Here’s how having good analytical skills can help you be a great language learner and have a successful career.
If you work in product management, create your own products or manage online communities, you will be able to identify trends, such as what topics are popular, what people are talking about, or what problems different groups are facing.
This will help you find solutions that will benefit your audience the most, such as a new way of learning or an app, a discussion group focused on a particularly interesting topic, or a newsletter with tips that help people learn more effectively.
If you’re an active language learner, you will be able to use your analytical skills to figure out the best way to learn. You’ll also be able to survey your learning strategies to collect data and insights, and translate them into specific actions and clear progress goals.
If you’re a translator or interpreter, you will be able to use your analytical skills to come up with ways of translating which are not literal but idiomatic. You will also find it easier to translate the more non-verbal messages, such as mood, tone or humour.
If you’re a researcher, you will be able to compile data and information, draw conclusions and present your research findings in a clear and accessible way.
How to develop your analytical skills
Encourage your brain to see both sides of every story. For example, next time you’re reading a novel, try to see the story from two or more different characters’ point of view – how would they differ?
You can also do this when reading the news – try to imagine what the different interpretations of each event would look like.
Practise solving logical or mathematical problems. This will help you develop skills that you can use to analyse and synthesize information, for example when you’re thinking of the most effective learning strategy for a particular topic, or when you’re looking at Google Analytics data for your blog.
Public speaking
Here’s why public speaking is a skill that will make you successful in a language career:
If you’re a coach, you will need to motivate and inspire people. One way of doing that is through public speaking.
Speaking in front of other people is also an essential aspect of being an interpreter.
Public speaking will further help you find success if you’d like to become an entrepreneur. Creating your own products and marketing them very much depends on building relationships, and public speaking while using different languages can be an important part of that.
Being a language teacher or a university lecturer will also require you to speak in front of people, and the better you do it, the more value you can add to your students’ experience, and – ultimately – the more successful language learner you will be yourself.
How to develop your public speaking skills
Video yourself or get other people to offer you feedback. Deliver a short presentation and evaluate what went well and what didn’t.
How engaging were you? How enthusiastic were you about the topic you were speaking about? Did you manage to retain your audience’s attention?
Watch TED talks. It’s a great way to learn how to be a good and engaging speaker yourself.
Whenever you read something interesting that you can refer to in your talks or presentations, write it down. It may serve as a good story or a metaphor that will keep your audience engaged.
