Careers with foreign languages A Jack Reynolds ~ interpreter in the UK Most of my fiands studied subjects like business ‘arenginering and suspect they thought leaering foreign languages was pointless, ospocally your first tangunge is English. That changed when TToaeame the interpreter for a couple of Braviian foatballers who'd joined. Manchester United When my fiends realised wha | was spending time with, my coolness rating definitely shot Up, vunich has beon nico ve always been Inorested inlanguages. 'did French and Spanish at 4nd then added Portuguese bbe honest ve never soon mye linguist - t was nover the est ia my class — but Ive worked at fy and when | went t0 Brail tor university | decided to forget any shyness might have, and immerse mysel in the focal culture, When | came back the UK, was good Enough to quali as an interpreter. Apart from the sports work, interpret at conferences, Thet ‘gets my adrenaline going moro than being with the footballers, actualy. B_ Ana Ramirez ~ educational consultant | did a degroo in English and Russian at university in Spain. | enjoyed i but 'm ashamed to admit that | had 0 idea what | was going to do with itwhen | finished. | was by-no.means the only fone from my coutse in that postion, and there's "similar thing in other countries, from what Tye s80n, After a fou false stars, | ended up working for a. Eurape wide organisation which ministers various educational projects travel ‘round Europa and Russia aot so goto practise my langueges, Port of our brief is to promate language learning and | genuinely believe Init. Intarestingly, one thing its given me, apart from ' job and the opportunty to meet people around the world, I aqreater aarenoss of my strengths land weaknesses in Spanish. Unfortunately, near lots of people saying "like to have. snothar language, but its beyond th Though, that anyone cam Tear a language. We lean our mother tongue, after all You just od te right conclifons and attitude, | absolutely Believe that. © Helen Murdoch ~ IT project manager rm naturally curious and. hate not understanding peopl, and that's what's always attracted 110 Fenguages. I works the other way round, too. Wan wo're recruiting fora challenging IT proeet. Tahways think the candidates who are murtingual tend to be more adaptable and open-minded, ‘whieh certainly helps us. | went to university In the 19609, and in those cov, languages were se tana more than a nice to-have. When | Cold my father Ta decided to study French, he said, Are you sure? Wouldn't something more substantial be better” So, lcombinea kt with management degree. With the. increasingly compottive ‘marketplace, | think that views changed. My work hae taken ma to diffrent counties, and ped ime improve my French and pick up Arabic and ‘Turkish, an opportunity not avaiable to everyone sadly. ive seen at firsthand the difference that rowing 3 language ean make. once committed & ‘mayor Blunde! in an office in-lapan. Had | spoken Japanese, I would have known nat to do hand ‘would have avoided 9 couple of very awkward days afermarcs. D Timo Heikkinen ~ student om fo my final year at university. frm studying Chinese "but"! also ‘Speak English, Swedish Fussian, Gorman and French, and Grok because ry mun half-Greok, and Finnish as t'm rom Finland. | recently won a prize for achievement in learning. languages, To be honest, | hedn't nsidered myself unusua! because vo picker up Fanguages from going to different counties with ‘ny parents who work for international companies. [realise now, however, that 1 do. have. fait for languages; I've been told | even write wel in Finnish and Greek. m not sure what 11 be ‘doing next year, ve had a few offers but fm not Very decisive. Quite a lot of people | know are really good at thelr subjects maths, physics or whatever = but languages defeat thom and that Serously narrows their options. Tm glad Tm net In their shows, ‘combo nim Advances Tak 19> PABER 4 Renang ana Use OF geen >> parte 25)