Capitalising on Language Skills

We have long known that listing more than one language on your CV is a career asset. Aside from the obvious benefits of being bilingual, or even multilingual, there are numerous transferable skills associated with dedicating yourself to learning and maintaining a second language such as: commitment, organisation and time management to list but a few.

But if you are currently or considering working in the UK, pre-whatever nightmarish landscape it will be when Brexit finally happens of course, which are the second languages that are most likely to land you the most money?

Recent analysis by a job searching site has sampled more than one million English-language jobs posted on the web to determine which languages earn their speakers the highest pay. Let’s take a look at their top ten.

Keeping it close to home…

Our lowest of the high earners is a language originating on the UK’s own doorstep. Speakers of Welsh can expect an average of around £27,857, and if you have any doubt as to why, may we strongly recommend that you give the beautiful country that is Wales a visit as soon as is humanly possible. Mile upon mile of greenery that is both flat and mountainous, and with a heavy emphasis by the Welsh Assembly on keeping the beautiful-sounding Welsh language alive, from your first Cymru sign to your last straggling sheep you are in for a scenic (and language) treat.

A little further from home…

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to see Mandarin on this list of high language earners, bringing its speakers a salary around the figure of £28,268. What is possibly a surprise is that Mandarin isn’t actually higher up the list; for a language spoken so diversely and continually growing in importance, surely this language should bring in a few extra pounds than it already does?

The passionate one…

Italian does surprise us by being on this list, and perhaps that is an incredibly unfair stereotype. With a language more associated with fiery arguments and fierce amore than perhaps getting things done, it is an eye-opener to see that the average Italian speaker could net themselves a salary of £28,723.

From the Red Square…

There is a lot happening with Russia at the moment and the world has its canny eye turned on it, cautiously watching to see what it will do next. Perhaps this is the reason that Russian is our next big earner on the list: speakers can expect an average salary of £28,858 in the UK.

Tokyo calling…

Seeing Japanese on this high earner’s list is not a surprise in the slightest. With Japan and therefore Japanese almost synonymous with technology it would be odd not to see a correlation between speaking this language and earning yourself a pretty penny. Get your head around this logographic rather than alphabet-based language and you could be earning yourself a salary of approximately £28,954.

To Benidorm!

Why is Spanish on this list? Maybe for the simple reason that Brits are so sun-starved that it is almost a yearly pilgrimage of sorts to visit some of the finest regions of Spain. And while we still can do it, perhaps it is the expat community of UK-ers in Spain that encourages learning Spanish as a second language. The question is post-Brexit, will the average Spanish speaker’s salary of £29,262 go up or down?

Learning a new language? Check out our free placement test to see how your level measures up!

Going Dutch

We have to admit, this language also flummoxes us with its appearance on the list. But an average salary of £29,423 is not one to be sniffed at: perhaps it is the tulips that is drawing us in?

The language of lovers…

According to the classic heaven and hell joke, heaven is where all the lovers are French, and hell where the mechanics all originate from across the Channel. Which begs the question: if the average salary of the French speaker in the UK is £32,646, which sector do these speakers work in?

An exotic beauty…

Arabic both sounds and looks beautiful, doesn’t it? We hope we can be forgiven for overlooking its practical use at first glance and only viewing Arabic for its aesthetics. The fact is, Arabic is an incredibly important language worldwide, with some 400 million speakers regularly conversing in it for conversational and commercial purposes. And with more than one thousand UK job vacancies listed as requiring fluency in both English and Arabic, it is probably no wonder that the average salary Arabic attracts is £34,122.

Achtung, baby…

Well, would you believe it. German, the language on this list that is probably considered ‘closest’ to English itself is our highest second language earner. With an average salary for German speakers of £34,534, maybe it’s time to pay attention in class or sign up to an evening class. Or you know, we could help you out 😉

So there you have it. If money is your motivator when it comes to doing anything, perhaps this will serve as an incentive to get your lips around some foreign tongue. Ahem...