It’s no secret that we are living in a global community these days. Where 30 years ago the number of companies that participated in the global marketplace was limited, today anyone with an Internet connection and a little determination can become an international entrepreneur. And yet, I wonder how many of us use the skills that we may have to participate in the global community.

Now, I know that in the SQL community on twitter and through PASS, there are many people that reside outside of the states. However, I wonder how many of us that participate do so in a language other than English. I myself learned to speak Mandarin Chinese some 15 years ago, and used that knowledge to get a degree. I value that part of my education, yet 8+ years later and I rarely if ever get to use that language. This has to change.

I decided some time ago that I would like to make use of my language skills more than I have been. I looked into several options to increase my opportunities. Unfortunately, the majority of those options involved moving residence, changing careers, or accepting pay cuts. In many cases, it involved all three.

Last week, I again began to wonder how I could utilize these Chinese skills. Because I like what I currently do for a living, I started looking for smaller ways to use these skills without changing job or career. I found quite a few resources that involved working in a different industry. These I discounted out of hand. From the remainder, I was able to cull a few ideas listed below that you may well try yourself.

• Become a Teacher – Granted this may seem like an outright career change for some of us. However, that need not be the case. There are many non-profit organizations that need people to teach English as a Second Language in the evenings. In addition, some of those organizations are looking for professionals with language skills to teach “life skills” to immigrants who are trying to improve their employment but are better served in their native language. I remember doing this for a bit in college for a Physical Geography class. I tutored a couple of Taiwanese students, helping them learn the principles taught in the class, but using Chinese to do so. Not only was I able to help them, but I found my understanding of both Chinese and Physical Geography increased immensely. There is no better way to learn a principle than to teach it to someone else, especially if it’s done in a foreign language.
• Become a Translator – We’ve all had the experience of trying to assemble some piece of furniture and finding the instructions to be almost incomprehensible because of the poor translation. Unfortunately, this isn’t isolated to instructions for furniture assembly. Many foreign web sites, especially those for smaller companies, tend to be translated poorly. If you have skills in a certain language, perhaps you could promote yourself to some of those companies and offer your translation services. I imagine that, as more and more of us join the global marketplace, there will be an ever greater need for such localization services.
• Become a Multilingual Blogger – If you’re really convinced that a change of career or move to another country is not an option, there is always the option for using your language. Many of us are already working to reach out to our respective communities by blogging about those things we are passionate about. Whatever it is you’re passionate about, it’s a good bet that there are others who’s native tongue is not English that are just as passionate about the subject. You could consider reaching out to both communities by running a blog in both languages. Recently, I was able to install and test out a plug-in for WordPress that will allow me to run this blog in both English and Chinese. If you’re interested, check out the qTranslate plug-in.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of things one can do to use their non-technical skills in the workplace. I have a sense that there are a whole host of things that one can do to keep current on their foreign language skills without changing jobs or careers. If you’re interested in brushing up on your language skills, try one of the suggestions, or try to figure out your own novel approach to using your language. Regardless, while we may not see the benefits of getting a new job because of our language skills, the intellectual rigors of using another language can only improve our reasoning skills.

As always, I appreciate your comments.

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