The Asset No One Diversifies
Winning the lottery should only be the beginning
Last summer, my immediate family and I decided to take a trip up to the northeast. It was for my grandma’s birthday and any excuse to go back up north to see family, I’m there. As part of the trip, we decided to visit the holy land, Gillette Stadium, and the Patriots Hall of Fame. The place reeks of greatness and I was hoping through osmosis some of it would wear off on me.
As is typical protocol with my immediate family, we always arrive anywhere we are going early, so early the place usually isn’t even opened yet. It is always a fun game of trying to figure out what to do while we wait for it to open.
We decided to stop in a shopping center close by and grab some food before the Hall of Fame Experience. Most of my family elected to get greasy, fast sandwiches but I hopped over next door to the local Mexican place, maybe my favorite cuisine.
Upon walking in, I immediately realized I was in trouble. It wasn’t that the food was out, or they were short staffed, instead not a single person in the restaurant was speaking English, guests included. It is hard to feel more helpless. I struggled my way through the line using singular words and pointing out what I wished for in my bowl. I dug deep and channeled my Spanish skills from my one semester in college and four years in high school. Built different. I was able to manage and order but I was immediately humbled and immediately, I downloaded Duolingo. The rest is history.
However, much of the history is yet to be written. I still have much to learn despite almost doing Duolingo consistently for a year.
Fast forward to this year, a couple of days ago to be exact, I ventured over to Europe with my friends. We had a stop in our trip in Spain and my skills were further tested. In Europe, everyone you meet speaks multiple languages, quite admirable. A rather seamless process where they just bounce between languages. It put my Spanish to the test and really showed me that language is the ultimate asset. My friends and I would have been in trouble if not for our friend Diego, who is fluent in Spanish, and someone I pale in comparison to in terms of my Spanish skills. Being able to communicate with the natives helped to make the trip much smoother.
The Value of Language
Language is a descendant of communication and communication is ultimately, what makes the world go round. Without communication, no deals get done. Without communication, you can’t tell your doctor what’s wrong. Without communication, you can’t share laughs, love, and good times. Communication is only made harder when you speak different languages.
Language may in fact be one of our greatest assets. Language enables everything. It enables you to communicate with your boss about a promotion. It enables you to communicate on closing a business deal. It enables you to communicate with a broker about investing in different assets.
In finance, the biggest piece of advice given to anyone who is starting to become financially independent is to diversify. Don’t get over-levered in a single sector or don’t pour all of your money into a house. Start with diversifying so that in case something blows up, your bank or trading account doesn’t go with it.
The same goes for sports. In basketball, you wouldn’t want five people who can’t shoot or five people who can only shoot all on the floor at the same time. You want to diversify who is on the floor. You want a shooter, a creator, a ball handler, a rim protector, etc. Diversifying your assets, or players is an integral part of experiencing success.
We preach diversifying our assets until we are blue in the face for so many sectors of life. The glaring area in which we don’t is language. As Americans, we won the linguistic lottery. Not only is it the official business language of the world but it is the most spoken language in the world. Therefore, we operate as if it is English and only English. Just like it’s crypto and only crypto for some. Rather goofy and we saw how it worked out for some of those crypto folks.
Being able to speak multiple languages is just like unlocking a new income stream. You have now afforded yourself a new way to communicate and opened a world of opportunities. Just like real estate provides supplemental income, a second language provides supplemental learning opportunities.
The French are Good People
As part of our trip to Europe, my friends and I decided to venture over to Nice, France after our stop in Spain. We weren’t going to let the stereotype of the French not liking Americans stop us, although that is largely fabricated. The stereotype is rooted in an ignorance of the culture of France and it is further perpetuated by Americans largely speaking one language.
While in Nice, my friend, Diego, decided to get his haircut in France, a guilty pleasure of his. I don’t blame him, hard to top the feeling of how you feel after a fresh cut. Barbershops are great for facilitating conversation. Diego being the man he is, sparked up a good conversation and asked the barber if the French really don’t like Americans. The barber was from Albania and had moved to France seven years ago. Upon arrival, the culture shock was very real and intense for him.
He explained he struggled for a year to learn French and eventually, he learned the French don’t want you to just start speaking your native tongue nor immediately ask if they speak your language. Rather, greet them with a simple “Bonjour” and maybe, if you are fancy like me, a “Bonjour, sava”, which is simply just “Hello, how are you?” It is at that point, they are happy to converse in English if that is all you know.
Quite simple, I know. We learned this about halfway through our French excursion so I look forward to going back and using this trick, and maybe more, every time I communicate with the locals so I become France’s most beloved tourist.
The Beauty of Being Bilingual
Being bilingual opens up so many doors. It is like the one trick that doctors don’t want you to know about for losing belly fat. It is not an easy path and I, myself, have so much more work to do. It is the small moments when you order an empanada in strictly Spanish in Spain that keeps you coming back.
People love it when you can converse in their language. It is not like you have to speak 20 different languages either. You can easily add another language such as French or Spanish and open up so much more. While learning, you might butcher a word horribly but it will be greeted with a smile. No one is ever going to knock someone for trying just ask Charles Oliveira.
Charles Oliveira just won the main event at UFC 289 with a nasty knockout. Understandably, his post-fight interview was filled with joy. He is a Brazilian fighter whose native language is not English but in the interview, he spoke English despite having a translator. He says in the interview,
“Hi! I’m sorry my English is little. I thank so much. I thank support. I thank the fans. Aye, Charles Oliveira. I be the champion. The champ has a name! Charles Oliveira!”
The clip was posted everywhere and the reaction of his translation and interviewer in the video are priceless. However, the most important piece is that everyone loved it. The comments weren’t littered with corrections to his grammatical errors or anger for messing up English. People loved it.
“Bros english makes me smile.”
“OMG HES SPEAKING ENGLISH. YEAH THIS CHARLES HERE IS UNSTOPPABLE OMG”
“Charles speaking English makes me very happy.”
It is pretty easy to understand what he is saying despite his errors. He is thankful and he is the champ!
Parting Words
In life, we preach the value of diversification in many areas. However, in one of the most important areas, it is never discussed. We move through life as beneficiaries of the linguistic lottery not thinking much of it. Everyone knows the feeling of not being able to speak the same language as someone else. Just like everyone knows the feeling of not diversifying your assets or investments and going down with the ship. Something everyone wants to avoid.
Our assets go beyond our financial investments. Sometimes, the most important assets are ones that we can’t value. It is hard to value language but not hard, to see the value of language when you can’t understand it. A hopeless feeling.
Continue to diversify all your assets, as everyone preaches. Just remember, language is really one of the most important assets we have and if we learned anything, being bilingual never hurt nobody, just ask Charles Oliveira.
Thanks for reading.
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