Hello everyone!
It’s been a year since I started my first job after completing my bachelor’s degree, yay! There are many fruitful corporate lessons I had from a multilingual standpoint.
Here is my narrowed list:
- Take the initiative to speak in front of your coworkers
Ask your manager for opportunities to lead meetings and ask for feedback by saying “What did you think? What can I do to improve next time?” if you are in healthy environment feedback should sound constructive.
** Find public speaking opportunities **
2. Remember writing is difficult for everyone; use your team!
This is a BIG one! I am always conscious about my writing plus in some ways, speaking is more forgiving (hehe).
One day, I wrote a ticket to request content work. My team had a difficult time making sense out of it. Internally, I was punishing myself and I lost focus in effectively communicating because in my head multiple non-english sentences were popping, switching that off under stress, it is not an easy task. So, I ended up requesting for something completely different from what I originally meant.
Be honest about your struggle with written communication and take advantage of your project manager you can say “I wrote this…. are you okay if we iterate this ticket over our discussion in today’s planning?”
** Write blog posts, journal, join a writing meetup **
3. Practice self-compassion
I used to be very insecure about my accent(s) because I thought I’d be seen as less educated. Those self-punishing thoughts were not serving me and limited me to see that my true self is very capable, I can speak three foreign languages and much more.
Give your self permission to be imperfect without having to define ourselves by insecurities, stereotypes, and other negativities.
Acknowledge your diligence and give yourself a hug.
** The majority of English speakers are multilingual speakers **
4. Let’s accept it. There are words difficult to pronounce, why not have fun with it?
I grew up with different soundboxes and my tongue still gets stuck with pronouncing girl, threat, laughed, brewery, defibrillator, February, Chicago, pizza, etc.
I found safety and support by sharing my challenges with another multilingual coworker. We would give each other advice, cherish our accomplishments, and find the fun of navigating multiple languages and learning about each other’s cultures.
5. We are already diligent learners! Keep that attitude! Take advantage of your 1:1 meetings with your manager.
Keep gaining more knowledge, voice your career goals to your manager, ask for resources, and explore options to help you get there. If you are in a healthy company, they want to see you thrive every day.
Our first job is very important, I hope you found an environment that will help you grow and add experience to your career goals.
At the end of the day, enjoy the ride and here is a quote to finalize this post:
“Your job is to learn, grow, and develop. See the learning opportunity in everything you’re asked to do — even the administrative grunt work and you’ll get the most out of every task.” — Dan Sirk, Marketing at kununu US
