25) Foreign Languages Open Doors You Didn’t Even Know Were There

By John Fotheringham

“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” ~Frank Smith

Speaking Japanese and Mandarin (even with plenty of mistakes and heaps of as-of-yet unknown words and structures) has opened so many doors in my life that would have otherwise remained shut. Or perhaps more accurately, the ability to understand and use these foreign tongues has made doors visible that I wouldn’t even have seen otherwise. I have been under-qualified or even unqualified for many of the jobs I have landed, but got my foot in the door (and ultimately, got the job) because of my language and cultural skills. And once on the job, the ability to more easily communicate with—and translate between—different languages, cultures, and ways of doing things has been tremendously helpful even in work that has no overt connection to foreign languages.

26) Non-Standard Language is Not the Same as Sub-Standard Return to the List