PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
You get a phone call from a friend. He tells you about a job in Paris. It's tech work, right up your alley. You've long dreamed of living in Europe, pulling out the old laptop at a sidewalk café, taking one of those bullet trains down to Barcelona or Geneva.... Then it dawns on you: "But I don't speak French!"
"Don't worry," he says. "They all speak English over there, especially the tech people."
True, but only to a degree. English is Europe's lingua franca, and its vocabulary is invading the local languages, especially in technology. Does that mean an Anglophone will understand what people are saying over here? Sidle up to a couple of computer folks at a Paris convention and this is what you might hear: "Écoute, c'est un software vachement cool, mais mon boss voulait pas l'acheter." (Translation: "Listen, it's damned cool software, but my boss didn't want to buy it.")
Naturally, it drives French authorities mad that words like "software," "cool," and "boss," are barging into their language. But those doses of English still don't make it easy listening for an Anglophone.
TONGUE TIED. Let's assume that you're assertive, or even pushy. Since you know that most of these people speak English as a second language, you butt into the conversation, saying, "What kind of cool software are you talking about?"
At this juncture, chances are, the Europeans take a look at your convention badge to see whether you're somebody important -- Larry Ellison, perhaps, or Steve Case. They'll gladly switch into English for them, but maybe not for you.
Here's the point: While few deny the supremacy of English in Europe, for many Europeans, it's still a cumbersome communications tool. Even the Dutch and the Swedes, whose English often sounds effortless, would rather speak their native languages. After all, who wouldn't?
Which brings us to the paradox. Even as English storms the world, Anglophones risk losing opportunities and falling behind because the rest of the world is not only learning English, it knows other languages as well. Think about that tech job in Paris. Say a Belgian applies for it. She speaks fluent French and maybe even Dutch and German, in addition to English. She'll be able to speak to practically everyone in this cosmopolitan office -- customers as well -- in their native languages. If you're going to win that job from her, your tech credentials had better be massive.
CONVERSATION STOPPER. This isn't to say that English-only speakers don't come to Europe and thrive. But they don't understand most of what they hear, and that's a real handicap when doing business.
What's more, I've noticed that when European conversations switch to English, strange things happen, most of them negative. Picture a table of Frenchmen sitting down to dinner at a business hotel in Paris. They've had a beer or two at the bar. One of them is talking about a merger that's about to happen between two rivals in Germany, but it might fall through because one CEO is having an affair with...well, you get the drift.
An American colleague arrives. They all stand up to shake hands and greet him in English. When they sit down, the conversation is dead. Why? A new hierarchy now rules. The guy who was talking about the merger is a little shy about his English. He keeps quiet. It's a junior executive who spent a year of high school in Vermont who's now riding high. He's jabbering on in fluent English about a PowerPoint demonstration that he has been working on. Things go downhill from there, if that's possible.
GO NATIVE. This is life with a lingua franca. English gets the job done, and it's an important communications tool in Europe. But most people are a whole lot more fun to talk to in their native languages. The jokes end and laughter subsides as communication switches to English.
The bottom line is that learning the major European languages isn't passé. Those who want to work in Europe would do well to pick up one or two of those Continental languages -- and push their children to do the same. If you don't, you'll be at a disadvantage. Increasingly, the Europeans will understand you. But what are they saying? Well, unless you know their languages, that's privileged information.
Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
