Is it important to improve English ability? 4 reasons why data analysts should have great English skills

As a data analyst, you need to understand “numbers” and have other abilities to broaden your job opportunities. English is one of my most important capabilities. The reason is that language ability lets us communicate with more people or present our analysis results.

Please imagine, one day, you have great data insights with high business value and extremely want to report directly to the CEO who is located in another country to raise your achievement. However, you are not able to speak English fluently and you can only pass the result through your manager and he/she might take your credit… That is to say, the power of English ability can expand our career path and create more opportunities for yourself.

Since this is an article to emphasizes the importance of English, I have the same content in both Chinese and English. I would recommend you to read the English version first, and then the Chinese version to see how much you can understand.

[📖 The gateway to Chinese article: 提升英文能力很重要嗎? 4 個數據分析師要擅長英文的理由 ]

1. English is the Language of International Communication

One in five people in the world can speak or at least understand English. It is the official language of 53 countries and is spoken by around 400 million people across the globe. Therefore, being able to speak English is not just about being able to communicate with native English speakers, it is the most common second language in the world.

2. English is the Language of Business

While Chinese, Spanish, and French have more speakers, English is the primary business language and it has become a necessary ability for people to speak fluent English if they are in a global workforce. Research from all over the world shows that cross-border business communication is mostly conducted in English and many international companies, or even local companies that have an international business, expect employees to be fluent in English.

3. English will open up job opportunities

Knowing English increases your opportunities for getting a great job in a multinational company within your country or abroad because English is the language of science and various types of knowledge. For instance, a lot of analytic tools are in English, including SQL, SAS, and Python. Besides, as the language of business, employees need to have fluent English skills when interacting with colleagues or customers from different countries. Put that way, English is an open door for you to have greater opportunities to make your career.

4. English is the language of the latest knowledge on the internet

Nowadays, people post the latest news, studies, or articles on the internet. Furthermore, the internet provides us with unlimited resources or knowledge. You can find anything you need on the Internet. Moreover, most of the content available on the internet is in English. An estimated 565 million people use the internet every day, and an estimated 52 percent of the world’s most famous websites are displayed in the English language and translated to other languages. In other words, English is important as it gives you access to over half the content on the internet. As an analyst, your business or analytic knowledge needs to be up-to-date. Understanding English will allow you billions of pages of knowledge that may not be otherwise available.

The benefit of improving English ability is not only about career but also about entertainment. English can expose you to more media and popular culture.
Let’s take a look at this video to see why we should learn and improve English.