Ask Devex: Do I need to speak Spanish to work in Latin America?

In this regular column, Devex’s career expert, Kate Warren, answers members’ questions about navigating a career in global development. Submit your questions to askdevex@devex.com. Hi Kate, I’m really interested in finding a community development job in a health-related field in Central or South America, and so have been searching the Devex site tirelessly. Do you know if positions ever become available that don’t require fluency in Spanish? I’m working on my language skills, though would be only at a beginner level currently. Alana Hi Alana, If I may be honest, looking for a job in Latin America without Spanish language fluency will be a tall order. Unlike some regions of the world where English is the universal language for global development work, projects in Latin America are pretty much exclusively managed in Spanish (or in the case of lusophone and francophone countries in the region, Portuguese and French). There are a couple of reasons why. First, there are plenty of highly skilled, educated and trained professionals across Latin America. The need to bring in international staff isn’t the same as in areas with less local capacity. Second, when there is the need to bring in international expertise, there are plenty of qualified Spanish-fluent professionals globally competing for those jobs. It will be very hard to make the case why an organization should hire you over someone who has the language skills necessary for the job, particularly for positions working directly with communities. Doing so would likely mean you wouldn’t be able to communicate with colleagues, beneficiaries and stakeholders without hiring translators or changing the day-to-day office language to English. I would recommend opening up your job search to other regions where fluency in the local language won’t be such a strong requirement. For example, projects in many parts of Africa and Asia are operated primarily in English. You will also generally find more jobs available in these regions given that they currently receive more funding than Latin America. Download this report on 2016 hiring trends for more details on where you can find the most opportunities. If you really have your heart set on working in Central or South America, I would suggest doubling down on your language studies, perhaps through an immersion program, to get to a professional level of fluency. Mastering a foreign language can be a daunting task, so here are 6 questions to ask yourself before making the investment. Do you have advice for Alana? Please leave yours in the comments below. If you have a question about your career in global development, send me an email at askdevex@devex.com, submit one anonymously here or tweet me @DevexCareers.