Do 'Foreign Languages' Add Weight To Your Resume?

Kaustubh Katdare · 2012-04-19T17:45:44+00:00

The most often asked questions about building a solid profile is to add at least one 'Foreign' language. I've had many friends enroll for German and French language classes only to make their resume look impressive. I wonder how important are the foreign languages to your resume. If you have real life examples of how a foreign language helped in job; please do share here.

Do 'Foreign Languages' Add Weight To Your Resume?

Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator

Updated: Oct 26, 2024

Views: 1.0K

The most often asked questions about building a solid profile is to add at least one 'Foreign' language. I've had many friends enroll for German and French language classes only to make their resume look impressive. I wonder how important are the foreign languages to your resume. If you have real life examples of how a foreign language helped in job; please do share here.

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aarthivg

Member • Apr 20, 2012

The_Big_K
The most often asked questions about building a solid profile is to add at least one 'Foreign' language. I've had many friends enroll for German and French language classes only to make their resume look impressive. I wonder how important are the foreign languages to your resume. If you have real life examples of how a foreign language helped in job; please do share here.
I don't think so. Because my technical HR was conducted in Tamil only 😉 .

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Apr 20, 2012

Looking forward to more responses 😀

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Gurjap

Member • Apr 20, 2012

I do know some German, but I learned that for literary purposes 😛

Haven't sat for a Job Interview yet though. Maybe I'll tell you next semester.

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Banashree Patra

Member • Apr 21, 2012

I don't think so.Because for technical people mainly the technical side matter.You have to be strong in that.Weighting your resume with foreign language and weak in technical does not assure you job.

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Gurjap

Member • Apr 21, 2012

#-Link-Snipped-# how do you know this? From personal experience?

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Banashree Patra

Member • Apr 21, 2012

Gurjap
#-Link-Snipped-# how do you know this? From personal experience?
Though I don't know any foreign language but i can tell from my campusing experience.At the time of recruiting, interviewer asked me technical questions.They didn't ask me whether i known any other foreign language or not.So,knowing foreign language is not mandatory.And as per the language concerned, english will help you in every situation(i think).

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Gurjap

Member • Apr 23, 2012

Okay. I am assuming you don't know any foreign languages beside English (beg pardon if I'm wrong). So you don't mention the knowledge of a foreign language on your CV. It's not like the Interviewer's gonna start with," So...... it says here you don't know any Spanish. Why's that?"

It's a minor point, I know 😛

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Gurjeet Singh

Member • Apr 23, 2012

It can be as add on in CV as if u get the opportunity at client side ..

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ABCD ABCD

Member • Apr 28, 2012

In my opinion, programming languages are more important than foreign languages. If you wanna work in some outside country, then foreign languages are important. So, not that important if you work in India. Moreover, all most all countries (incld. China) are fluent in English these days.

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Apr 28, 2012

I can speak, read, write a foreign language - Japanese. I don't think it made a difference when I appeared for a job interview.
After clearing the technical interview round, when I was called for HR, they asked me about it though. The HR lady asked me how to say good morning, good evening and good night in Japanese. 😨 So she wasn't interested in knowing my skills over the language.

It can be an added advantage when your foreign client doesn't speak English. ☕

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Sahithi Pallavi

Member • Apr 29, 2012

AbraKaDabra
I can speak, read, write a foreign language - Japanese. I don't think it made a difference when I appeared for a job interview.
After clearing the technical interview round, when I was called for HR, they asked me about it though. The HR lady asked me how to say good morning, good evening and good night in Japanese. 😨 So she wasn't interested in knowing my skills over the language.

It can be an added advantage when your foreign client doesn't speak English. ☕
Exactly and I guess It can also be an added advantage if your company is dealing projects of Japan; there is a change for you to get selected. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

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pranavreddy

Member • May 4, 2012

There was a lady from France (She introduced herself with a weird name. Sounded French.) in my TCS interview. I had French in the list of languages known. She asked me in french if i knew the language. I replied in English. Smiled and told her that i watch French movies. She asked me what movies i had watched. I gave her few titles. And then, the other guy asked me two questions on cloud computing for which i blabbered something. And i get the job. Yeah, it's true. That's how my TCS interview was. :S

Did the extra language help? May be. Lightened up the atmosphere.

Regarding Japanese, i have a friend who completed five levels in some Japanese language tests and took up a job in his 7th sem itself in a very good company. He even got an offer from Amazon for 6LPA which he rejected and is working now straight out of college for 8LPA. I would say, an extra language would help, only if you master it (Which wouldn't be hard if you are really interested).

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • May 4, 2012

#-Link-Snipped-# : What's the point in mentioning French in your resume if you don't know the language?

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pranavreddy

Member • May 4, 2012

We had 6 credits for a foreign language spread over two semesters in our college. So had to take it. I knew how to write and basic grammar in it. But couldn't speak fluently. 😀

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kookyhere

Member • May 7, 2012

It is mandatory if only you are facing the panel of an "real MNC" which holds its positions in all the countries.. if the company has lots of onsite opportunities then obviously u need it... like.. Germany is the heaven of mechies.. so no harm in learning it, atleast to attract the interview panel.😉

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Nachko

Member • May 22, 2012

The_Big_K
#-Link-Snipped-# : What's the point in mentioning French in your resume if you don't know the language?
Maybe because there is no section "Movies watched" 😀

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Nachko

Member • May 22, 2012

The_Big_K
The most often asked questions about building a solid profile is to add at least one 'Foreign' language. I've had many friends enroll for German and French language classes only to make their resume look impressive. I wonder how important are the foreign languages to your resume. If you have real life examples of how a foreign language helped in job; please do share here.
Well... How about this:

Bulgarian - native
English - fluent
Russian - very good
Macedonian - good
Indonesian - poor
?

I will tell you what I think - nobody cares. This, on my opinion, can be valued only if the HR speaks the same languages, which is almost impossible 😀 On the other side, once I had to work with Chinese guys. They didn't speak English, I don't speak Chinese. And still we were able to understand each other, using pencil and A4, drawing a lot of sketches 😀 So... who cares about the foreign languages? sigma = E x epsilon 😀

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