Anyone travelling abroad for any length of time should take the opportunity to learn the language of their destination, it has been claimed.
Anyone travelling abroad for any length of time should take the opportunity to learn the language of their destination, it has been claimed.
This is according to Angela Baron, advisor at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, who said that it is a valuable ability in terms of a broader skills perspective and a cultural understanding perspective.
“I would always say that having languages is a useful skill and if you’ve got the opportunity to learn a language then don’t let it slip by.
“If you want to go and live and work [in another country] then – even if English is the language of business – you still need to be able to speak the language of your host country if you want to progress your career,” she commented.
The European Commission revealed in 2005 that 50 per cent of the European population claimed to be able to speak a foreign language.
Thirty per cent of Brits claimed to speak a second language, compared to 36 per cent of people from Portuguese, Italian and Spanish populations and 99 per cent of the Luxembourgish population.
Anyone looking for a foreign conference destination may be interested in booking flights to South Africa – the World Travel Awards have named either Cape Town, Durban or Johannesburg as the best conferencing venue in Africa every year since 2001.
