My college daughter plans to work and travel internationally, so I encourage her to get as much practice as she can speaking and writing in other languages. Example: every now and then, I see a story on the news feeds about how valuable speaking multiple languages can be in the job market — and I send my daughter the link!

Here’s the headline I saw today at USA Today: ROTC pays extra for learning languages.

A snippet:

ROTC is offering $100 to $250 per month to recruits in the officer-training program who are willing to learn the languages spoken in Iraq, Afghanistan and other regions vital to national security.

The Army launched the program because too few troops speak the local language overseas, an issue that has surfaced during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that international language skills are useful only for those Americans who work or travel abroad. There is quite a lot of international business activity these days in the “global economy.”

Can you help your company or employer do business with customers, families and clients who learned English as a second language?