For the love of languages

“Pouvez-vous mover le sofa?”. It was this appalling franglais that was the final motivation to improve my language skills this year. How could I have learned French at school for ten years, been part of acquiring a major French company when at lastminute.com, sit on the board of Chanel and still resort to such shockingly bad language when talking on holiday? 

Apparently I am not alone - only 1.5m of us Brits speak a second language at all and only 8% of university students are studying a modern language this year. Imagine the equivalent numbers  in Germany or France, where languages are universally studied. 

Our U.K. deficit matters, and it matters a great deal in business. 

It’s easy to be fooled into thinking that speaking English gives you an unassailable  global business advantage, but I would argue that the opposite is true. The more languages you deeply understand, the more truly multicultural you are and the more you will appreciate the nuance of your customer, employee and supplier relationships. In this age of Google Translate, we may think we have a shared understanding when actually we are just swapping superficial information.

One of the best authorities on languages and culture is Erin Meyer, a professor at Insead who wrote a book I would highly recommend,  ‘The Culture Map’. She uses data and history to show how different languages work and are structured in ways we might not always appreciate.

She has some great stories of surprising miscommunication. In one, she recounts how she helped a French executive who had takenup a new role in the US. She loved the job, andwas looking forward to her first appraisal. Her boss however, wanted to use the appraisal to start the process of moving her out of the company. However, in the US, criticism is far more flowery and offered in a supportive tone, unlike  in France where feedback is given with no sugar coating at all. The manager used phrases such as “you’re very valued by your colleagues but there are some areas of concern” and “while you have done well at this, that was less successful”. But the French woman heard nothing but praise and left the meeting feeling thrilled. Imagine her surprise when she later found out her job was in danger. 

The good news is that there has never been a better time to learn. Not only are there a multitude of language apps but there are also fabulous online courses too. I am doing my own mini French upgrade via Duolingo. I am enjoying it greatly although I  am currently in a serious competition with a stranger, Denise, who is attempting to knock me off the top spot of the ‘Pearl league’. Good luck with that Denise. More seriously, Babbel, Primsleur and Prepply all rank highly in the best rated language courses. You can either use their virtual lessons or find real life tutors to improve your conversation. Crucially,  all of these organizations let you set your own goals and schedules.

Smart thinking companies with global reach are prioritizing  language proficiency. In 2015, Airbnb recognized the importance of being able to communicate with its global community of hosts and guests in their native languages. At the time, the majority of Airbnb's customer support team only spoke English, which limited the company's ability to provide effective, outstanding customer service in non-English speaking markets. 

To address this, Airbnb launched a language mentoring program that encouraged its employees to learn a second language, with a focus on the languages spoken by its largest customer bases, such as Spanish, French, and Mandarin. The program included language lessons, cultural immersion experiences, and mentorship from bilingual colleagues. The results were impressive. Within a year of launching the program, Airbnb was able to offer customer support in 11 languages, and by 2018, that number had grown to 43. This enabled the company to better serve its customers around the world and build stronger relationships with its global community. 

Closer to home, Tropic Skincare is a natural beauty products company based in London. It has a team heralding from all over the world, so to ensure clear communication and collaboration, offers language classes in Spanish and Mandarin to its employees. The classes, which are popular, are taught by native speakers and are carefully tailored to the needs of the business. It says the move has helped boost its sales in new markets.s.

John Cleese is making a return to Fawlty Towers with a new series. The antics of Basil, Sybil and Manuel were a backdrop to my childhood and remembering some of the sketches still makes me laugh., Basil’s inability to speak anything other than English at loud volumes makes even my language skills look acceptable. In these challenging times, a small B&B on the south coast would stand little chance of survival without welcoming staff and  customers from all over the world. Wouldn’t it be great for ‘Global Britain’ if he was now a bilingual Basil?