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| European Voice Debate | PRINT | | "What Do Languages Mean for Business?" |
Brussels (BE), April 2007 – European Voice is a weekly newspaper with an independent view of the European Union. In a debate in Brussels – sponsored by Educational Testing Service (ETS) Europe – about the statement 'Being multilingual is essential and not just an advantage anymore', European Voice invited five panel members: Leonard Orban, the European Commissioner responsible for Multilingualism, Helga Trüpel, Member of the European Parliament, Gerben van Lent from ETS Global Business Development, Emmanuel Jahan from Air France-KLM, and Joanna Slowinska from the Polish-based IT company COMARCH Software AG.
'Languages have become a key feature for better communication internally and externally that allow economic growth to companies operating both nationally and internationally' was one of the statements supported by the panel members. Everyone agreed that language learning is a shared responsibility whose benefits for business are both current and future oriented.
To support this statement, the European Commissioner for Multilingualism presented figures showing that the lack of language knowledge resulted in an eleven percent revenue loss for businesses in Europe, along with an inability to import and export efficiently. Helga Trüpel agreed that for a successful future, our attitude towards the importance of languages has to change and become a desired responsibility of each citizen. She also mentioned that languages are the first step towards understanding various cultures, which is important for businesses cooperation.
All the panel members agreed that the English language still prevails over other European languages and is more considered a "necessity" than a "beneficial skill". Joanna Slowinska continued that English remains the dominant language for the Information Technology industry, but that this is not necessarily the case for all the industries.
Emmanuel Jahan, who has a leading function in human resources and social affairs, supported this by stating that the environment has to be taken into account when discussing languages. Higher education institutions have to improve the dialogue with businesses to understand future-oriented language requirements.
Gerben van Lent agreed with the European Commissioner that currently businesses do not allocate enough resources to arrange for language learning or improvement strategies, although there is willingness to improve the language skills of employees. Language assessments, as the core competency of ETS Europe, are being demanded constantly by more and more businesses willing to 'become multilingual'.
An important condition is businesses’ awareness that knowledge of various languages is important to achieve expansion, combined with insight into what their current position is. "ETS Europe supports this by providing the tools that can help measure and improve language skills", van Lent added.
After the successful morning debate, the panel members and the audience continued discussing the importance of learning languages and multilingualism in an animated afternoon session.
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