How we all benefit when women are multilingual

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Today's guest post is from Susanna, author of Language is Music, who speaks seven languages and promotes learning languages with music and the media. Susanna and I made a multilingual video together in San Francisco and she also wrote a previous guest post here about listening techniques and how to use songs to learn languages.

Below is a video call Susanna organised with fellow female polyglots Jana Fadness and Fasulye. They discuss how to encourage more women to share their language skills online. The guest post that follows explores how multilingual women can influence their families, workplaces and communities for International Women’s Day. Take it away, Susanna!

For International Women’s Day, I’m writing about why multilingual women should feel able to share their language skills. This matters to readers of every gender.

Men and women both benefit when women are multilingual.

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

Multiplier effect of educating women in foreign languages

Language skills can open up employment opportunities and give people more ways to connect with family and community. Multilingual women can also introduce children around them to new sounds, stories and cultures. Our guide to raising multilingual children has practical ideas for parents and carers.

If you grew up in a monolingual family, hearing songs and stories in another language early on might have made its sounds feel more familiar. Adults can still build that familiarity through regular listening and practice.

A multilingual aunt, cousin or other relative can serve as a role model and motivate children to learn languages. My nephew and niece have no choice about whether they want to learn a language or not: they’re stuck with me as their Auntie!

Language education matters for every gender. Here, I’m focusing on how women can pass their enthusiasm and knowledge through families, friendships and communities.

The impact of the bedtime story or poems in a foreign language

My maternal grandmother, whom I never met, was a German language teacher in Leningrad, Russia. After the Nazi siege of Leningrad was over, my grandmother returned from evacuation in the Ural Mountains to her city with her two young children, my mom and aunt. Many of Leningrad’s inhabitants, including my grandmother’s close relatives, had died of starvation while the Nazis blockaded the city.

The German language was obviously not a popular language to study after World War II in the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, my grandmother read the poems of Goethe and other German poets in German to my mom and her sister before the girls went to bed.

She wanted my mom and aunt to appreciate the beauty of the language despite politics and the horrors of the war. Though my mom and aunt went on to study English and French, respectively, they still fondly remember the verses of Goethe and how beautiful they sounded in German. My mom often reminds me of her mother reading to her as a child in German and how my mom learned to differentiate the German language from the Nazi regime and World War II.

A parent reading to a child in a foreign language can have a lasting impact, reaching to future generations.

We need more female polyglot role models

When I wrote this article, I saw fewer female polyglots sharing their language skills publicly than I met in language-learning spaces.

Many of the language teachers and students I’ve met worldwide are women. I suspect there are also many multilingual women who prefer not to make their skills public.

Why do we need female multilingual role models?

When women choose to share their language skills publicly, they can show other women and girls some of the personal and professional possibilities that languages create.

Polyglot women are powerful, but underrated

When you hear the name Cleopatra, do you think of a lascivious Elizabeth Taylor seducing Richard Burton?

Or do you think of her as a polyglot ruler who spoke nine languages (Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Syrian, Arabic, Persian, Aramaic, Hebrew and Troglodyte, an Ethiopian tongue) which she used to her benefit as she ruled over Egypt?

Don’t be embarrassed if Elizabeth Taylor’s seductress role comes to mind. Hollywood has often characterised powerful women by their looks and romantic relationships instead of their intellectual and professional achievements.

“it is true she [Cleopatra] was the only Ptolemy ever to learn to speak Egyptian, and she was one of the few members of her family able to converse with neighboring dignitaries in their own tongue. Her language skills made her useful in political discussions. It also earned her the respect and affection of the Egyptian people living outside of the Greek influence of Alexandria.”

Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen by Susan Blackaby

Luckily, things have improved since the Cleopatra movie, but female polyglots are still underrepresented in the public sphere.

When Madeleine Albright became the first female US Secretary of State, American media profiles often mentioned that she spoke several languages. Her career offered a prominent example of a woman using language and international experience in public life.

There are many more famous women who speak several languages, and I won’t go into detail about all of them here.

Language skills are easy for employers to overlook when they aren’t relevant to a person’s stated role. If you use another language at work, record the concrete results so that the skill is visible during reviews and job applications.

Foreign language skills can get you a job

Let’s switch from politics to economics. Language skills can strengthen an application when they are relevant to the role or the people an organisation serves.

In my experience, some capable language learners understate what they can do. A specific description such as “I can handle customer calls in Spanish” is more useful than a vague label such as “fluent”.

If this sounds familiar, practise the vocabulary you need and describe your ability honestly. Language skills cannot guarantee a job, but clear evidence of how you use them can help an employer judge whether they fit the role.

On 30 January 2012, I discussed the economic cost of the United Kingdom’s language-skills gap in a BBC interview. That interview is a historical snapshot, so check current labour-market evidence before using its figures.

Language jobs aren’t all low-wage

Language skills can be useful in many professions beyond education and translation. A doctor may use another language with patients, while an engineer may use language and cultural knowledge on an international project. The value depends on the role, location and employer.

You’re not bragging, you’re inspiring and gaining respect!

In his 2012 book on hyperpolyglots, Babel No More, Michael Erard described an online polyglot scene in which men were much more visible. Competitive spaces can discourage people who don’t enjoy ranking or comparing language skills.

You might think that telling people that you speak another language is bravado but think of yourself as a role model. If you were unemployed for five months and then got a job because you can speak Japanese, you are not bragging if you admit this. You may motivate other people to improve their language skills or to pick up a new language, especially if they are hungry to get a job.

If posting videos of yourself speaking in different languages doesn’t appeal to you, then write a blog about how you use your languages, encourage your friends to learn languages, organize events like dinner parties or foreign movie nights with friends where you speak in another language. I once had a poetry night when everyone had to read poetry in various languages and the English translation. We all had a lot of fun! Both men and women declaimed poetry around the dinner table. Everyone agreed that hearing the original poems was worthwhile even when we couldn’t understand the original language.

Safety

Language skills can make it easier to ask for help, understand instructions or explain an emergency. They do not guarantee safety or prevent abuse.

My experience offering Russian-English interpretation for safe houses in Bosnia showed me why trained language support matters. Responsibility for trafficking and forced marriage always lies with perpetrators and the systems that enable them, never with a woman’s education or language level.

If a multilingual woman has inspired you, tell her what you learned from her example.