University Daily Kansan, April 30, 1982
Page 7
Foreign language skills open doors to careers
By COLLEEN CACY Staff Reporter
Mary Ellen Connell, a KU graduate, recently returned from Kenya, where she spent four years working in the American embassy as a public affairs officer.
Carol Kalin, another KU graduate, is an administrative assistant for an international trade law firm in New York City
Bruno Brunelli are a concierge at the Mayfair Regency Hotel, where many foreign actors stay while visiting New York City.
THEIR DUTIES vary widely, but all these people's jobs have one thing in common—the ability to speak a foreign language to their work and helped them get hired.
According to statistics compiled in 1979 by the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, international trade involves one of eight American manufacturing jobs. About 6,000 U.S. companies exported goods and 20,000 exported foreign markets.
American investment abroad is around $300 billion, and it is estimated that every 1 billion of exported manufactured goods at least 30,000 jobs in the United States.
"The amount of import and export sales is increasing substantially," George Hiller, vice president for international commerce, Bank in Kansas City, Mo. said recently.
"To be successful, you've got to be in a position to meet the people on their own turf—know their customs, speak their language."
HILLER IS ALSO an alumni coordinator for the Thunderbird Campus of the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz. He spends time each year at the University of Kansas to work with students for the school, which specializes in training people for jobs in international business and banking.
It offers courses in traditional business classes such as economics and accounting as well as in Latin American and Asian countries and teaches eight foreign languages.
"Americans are at a disadvantage. The percentage of Americans who speak a second language is much smaller than those abroad," Hiller said. "It's not uncommon to see people in Europe who speak two or three languages."
According to KU faculty in the Spanish and French departments, opportunities abound for graduates with both technical training and foreign language ability.
"When you've got two or three candidates, the language is what distinguishes one from the other," William Blue, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, said. "It's easier to teach specifics of a business to someone who
specifics of a business to someone who speaks the languages."
ACCORDING TO the department of admissions and records, 84 students earned degrees in foreign languages during the last year. More recent figures are not yet available.
Blue said companies and factories in states with large Spanish-speaking populations such as California, New Mexico and Arizona, often need a bilingual employee at all levels—from secretarial to administrative positions.
There are also jobs for journalists who speak Spanish in areas near the Mexican border.
Parmela Manson, a 1979 KU graduate, is one of three reporters on the Arizona Republic who produce a bilingual section of the newspaper once a week.
"The section 1 work for has a large
Hispanic population—about 70 or 80 percent," she said. "It's helpful in Arizona to be able to speak Spanish. It's the prevailing culture."
She said she applied for her job because she had heard that the Republic was going to lose.
MANSON HAS a bachelor's degree in
bachard and has studied in Barcelona,
Spain.
New York City's melting-population of people from many different ethnic backgrounds, is another idea place for someone with a business or technical training to get an edge over the tough competition without a foreign language skill.
"In a city like New York, the need for a foreign language has always been strong," Mary Morin, head of the Bilingual Agency, an employment agency in New York City, said. The agency places people in bilingual offices and serves as presidents of corporations," she said.
Morin said the agency dealt with all foreign languages, but particularly English, in its work.
Carol Kalin, a KU graduate who worked in French, said she got her job with the Gottschaff law firm through one of New York's illegal employment agencies in New York.
"It was entirely because of my French and my secretarial skills," she said.
KALIN IS A secretary and administrative assistant who works with a Frenchman, helping his prepare technical drawings for the steel industry in France and Belgium.
She deals with international trade law, and said she also does some translating.
A more unusual job is Bruno Brunell's. A
female attorney in Mayfair, Regency
Hotel in New York City.
Brunelli serves as translator for the hotel's foreign guests, booking theatre venues.
He speaks Italian, German, Spanish,
French and English, "all with an Italian
speaking mother."
"He has quite a life. He eats out every night, and he can walk into every restaurant in town and never has to pick up his food. He sends them all their business," he said.
It also has many fringe benefits, according to assistant manager Peter Teter.
He said the job required a detailed knowledge of the city and its finest treasury.
TERRENOVA SAID most of the hotel's managers were required to speak at least two languages. He speaks Spanish and English.
"I applied there because I knew the World Bank was very anxious to get people who could speak French," she said. "Now I've moved up, I do administrative work, but I still speak French with the people in the office just for the fun of it."
Sometimes, a foreign language ability can lead to a job that will be a stepping stone to a higher position in a large company.
Beth Skinner, a KU graduate, started as a secretary at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., where she said about 25 percent of the employees were Americans.
The official languages of the World Bank are English, French, German and German.
"There are lots of jobs at the World Bank where a knowledge of French or German makes your value to the bank much greater." Skinner said.
"It's especially helpful if one is in a technical specialty such as engineering."
See LANGUAGES page 10
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