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December 21, 2015

bilingual-3Want to become more marketable?

Half of all employers in northern Illinois plan to hire more bilingual or multilingual college graduates within five years, according to a report released this fall by the Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies.

The study was the first in a series the university is calling the “NIU Dialogues on Global Competitiveness.”

Of course, beefing up the résumé certainly isn’t the only benefit to being bilingual. Picking up a second language will likely sharpen your intellect and improve your quality of life.

Meanwhile, countries around the globe want as many English speakers as possible among their people because leaders believe that the language spoken in the United States is the new lingua franca – the language of business, politics and, ultimately, power. NIU enjoyed a first-hand glimpse of this concept earlier this year, when 37 Ecuadoran teachers of English came to DeKalb for a seven-month immersion in speaking and teaching English.