The Case for Developing Nativelike Language Skills as a Consultant
Consultants are paid to solve problems. But before you can solve a problem, you have to understand it. And in international consulting, understanding often rises or falls on language. Many professionals assume that "working proficiency" is enough. If they can conduct a meeting, read a report, or negotiate through an interpreter, they believe they have crossed the language threshold. For some roles, that may be true. For consultants, however, the standard should be higher. The best consultants develop near-native language skills, not because clients expect perfection, but because language competence fundamentally changes the quality of insight they can deliver. Language Is More Than Vocabulary Most business conversations occur on multiple levels at once. There is the explicit message: the facts, figures, and requests. But there is also the implicit message: hesitation, enthusiasm, discomfort, uncertainty, pride, and resistance. Near-native speakers catch both. They recognize...