for me. So instead of putting the fact you are bilingual at the end of your CV, under additional skills, make a clear statement. I am bilingual and I can help you reinvent your process by using my skill to do ‘this or that’ and that will transform your business in a concrete way. With that attitude your bilingual skill you will more than double your earnings, because no one wants just a worker, they want someone to transform their business.
Tags: bilingual, bilingualism, earnings, language, learn, Ukraine, Ukrainian
4 responses to Bilingual skills quantified
Where I work I am continuosly having to translate for patients and other staff. I unfortantely don’t get anything extra in pay because of my bilingual skills. I have approached higher management about it and they say “its team work!!”. but my question is, if that is the case, why isn’t everyone else also able to come forth with the same “team work” skill? is there any advice you have so that i may bring this to the attention of my employers and aid them to realize, that bilingual helps them as a company too?
@Helina Your comment on bilingual skills is interesting. I am not sure I have the answer. I was a former big/medium boss; the management’s general philosophy was ‘do not pay more than you have to.’ If there was no need to pay more do not. I never liked being part of the management team for that reason. Management can be cheap. But it all depends on their budget and what they can afford to pay. But if you are talking a major company, most have compensation for such tasks.
So the problem is in your hands if they do not care you can look elsewhere, accept the fact you are not appreciated (many people are not at work) or check HR to see if there is any policy regarding pay compensation. You could always say I will not translate any more, but this might get you in trouble. But that could be a good thing. If you are bilingual in the medical field I think you can make a lot of money as this is a skill that is in demand. Medical translations etc pay. Your lucky you are bilingual.
Good Morning – I work with professionals on their resumes and CV’s. I am unsure how to advise those who are bi or multi-lingual to some degree how to state their level of competence – What are the acceptable standards for this?
Thanks
A CV is a marketing tool. It is not an application or a testimony of competency in any skill including languages as this is a very subjective thing. In many European countries there is an objectification of language skills an bilingual skills with government tests or official exams. However, in most countries people, just put whatever, on their CV and hope the interviewer does not check them on it.
My advice is it is only important if the job requires this on a day to day basis.
Intermediate is someone I think who can speak but makes mistakes. Advanced Intermediate makes some grammar mistakes really has a problem with extensive vocabulary and reading.
Advanced can read literature and books with looking up a word now and then.
Fluent is someone who speaks and reads almost like a native.
I think accent is not too important, it is the level of comprehension and expression.
My wife for example is fluent in English, her second language. She uses native speaker expressions and speaks like me, however, she has an accent. But she can pick up a technical journal and understand it.
I have some advanced students who read literature but need to use a dictionary. Their writing is very good, sometimes better than native speakers. However, they lack a slight degree of idioms or flexibility in their language. It is like talking to a very formal person, not your friend.
I think most people are some level of intermediate with languages they studied. The real question is have they lived in a country where they must use their second language for a couple of years. If yes they are most likely pretty close to bilingual.
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