Steven J. Sacco, President, Sacco Global Consulting

I’d like to call your attention to the title of my essay, which represents a call for papers on workforce readiness. The title may seem scary to some, but Ohio world language educators have always been among the leaders in teaching innovation. That’s why the Center for Advancement of Languages, Education and Communities (CALEC) and I would like to invite you to submit a manuscript on your efforts to instill workforce readiness in your students.

Let me give you more information. First, don’t panic. Chapter proposals and author bios aren’t due until February 15, 2027, so you’ve got some time.

As artificial intelligence invades our landscape of global communication, we face important questions about our purpose as language educators. Some AI experts brag that world language study will no longer be important because of the sophistication of cell phone translators, but we know that it will always be needed.

AI can’t translate language that emanates from a French speaker’s thoughts, rooted in his or her culture, literature, and civilization, and the same is true of all world languages. Consequently, culture, literature, and civilization impact global business communication just as much as, if not more than, business school disciplines such as accounting, finance, management, marketing, and quantitative analysis.

That’s why, as a former high school French and Spanish teacher and as a current global business consultant who has negotiated numerous contracts, I would select a world language major over a business major for employment within a multinational corporation operating in Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America—nine times out of 10.

Here’s why.

Kyle Larson revealed that meetings between U.S. and foreign managers at multinational corporations lost 33.8% of their meeting time due to language barriers. That’s a huge percentage of time! What Larson doesn’t mention is that more than three billion people participate in the global workforce, making language expertise critical (Michael Edmonson). The need for language expertise isn’t disappearing any time soon.

When people hear “global business careers,” they assume the ideal candidate should be “a business major,” specializing in one or more of its constituent fields such as accounting, finance, management, marketing, and statistics. What separates business schools in the U.S. and elsewhere is their geographical focus. U.S. business schools prepare students for business in the U.S., unlike their counterparts worldwide, which have a more global focus. Additionally, few U.S. business schools teach global supply chain management (GSCM) and logistics at the undergraduate level. GSCM has become a critical global field, given the thousands of ports and port facilities in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Consequently, U.S. business graduates are at a major disadvantage. World language majors, however, can learn GSCM within a Business French course or through autodidactic study.

The skills that actually determine success in international business—deep cultural fluency, the ability to read ambiguity, genuine language competency—are not primarily taught in U.S. business schools. They’re taught in literature, history, and world language departments. A world language major, approached strategically, builds a more durable and differentiated foundation for a global business career than a general business degree does.

Obviously, our world language graduates will save valuable time for their companies, unlike business graduates who often forgo language study, as it is not mandated in AACSB-certified business curricula. Additionally, business majors take few culture, literature, and civilization courses compared to world language majors. A background in language, culture, literature, and civilization helps world language graduates understand their foreign interlocutors.

Christina M. Schmidt states that world language graduates are better able “to read carefully, examine assumptions, consider competing perspectives, construct arguments, productively disagree, and revise their thinking when presented with better reasons.” Furthermore, world language graduates are better prepared to navigate “unchartered waters,” as world language graduates from the University of Rhode Island describe in a recent podcast directed by Professor Lars Erickson. Navigating “unchartered waters” also includes the following:

• “Cross-cultural adaptability and comfort with uncertainty
• Professional presence and etiquette calibrated to the target culture
• Capacity to navigate disagreements using a world language
• Capacity to read carefully, examine assumptions, consider competing perspectives, construct arguments, productively disagree, and revise their thinking when presented with better reasons.”

Please allow me to provide an example to prime the pump for your potential contribution to our volume.

When I was teaching French III and IV at Salem Community High School in Salem, Illinois, I faced a unique problem. A local multinational corporation asked me to translate dozens of letters from French to English every week. It was an overwhelming task, for which they paid me $5 per letter. At the time, I had just completed a commercial communication course in French at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

I redesigned my French III and IV class into a Business French class so that my students would do the translations, learn critical vocabulary, and recognize tone while experiencing the richesse of French business etiquette and culture within the court of Louis XIV. They learned the art of commercial communication while translating letters, for which the company paid each student $5 per letter.

For my students, commercial communication reinforced:

• The need for accuracy and awareness of consequences
• Close reading applied to professional stakes
• Consciousness of register, audience, and the cost of being too casual in a high-stakes professional context, domestic or international
• Precision and formal register—a skill American business writing often neglects

Back to the volume.

The Workforce Readiness volume seeks contributions that move beyond arguments about the value of language learning to explore how language programs can prepare students concretely for professional life. Contributions may be research-based, practice-based, or combine both approaches. We are particularly interested in chapters that offer frameworks, models, or strategies that can be adapted across institutions and geographic contexts. Well-documented case studies are welcome when they illuminate broader lessons and transferable practices.

Contact me at stevenjsacco52@gmail.com if you have questions.