Foreign tongue programs at BYU get jobs

Employers don't have a hard time finding students who speak Spanish at Brigham Young University -- or Japanese, Portuguese, Russian or French, for that matter.

Companies hear of BYU's 56-strong language program which reflects student international experience, and they recruit in Provo (Utah).

"In the employment business they say, `If you want language people you go to BYU,'" said Wayne Hansen, managing director of placement and employment at BYU Career Placement Services. "We get a lot of employers who come here because of our language skills."

The university is known nationally as an exceptional language school.

According to a New York Times article written in February 1993, BYU's language program "stands apart from other big efforts" such as Yale University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, because of its high enrollment in the 54 languages offered.

Since that article was written, BYU has added two languages, Swahili and Vietnamese. The current total stands at 56 languages, with 28 of them taught on demand.

A placement center brochure boasts that one-third of BYU students speak a foreign language and may have resided in a foreign country.

Cecelia Fielding, news editor for BYU Public Communications, said the amount is closer to two-thirds when international students, language students and returned missionaries are combined. The actual estimated percentage of foreign-language-speaking students is 60 percent.

"The strongest link we have is the amount of returned missionaries," Fielding said. Returned missionaries who serve in foreign countries get back to the United States with about two years of experience speaking another language and living in another culture.

Hansen said first-time visitors to BYU are surprised by the large foreign-language-speaking population.

BYU is taking advantage of a "natural gift ... the church gives us" through the number of returned missionaries who have lived in another country, said Ted Lyon, acting director of the David M. Kennedy International Business Center at BYU.

An assistant manager with Kanematsu USA, a subsidiary of Kanematsu in Tokyo, interviewed BYU students last month for an open position at their company in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Rob Jacobs knew he would find BYU graduates who have international experience and fluency in a language, because he is one.

Jacobs graduated from BYU in 1991, with a double major in international relations and Asian studies and a minor in Japanese. He has been working for approximately four years for an international trading company that imports and exports products to Japan. Jacobs said his company has had success finding employees at BYU.

Jacobs seeks students who have lived in Japan, including returned missionaries who served there, "primarily because the people have experience with the Japanese (people)," he said.

These students tend to understand how Japanese people think and do things, he said, and may understand their English better. Although fluency in Japanese would assist the job, Jacobs said knowing the language is not critical.

Cultural background is even more beneficial than speaking the language fluently, Jacobs said. "When you learn a language, you usually learn a culture and other things to go with it," Hansen explained.

In the employment business, Hansen also said students like Jacobs are especially desirable. "A student with English and Japanese is really quite a hot commodity at the moment," he said. The combination of languages and ability to relate culturally would impact the "high-tech exchange between our countries," Hansen said.

He mentioned electronics, automotive and aerospace companies as growing areas.

"There is no doubt the U.S. and Japanese economies are mutually interdependent on each other," Jacobs said. From his experience and current trends, Jacobs said knowing Japanese will be a great asset for students entering the business world.

Other languages are becoming more commercial by integrating into the business arena. Lyon, who counsels international business students, used Portuguese as an example.

Lyon said Portuguese is increasing in demand due to a population of 120 million in Brazil alone.

Often, the number of people who speak a language at BYU corresponds with the population of a country. Currently, there are 16 missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil and three in Portugal.

The BYU language program and students reflect this. "BYU is the leader in Portuguese," Lyon said.

BYU offers more classes in the language here than any other university in the country. Other languages commonly spoken on campus also are in high demand in the job market.

Personnel agencies in the Provo area said they often receive requests for prospective employees who speak more than one language.

Irwin Purcell, a vocation counselor/evaluator with Mountainlands JTPA, said some of the top marketable languages include Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese and Chinese.

Companies that market areas and provide support on an international basis seek experienced students, Purcell said. He listed NuSkin International, Novell and Franklin Quest as some of these international companies in Utah Valley.

Purcell said those who speak more than one language, especially those who have lived in the country, "will definitely find a job market in this area."

The job opportunities differ with different languages. Hansen said Spanish is a needed language in the job market, although demand is mostly in the social and business areas.

Overall, Hansen said knowing a language is beneficial in any career. "

It's an advantage if you're an accountant, a teacher, a nurse ... it just goes across the board," he said. Both Hansen and Lyon agreed that international awareness is created by and necessary for the "globalization" of society.

Lyon said "America is certainly not isolated," and he listed the growing needs for international business, in places such as Japan, China and Korea.

Lyon suggested that upper-division courses in a language help returned missionaries to polish their language skills.

Students can talk about religion and a little about philosophy, he said, "but ask them about carpentry, and they will have a harder time."

Lyon also said the returned missionaries have an advantage in that they return having learned the common language rather than an academic, communicative language, which is obtained through text and classroom study.

"We really are a unique university in the sense that our students come to us with language background," he said.

This population of students is what makes BYU unique to employers.

"BYU is always looking for good employers to hire their graduates," Hansen said. "And if language students give us an advantage or virtue other schools wouldn't have, then it is definitely something we would covet."

[ Golden Gater Online September 14, 1995 ]

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