AI is reinforcing the dominance of English in the workplace

{"text":[[{"start":6.84,"text":"Walking into Donald Trump’s Oval Office is a test for any foreign leader. Last month, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, aced it. “You speak such good English,” marvelled Trump. “Is it as good as your German, would you say?”"}],[{"start":22.93,"text":"Merz, a senior counsel in international law firm Mayer Brown until 2021, is known for better English than his predecessors Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz, and considers the language crucial for his government. He took office saying he would only nominate ministerial candidates from his party who spoke “English that is at least suitable for everyday use”."}],[{"start":46.620000000000005,"text":"Fluency in English — generally believed to be the most widely spoken language in history, with an estimated 1.5bn users worldwide (including 375mn native speakers) — has become a non-negotiable qualification for high-level jobs in many professions, sidelining people with a merely passable grasp of it. Its dominance is now being reinforced as AI shapes a new linguistic era. “An estimated 90 per cent of training data for current generative AI systems stems from English,” writes Celeste Rodriguez Louro of the University of Western Australia. As more jobs require working with AI, native anglophones will benefit. "}],[{"start":95.16,"text":"Multinational companies from Airbus to Renault and Samsung mandate English as their common corporate language, according to research by Harvard Business School. Even in Japan, which has not tended to demand such strong English skills from its workers, companies including Sharp and ecommerce group Rakuten operate in English."}],[{"start":117.86,"text":"Judging by European job advertisements, employers rarely value any foreign language but English. A paper for the OECD studied online job vacancies across the EU and in the UK in 2021. Eleven million openings — 22 per cent — explicitly required knowledge of English. The next most required language, German, featured in 1.7 per cent of ads, often for tourism jobs. English was higher status, required implicitly or explicitly for half of all managerial and professional posts."}],[{"start":155.11,"text":"The report was chastening for speakers of languages once considered major. Only 1.1 per cent of job ads required French, barely more than the 0.8 per cent that asked for Basque, while just 0.4 per cent wanted Italian. Mandarin, the language with the most native speakers, once seen by ambitious western parents as an essential future job asset, was requested for just 1.3 per cent of European vacancies, chiefly in service or tourism jobs."}],[{"start":188.60000000000002,"text":"The EU’s schoolchildren have adapted to the new linguistic landscape: 96 per cent studied English as a foreign language in 2020. Just 27 per cent took the number two language, Spanish, reported the EU’s statistical agency, Eurostat. There was a 31 per cent decline in the number of students admitted to Chinese-studies programmes in the UK between 2012 and 2021, reported the Higher Education Statistics Agency. The falling-off in Russian is even more dramatic."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

Any important discussions will switch to French. It keeps those on the inside on the inside

"}],[{"start":222.85000000000002,"text":"English helps build relationships between people with different native languages. Think of the video, from the morning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in which Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called French President Emmanuel Macron and pleaded with him, in English, to tell Vladimir Putin to stop. The men’s shared language created complicity."}],[{"start":249.39000000000001,"text":"With English dominating in international settings, investing time learning other languages may no longer be worth it. I spent 10 years studying German but most Germans I meet now are in effect bilinguals who will not let me speak their native language. When non-natives speak English, it can give native speakers the upper hand — for instance in negotiations, or in public speaking."}],[{"start":276.22,"text":"But there are times when knowing other languages still offers underestimated advantages. A native English speaker at a Paris-based company in the insurance sector, which functions mostly in English, writes that “native-level command of the corporation’s mother tongue (French in my case) is the key to true advancement in European companies”."}],[{"start":299.81,"text":"He adds: “Any important discussions will switch to French. It keeps those on the inside on the inside, and keeps guys from the offices in Madrid, Munich, etc on the outside. It’s hard to crack that ceiling without fully fluent French to participate in these sidebars.”"}],[{"start":317.76,"text":"Even if an official meeting is in English, key discussions later at the bar or in the WhatsApp group might be in French, he notes, while many clients wanted to be handled in their own language."}],[{"start":331.28999999999996,"text":"A Briton working in the Netherlands for a UK-based company says he benefited professionally from learning Dutch. “I could understand what people were muttering to each other about English colleagues! I could understand jokes. I was treated as an equal, with respect for what I had managed to achieve linguistically, and could take part in management meetings.”"}],[{"start":354.92999999999995,"text":"Learning the other person’s language is also an expression of politeness, which will generally be rewarded."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

To collaborate with colleagues globally, the simplest business English is best, no ambiguities or misunderstandings

"}],[{"start":361.56999999999994,"text":"I grew up in the Netherlands and gain advantages from speaking fluent Dutch. Almost all Dutch people I meet through work speak English but conversing in Dutch can create rapid trust and co-operation. Sharing an obscure language in a sea of people who do not speak it is like belonging to an exclusive club. It makes for a powerful network. Still, it took nine formative years of living in the Netherlands to acquire those advantages."}],[{"start":390.4599999999999,"text":"The development of generative AI may mean that only excellence in a language is useful — there may no longer be much point in just having a few words and phrases, the kind of level to which apps such as Duolingo take most learners."}],[{"start":408.3499999999999,"text":"Mundane interactions can now be handled by automatic speech translation. Similarly, executives no longer need to write English as well, since machine translation systems such as DeepL can do that for them (although translators suggest having a native-speaking human to check AI’s output when there is a legal or reputational risk). Translation technology reduces a historic advantage of English-speakers in international settings: they were often chosen to write reports or corporate statements, giving them power to shape the content."}],[{"start":445.43999999999994,"text":"I’ve observed a rise in the level of English spoken by people in international workplaces: Globish, the simplified, nuance-free version of English, has been superseded by colloquial English. For instance, fewer EU gatherings now open with a speaker saying, in franglais: “I wish you good work!” "}],[{"start":466.88999999999993,"text":"One non-native English-speaker employed in banking in the US reports: “To collaborate with colleagues globally, the simplest business English is best, no ambiguities or misunderstandings. However, at senior level, being native and succinct and ‘funny with words’ is seen as an asset. My boss (native) is a literature major from an Ivy League school. His expressions easily switch from highbrow to swear words, and always draw laughs.”"}],[{"start":497.5299999999999,"text":"Accents in English matter, too. Sociolinguists believe western European “non-native English accents”, such as German, are more valued “than accents from other, economically less developed, regions”, write academics Martyna Śliwa and Marjana Johansson.  "}],[{"start":516.7599999999999,"text":"The upshot is a two-tier labour market in which top jobs with international contact are reserved for a fluent English-speaking elite. A specialist at an international insurer observes: “People who can’t communicate well in English drift off into local activities. They become less relevant.” "}],[{"start":536.1399999999999,"text":"Letter in response to this article:"}],[{"start":538.7799999999999,"text":"A wake-up call for all those monolingual Anglo-Saxons / From Tim Skeet, UK Regional Chair, International Capital Market Association (ICMA), London SW19, UK"}],[{"start":560.7499999999999,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftmailbox.cn/album/a_1753848135_8729.mp3"}