How to List Language Skills on Your Resume (2024)
Including language skills on your resume shows recruiters you are potentially a highly valuable asset for the company. In this article, you’ll discover how language skills can improve your hiring chances and learn how to list language skills on your resume accurately. Plus, you can download ready-made resume examples that’ll help you land your dream job.
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What are resume language skills?
Resume language skills are your ability to speak, read and write in a specific language. Understanding a language in addition to your native tongue is a valuable asset in the job search since it allows you to communicate with different audiences.
Languages are hard skills particularly beneficial in jobs like customer service, health care or sales, where you’re likely to interact with a diverse population of colleagues from other countries.
Why are language skills important for a resume?
The ability to communicate with people from different countries and cultures is critical in today’s workforce.
Nine out of ten U.S. employers say they rely on employees who speak a language other than English reports the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM). There are many other areas where employers have reported the value of having a multilingual employee, from direct business impact to a richer work culture.
Improves customer service
Possessing language skills is a significant advantage for job seekers in customer service or any other client-facing role. Speaking more than one language automatically allows you to communicate better with customers whose native tongue isn’t English.
When clients contact customer support, they can be dealing with problems or even be frustrated with the product or service they paid for. Speaking to them in their native language can improve the interaction and make customers feel more comfortable.
Aids business expansion
Speaking another language makes you an asset for companies that wish to expand their business to other markets. A multilingual worker can help negotiate with potential foreign partners and even provide cultural context to better inform business decisions.
Promotes diversity and multiculturalism
A company where everyone speaks the same language and looks the same isn’t a reflection of the world we live in. In a job market where employees expect diversity across all levels of the company, multilingual employees are an excellent resource.
Multilingual workers can aid HR during the hiring process and provide their perspective when establishing diversity and inclusion guidelines for the company.
These are some of the reasons why you should list any language skills you possess on your resume — they will give you a leg up over other candidates without these skills, especially since employers know they can count on you if the need for your foreign language skills arises.
If you need help including language skills on your resume, check out our Resume Builder! LiveCareer’s Builder automatically formats your resume to fit the sections you want on one page. Pick your language skills, and our Resume Builder takes care of the rest.
How to list language skills on a resume
You may have excellent language skills, but how you list them on your resume is crucial. It’s not sufficient to simply list the languages you speak. Recruiters need to know how well you speak it and in what context. That’s where a language rating system comes in handy.
Language rating systems or scales help establish a mutual understanding of proficiency levels between job seekers and recruiters.
In addition, where you list languages on a resume is also important and will depend on the role requirements and how much you want to emphasize your language skills.
If you don’t know how to list languages on a resume, the following pointers will help you add language skills to your resume:
1. Determine your level of language proficiency.
Translation professionals have created various standardized language rating systems or scales to help you determine whether you are a beginner, intermediate or fluent language speaker.
Check out the following nationally and internationally recognized rating systems to determine your level of language proficiency.
ACTFL proficiency scale
The ACTFL scale consists of four levels: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and Superior. Each level can also be divided into three sublevels: Low, Mid and High. For example, you can be an Intermediate-Mid in Spanish.
ILR proficiency scale
The Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) created its language scale to be used by the U.S. federal government for federal jobs. It has six base levels, from 0 (No Proficiency) to 5 (Native or Fluent).
CEFR proficiency scale
The CEFR global scale measures language proficiency in six levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. Levels can be grouped into Basic User (A1 and A2), Independent User (B1 and B2) and Proficient User (C1 and C2). For example, you can be a Danish B1 Independent User. Choose this scale if applying to a foreign company or when writing a college resume for a school abroad.
LinkedIn language rating system
LinkedIn has its widely-used language scale based on the ILR language rating system. The LinkedIn language scale is simple and easy to understand. It consists of 5 groups: Elementary Proficiency, Limited Working Proficiency, Professional Working Proficiency, Full Professional Proficiency and Native or Bilingual. You can find this by visiting View Profile > Add profile section > Additional > Add languages.
2. Choose where you will include your resume language skills.
Designated language skills section
We recommend creating a separate resume section to showcase your language skills. As a recruiter scans your resume, a “Language Skills” section will quickly grab their eye and inform them you’re multilingual.
Language Skills
- French – Native/Bilingual
- English – Superior High
- Spanish – Intermediate High
General skills section
You can include your language skills in your general resume skills section, but it won’t stand out as much. Only opt for this if your foreign language proficiency is more on the beginner side or if knowing a second language isn’t relevant for the role.
In this case, it would look like this:
Skills
- Copywriting
- Social media management
- Content creation
- Reels and TikTok
- Project management
- Fluent in Spanish
Resume summary
Including language skills in a resume summary is an excellent way to signal to employers of this crucial skill. This option is also more beneficial for roles where language skills are highly relevant, such as teachers or translators.
Check out how to list language skills in this resume summary example:
Professional Summary
Accomplished translator fluent in English, Mandarin and French, known for precision and cultural sensitivity. Proven track record in court interpretation, literary translation and localization, delivering top-quality translations that preserve original nuance. Committed to meeting deadlines and continuous improvement. Adept at maintaining confidentiality and facilitating effective communication.
3. Format your language skills section correctly.
When adding language skills to a resume, you must use consistent formatting and only one language rating system. We’ll now show you precisely how your language skills section should look depending on the language rating system you pick.
Here’s an example of how to format language skills on your resume following each language scale:
Language Skills
- English – Superior High (Native)
- Spanish – Superior Low
- Portuguese – Intermediate Mid
As you can see, for this section, the candidate utilized the ACTFL language rating system and made a note in parentheses that English is their native language.
Here are two other examples of language skills sections on a resume using the ILR and CEFR scales:
Language Skills
- Spanish – Native/Bilingual (ILR 5)
- English – Advanced Professional Proficiency, Plus (ILR 4+)
- Farsi – General Professional Proficiency (ILR 3)
This candidate utilized the ILR language scale, primarily used for jobs in the federal government.
Language Skills
- Dutch – Native
- German – C2
- English – C1
In this language skills resume section, the candidate used the CEFR language rating system, which is ideal when applying to jobs in European countries.
Check out this example of a language skills section utilizing the LinkedIn rating scale:
Languages
- English – Native
- Catalan – Full Professional
- Croatian – Limited Working
This is how your language skills section will appear on your resume when you use our Resume Builder. The proficiency levels are legible and easy to comprehend for any recruiter. Plus, you don’t have to worry about formatting or the right way to write this section.
When to include language skills
Including language skills on your resume is always a good idea. Here’s how to determine whether you should include language skills on your resume:
- If it’s a job requirement: If the role explicitly mentions you need to be proficient in one or more languages, the language skills section should be one of your top-priority additional resume sections.
- If speaking another language can benefit the role or company: If it’s not an explicit job requirement, but you can see the benefit of being multilingual in the position (for example, nursing, teaching, customer service, etc.), including a language skills section can set you apart from other applicants.
- If you want to showcase your knowledge and education: If you can’t see an immediate correlation between the role and your language skills, you don’t have to scratch these from your resume. Being multilingual is impressive and speaks to your commitment and ability to communicate with a diverse range of people. Feel free to add a language skills section if you’ve included all the crucial information on your resume and still have space.
Examples of language skills resume sections
Here are a few additional resume language skills section examples you can copy and modify according to your details.
Language skills example (ACTFL)
Languages
- English – Superior High (Native)
- Italian – Superior Mid
- Albanian – Intermediate Low
- Hungarian – Novice Mid
Language skills example (ILR)
Languages
- English – Native/Bilingual (ILR 5)
- Cantonese – Full Professional Proficiency (ILR 4)
- Mandarin – Professional Working Proficiency (ILR 3)
- Arabic – Limited Working Proficiency (ILR 2)
Language skills example (CERF)
Languages
- British English – Native
- Russian – C2
- French – B2
Key takeaways
- Resume language skills refer to your ability to understand a language other than your native tongue.
- Including language skills on your resume can help your chances of getting hired since companies are becoming more reliant on their multilingual workers in this globalized age.
- Include language skills on your resume if you’re applying for a role or industry that would benefit from a multilingual person, for instance, law, health care, customer service or sales.
- You can include language skills in various sections of your resume: the professional summary, the skills section or a separate languages section.
- When listing language skills on your resume, you must choose an internationally accepted language rating system.
- The most common language rating systems are the ACTFL, the ILR and the CEFR. The LinkedIn rating scale is also widespread in the U.S. job market.
- Never mix language rating systems; you prevent confusing recruiters.
- Ensure you correctly format your language skills section and consistently display all proficiency levels.
- Save time with our Resume Builder, which automatically formats all your resume sections and suggests personalized content you can copy-paste and quickly edit in minutes.
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