▶ Your Answer :
Multi-national companies have diverse employees
from all over the world, and implement their businesses in the stage of world
as well. Noting this situation, learning several languages in multilateral
corporations will benefit the business operations, thus I agree with the
argument.
To begin with, one might say that one official
language is only necessary for communication in a company such as the English
language. This might be true to some extent, especially when the majority of an
organization has a good deal of English language knowledge. For example, several manufacturers
in the Philippines, e.g., Toshiba Philippines, use English as an official
communicating tool because Philippinos are good English language users even
though they have their own language, the Tagalogue.
However, if most of the employees are not
English speakers in the situation of multi-lateral business, communication
within the workplace will remain ineffective, which in turn is more likely to
have less productivity. For instance, several companies located near the border
between the US and Mexico have employees who have Spanish backgrounds. Balon,
Inc., an American valve company, one of the multilateral corporation in those
areas, once had the less efficient communication problem within in their
operations because of the language barrier between English speaking officials
and Spanish speaking employees. Therefore, the company encouraged its officials
to learn the Spanish language, and after a certain period of time, the
communication problem was addressed. By the same token, giving incentives to
employees who can use several languages as necessary in each company’s case is
recommended.
Additionally, the fact that one employee knows more
than just one language means that the employee has broader view and he or she
is more likely to possess better analytic skills for potential markets. BRICs
stands for the upcoming and emerging markets as B stands for Brazil, R for Russia,
I for India, and, C for China. If a company is equipped with employees who can
use the languages in the four nations, the chances to succeed in the markets will
be higher than others who have no ideas about the languages. This is why major
companies implementing international business such as Samsung Electronics,
General Electronics, and Sony give higher points to job applicants who can
speak those languages when recruiting. Moreover, surveys conducted by the
Forbes, reported that more than 50% of Chinese companies would like to do their
business with whoever can speak Chinese language. Therefore, the given argument
of that multi-national companies should require employees to learn several
languages are convincing to me.
However, one thing that we need to remember is
that whether the languages to learn are necessary for the companies’ business
and growing. If people in a company learn any languages that are not beneficial
to their business, it would be waste of their time and energy. Thus,
corporations need to scrutinize what languages are needing to be taught for
their employees in considerations of their current operations and potential markets.
In sum, I agree with the statement because
multi-national corporations can benefit from their employees who can speak
several languages for better communication within the corporations and for
seeking potential markets. When deciding, however, decision makers need to
analyze what languages can better contribute to their business goal and success
in order to maximize their profitability. |