Language fluency for investment banking?
I was wondering what degree of fluency you need to be at before you can comfortably put it on you CV? English is technically my second language as it's not the one that I speak at home, and certainly not one that I learned first (I'm from the Nordics), but I completed my secondary and university education in the UK. So whilst I am native in my mother tongue and have no problems discussing e.g., politics, economics, reading a book, whatever, I'd struggle to discuss topics like some macroeconomic phenomena or econometrics or whatever, because these are all things that I learned in English. Similarly, because of the lingua franca in finance being English, all finance terminology I know is pretty much in English... I'm sometimes in a bit of an embarrassing situation where I'm thinking to myself and I just blank at a word in my native language because I just don't know what it is in that language, but I know what it is in English.
Is this okay? Sometimes I feel a bit self-conscious about it and I don't want it to be a hindrance in my career. The Nordics in general also tend to use English as lingua franca too within business settings (unlike Spain or Italy, which is why you don't really have non-natives covering those regions but you do for Nordics + Benelux), but I'd like to use my language skills at some point because I do want to move back from London to there.
Thanks! :)
Thanks, I'd hope so considering I did my schooling in the UK. My question was however on the level other languages need to be at. As I said, I can discuss pretty much anything in my native language comfortably apart from low-level detail of finance and economics because for those things I learned it all in English, not my native language.
Bump
As you have said, English is the relevant language in most professions, especially banking.
"Native" is a term used when a young person was continuously exposed to a language before the age of 3-4. Anything later is an acquired/learned language.
Education: secondary and tertiary in the UK gives you an advantage, but it is unlikely that you will have native fluency. Unless you had specific language courses or vocal coaches, etc. But it also depends on the person, what are their hobbies, how quickly can they learn languages, and more.
The more languages you are fluent in, the better for job applications and business environments.
I find it hilarious when more than 90% of applicants put down "native in English", but can then barely read or write a term sheet. Just because someone went to uni in an English speaking country doesn't mean they know every are of that language. This is especially difficult for Nordics, German, French and similar languages for non-European learners.
No, sorry, you misunderstood - perhaps I wasn't clear. I have native level of fluency in both my native language as well as English (no accent, extensive vocabulary, etc., you wouldn't be able to tell it was my second language). I can read and make sense of very complicated financial documents, legal papers, whatever, in English because that's the only language I've had exposure to them in, but I'd struggle to do the same in my native language because I completed my formative education in the UK, not back home, and the lingua franca in finance is English, even back home. So my question was if that would be a problem or not?
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