THE POWER OF MULTILINGUALISM IN A GLOBALIZED ECONOMY

Résumé

Language appreciation in trade and commerce is a strong determinant to the viability of goods and services in a corporate entity. The economic power of language transcends beyond the level of small businesses, to impact on large-scale national and international businesses. The awareness that economic returns ride on the wheels of language comprehension between the trader and his client has grown to a phenomenal proportion; while economic internationalisation and multilingualism have become two sides of the same coin. Moreover, the growth of early civilisations in Africa, Asia and Europe was facilitated by cross-cultural transactions, premised on the mutual understanding of the seller and buyer. Here, the economic power and market potential of multilingualism are advanced. The paper further argues that if monolingualism is propagated over linguistic heterogeneity, the economy will suffer. Furthermore, the paper posits that multilingualism can be exploited as a resource with exchange value in a globalized economy and advocates the incorporation of multilingual orientation in a programmatic form into global business policies.