By Teresa Baker

English remains one of the world’s most popular languages, with almost 1.75 billion people speaking it as a first or second language. One of the most effective ways to improve your English is to study in an English-speaking country such as the United States so that you are immersed in the language and culture. Here are 5 considerations to help you choose the right U.S. English program for you:

Name: Heather Han
Job: Attorney at Sher Tremonte LLP

What she does
“I litigate on behalf of corporations and individuals in criminal defense and commercial litigation matters in both state and federal courts. Contrary to popular belief, litigators don't spend all their time in the courtroom. Most of my day-to-day work involves researching and writing, or talking to my clients and opponents. From time to time, I appear in court for conferences and hearings. That's always exhilarating, but there is a lot of pressure, too. Even a two-minute oral presentation sometimes requires hours of preparation. Once in a while, I get to play detective and go check out a crime scene. That's usually when I feel like a TV lawyer.”

Why did you decide to study in the USA?
I wanted to increase my self-value and ability. I chose to study abroad in the USA because the USA’s culture is more welcome for a foreigner to study. Also, the teaching method is totally different from my country, Taiwan. The teaching in the USA is lively and vivid with activities, and these activities are easy for students to absorb the knowledge that they have learned. I am glad that I made this decision to study abroad.

By Charles Varghese

Choosing to study in the USA can be an exciting decision. U.S. universities are home to a melting pot of cultures, personalities, experiences, and so much more! As much as we’d love for you to come right over and experience the joys of this journey, there are a few steps we need to address before that can happen. Don’t worry; we have you covered!

Live this Thursday, August 26th at 11 AM American Pacific Time on the Study in the USA Facebook page.

Join international blogger, TOEFL test taker and graduate student, Pietro Rossini, as he shares his English-language journey and provides tips to help you prepare for yours.
The TOEFL® test is a high-quality, high-standard test that assures admissions officers of your readiness for the classroom and beyond. More than 35 million people worldwide have chosen the TOEFL test to demonstrate their English-language proficiency.  
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Do you have questions about:

• How to sign up?  
• Which universities and colleges accept the test?
• The difference between the TOEFL iBT® and the TOEFL® Essentials tests?
• How to find locations, dates and test fees?
• How scoring works?
• Whether or not the test can be retaken?

Go to www.facebook.com/studyintheusa/live to ask your questions in real time!

Music is an important part of life. It improves your cognitive, mental, and emotional health. Music can also help you learn languages.

Music can help a person improve their pronunciation and listening skills, which then has the potential to help a person improve their speaking skills. Here are some benefits of using music to learn English as a second language.

Music Can Lead to Improved Pronunciation
One of the hardest things about learning a new language, especially English, is mastering pronunciation. Using songs to learn English can help train a person to speak the language with the proper accent.
The nice thing about songs is that they are catchy. A catchy song is repeated time and time again. If you take music with you and listen to it regularly, such as by using headphones while walking to school, you will gradually begin to repeat and remember the patterns you hear. The learning process becomes instinctive.

Songs Can Improve Grammar and Sentence Structure
It can be difficult to learn or understand English if what you are hearing is not in context. Most songs have a general theme that contextualize the lyrics being sung. This offers a context to learn vocabulary.
The more you hear the lyrics, the better your vocabulary becomes. Comprehension improves with time because you will not only sing the song, but if the song is popular, you will probably discuss it with others. Songs in English benefit from a simple structure. They use conversational language, so it’s easy to understand them. Not only can you understand the grammar in a song, but it’s easy to remember.

It’s Fun Listening to Music
Learning a language can feel boring. It can feel repetitive. Music boosts motivation to learn. Music touches the heart, and emotion is a key part of learning a language.

Music allows you to learn without focusing on learning. If you have a favorite song, you will play it over and over in the background. Without knowing it, you are learning unfamiliar words. If the song has been translated to multiple languages, you could listen to the translations back to back.

Music Is Linked to Memory
When you listen to a song, you are instantly transported to the previous times you heard the song. Music stimulates both sides of the brain. Because of this, it makes learning English and other topics easier.
Using music to learn a language is most effective if you not only listen but also sing-along. You might not know how to correctly pronounce all the lyrics at first, but find a lyric sheet and read along. You will soon watch your vocabulary grow, your pronunciation improve, and your English confidence strengthen.

Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico.

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The need for interpreters and translators will grow at a rate of 19% between 2018 and 2028. So, your language skills in a resume matter a lot in defining your chances of getting hired. 

But it is not limited to translator and interpreter jobs. The requirement of additional languages is expanding in a lot of other jobs as well. In the hospitality industry, the candidates are preferred to be fluent in more than one language. 

In this guide, we will help you showcase your language proficiency in a resume and clear doubts in terms of where you can add these skills. 

Relevance to the target profile 
It is likely that the position you are applying for does not require you to possess skills in more than one language. So, you need to determine the relevance of your language skills to the profile you are targeting and update your resume accordingly. But there are jobs where you need more than one language to get hired. 

To do this, we advise you to go through the job description of your target job and understand the requirements. Based on the insights, you can highlight your language skills accordingly and tailor your resume to a specific job. 

For instance, if the post requires candidates to have expertise in Spanish to assist customers. You can highlight your proficiency in Spanish in the professional experience section. 

For example, you can include a point displaying the skills in a manner highlighted below: 

“Assisted English speaking customers in the hotel and handled reservations from guests of French origin.”

You can follow this approach to highlight your language skills throughout the professional experience section. 

Add it in the summary
As the resume summary is written right below the name, recruiters are inclined to go through this section first. 

For this aspect only, the summary is reserved for skills and achievements that candidates want the recruiters to notice first. 

When you are trying to showcase your linguistic skills, a summary is a great place to include them. In the career summary, you can include pointers about how you utilized these skills in your professional career and why you hold them in such high regard. 

For example, check the example written below: 

“Trilingual hotel manager with 5 years of experience in the hospitality industry and conversing with guests from major European countries. Proficient in Spanish, English, and French to handle customers with ease.“

Make a language skills section
After determining the relevance of your language skills in the target profile, your resume is meant to showcase your linguistic skills.

Apart from adding them to your summary, you can create a separate section to write them for the recruiter’s perusal. 

Having these skills listed in a separate section will enable the recruiter to locate them easily. You can place this section near the “key skills section” that showcases your core competencies. 

Include the proficiency level
The proficiency level of your language skills is highly critical to have recruiters understand your fluency with the language. Hence, you must write the proficiency level as per your understanding of the language. You can think of it in terms of reading, listening, and speaking comprehension. 

Further, you can create a better impact by taking a self-assessment test called ILR (Interagency Language Roundtable). It was established by the U.S. government to assess the language proficiency standards of candidates. This test divides the candidates into 5 categories: 

• Beginner: This level just covers professionals who have just begun learning a new language. 
• Intermediate: The intermediate skill level is for professionals who can carry a basic conversation and understand basic grammar rules of the language. 
• Proficient: Proficient professionals possess the ability to talk, write, and read the language with little difficulty. 
• Fluent: This level is reserved for professionals who have covered almost all aspects of the language and can hold the conversation without any error. 
• Native: Native proficiency level is for professionals who have mastered the language and most likely grew up speaking it. 
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Add language certifications 
Apart from the ILR assessment test, if you need to showcase the credibility of the mentioned language skills. Add all your language certifications. 

For example, here is how you can write certifications in your resume: 

“English for Professionals | ESL.com | Pasadena, California | Dec ‘19”

Key takeaways
Here are a few key takeaways from the article: 

• Determine the relevance of your target skills to the target profile and modify your resume accordingly.
• Add your language skills in the summary to make it a highlight of your resume. 
• Create a separate language section for the recruiter’s perusal. 
• Add the proficiency level for each language. 
• Include all your language certifications to create a better impact. 

Aditya Sharma is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Hiration — an AI solution to help job-seekers find their way in the treacherous job market across the world.