People make judgements about language, accents, and dialects, often without realising it. But having a multilingual workforce is a large benefit to a company, and how they operate. More so, multilingual staff are likely to have stronger communication skills and can work with better creative and problem-solving skills.

At Currency Solutions, we are fortunate to have a largely diverse workforce who speak a range of different languages. We explored the office to find out what being multilingual means to our staff and if they had any advice for anyone learning a new language.

Software Engineer, Vitalii, speaks Ukrainian, Russian and English. Vitalii commented that for him, being multilingual means having great opportunities in both personal and professional aspects of life. From a work perspective being multilingual not only helps to solve a lot of problems, but also to see events from a different view. From a personal perspective, being multilingual helps him to communicate with other nationalities and as a result, discover traditions and different personalities.

“To me being multilingual means having great opportunities in both personal and professional aspects of life.”

A tip from Vitalii, if you’re learning a new language, is to use the Anki app (a flashcard app that uses spaced repetition to help increase vocabulary), and to watch the local news. To help develop his own language skills further, Vitalii appreciates it if people correct him if he say’s something wrong, or grammatically incorrect.

Director of Zoopay (part of the Currency Solutions group), Maria, speaks Spanish and English, and believes being multilingual is a great benefit for both her personal and work life. The best advice she can give to someone learning a new language is to go to the country of origin and throw themselves into their way of living. In terms of helping someone else learn your native language, she says it’s important to be patient and open-minded.

Alap, Business Analyst at Currency Solutions, explained how being multilingual helped him when he moved to the UK. Born in Mumbai, Alap can speak Gujarati, Hindi, and English. When he moved to the UK in 2003, due to his vast language ability, he could communicate with friends and colleagues at work efficiently. Alap commented that when people used to correct his pronunciation, he saw it as a positive, and could expand his knowledge further.

“People used to correct my pronunciation. I always take the feedback as positive and learn from it.”

Much like Maria, Alap’s advice for someone learning a new language is to surround yourself or go to the place where people speak the language you want to learn.

Rehan, Head of Corporate Risk Management, speaks both Hindi and English, and says that his multilingualism helps him to communicate with about a third of the world. Rehan noted that learning a new language is more than worth the challenge, and a way to help yourself with the study of a new language is to only speak in the language you wish to learn.

Having a range of different backgrounds and languages in our workforce means a wider variety of viewpoints; and allows for better innovation and flexibility when developing our business. As we grow, our team grows – globally.

Do you speak more than one language, or are you in the process of learning? Let us know in the comments and share any tips you may have!