Whew. For a minute there I thought I wouldn't get a job

New report from CED on Education for Global Leadership: The Importance of International Studies and Foreign Language Education for U. S. Economic and National Security.

Excerpts below, for the full report click above.

Globalization is driving the demand for a U.S. workforce that possesses knowledge of other countries and cultures and is competent in languages other than English. Most of the growth potential for U.S. businesses lies in overseas markets. Already, one in five U.S. manufacturing jobs is tied to exports. In 2004, 58 percent of growth in the earnings of U.S. businesses came from overseas.11 Foreign consumers, the majority of whom primarily speak languages other than English, represent significant business opportunities for American producers, as the United States is home to less than five percent of the world’s population. And trade is shifting to different parts of the world; our annual trade with Asia is now approaching $800 billion—out-pacing our trade with Europe.

It may come as no surprise then, that a 2002 survey of large U.S. corporations found that nearly 30 percent of the companies believed they had failed to exploit fully their international business opportunities due to insufficient personnel with international skills. Th e consequences of insufficient culturally competent workers, as identified by the firms, included: missed marketing or business opportunities; failure to recognize important shifts in host country policies toward foreign-owned corporations; failure to anticipate the needs of international customers; and failure to take full advantage of expertise available or technological advances occurring abroad. Almost 80 percent of the business leaders surveyed expected their overall business to increase notably if they had more internationally competent employees on staff.

For example, when Microsoft Corporation developed a time zone map for its Windows 95 operating system, it inadvertently showed the region of Kashmir lying outside the boundaries of India. India banned the software, and Microsoft was forced to recall 200,000 copies of the off ending product. Other examples of such avoidable mistakes include software distributed in Turkey that contained a map that explicitly labeled “Kurdistan,” a crime in Turkey, or the video game that off ended Arab countries by including Arabic chanting of the Koran to accompany violent scenes in the game.28 In addition to the adverse economic consequences of such mistakes to individual companies, they foster negative attitudes toward America, as the mistakes are rarely viewed as accidents by the off ended countries, but instead are considered negligent indifference or intentional slights attributed to all U.S. companies.

The need for language expertise and cultural competence is only expected to grow. About 40 percent of the companies in a 2002 survey reported that their international sales are growing more rapidly than domestic sales, and more than 60 percent said that over the next decade they expected the proportion of their sales revenue from other countries to increase.

America may be the world’s only military superpower, but U.S. businesses cannot always insist on their way of doing things if they want to do business with the rest of the world.30 To be successful abroad, American business leaders have to understand the minds and preferences of people and cultures very different from their own. However, American business executives lag behind their European peers when it comes to language skills. Th e average number of languages spoken by American business executives is 1.5, compared with an average of 3.9 languages spoken by business executives in the Netherlands.31 In international business negotiations, managers are at a disadvantage if they must rely on a translator to communicate their message.


Many corporations, especially multinationals, tend to emphasize cultural competence more than foreign language skills,* but many still rate language skills as important.35 In fact, in one survey of human resource managers, participants reported that proficiency in a foreign language was a consideration in hiring decisions at 42 percent of firms, and 66 percent considered it in making retention decisions.36 For businesses of all sizes, having an appreciation for cultural differences and a global business perspective are very important for all employees and managers, even for those in domestic positions.37 Looking across all sectors (public, for-profit, non-profit), cross-cultural competence† was rated as the fifth most important attribute (of nineteen) of a successful professional in an organization with a global mission.38 Employees who demonstrate cultural competence are more likely to be selected for and perform well on global teams, which can lead to greater success and advancement within the organization.

* One explanation for why foreign language skills are not as highly rated is that employers see foreign language education as more literary (e.g., reading and writing) than applied (e.g., speaking skills for social and business interaction)

The language needs are most acute in such critical, less-commonly taught languages as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian/Farsi, Russian and Turkish.