Executive language training & coaching in German | 2026 | salaries
Ask yourself one question: what percentage of your professional network, your client base, or your market speaks German as their native language?
For most Dutch professionals, that answer is surprisingly high. Germany is by far our largest trading partner. More than 80,000 Dutch companies do business with Germany. And yet, most professionals negotiate, present, and network exclusively in English — or in broken German that is just good enough to avoid misunderstandings, but not good enough to persuade.
That comes at a cost. And that cost is greater than you think.
The numbers don’t lie
International research consistently shows that bilingual professionals earn on average 5% to 20% more per hour than their monolingual colleagues. Researcher Orhan Agirdag from KU Leuven and the University of Amsterdam calculated that fluent bilinguals earn more than €5,000 extra per year compared to monolingual colleagues in similar positions.
But it goes beyond salary alone. Bilinguals have up to 35% more job opportunities. They are less likely to be laid off during economic downturns — Swiss labor market research showed that employers are 2.35 times less likely to let go of a bilingual employee than a monolingual one when wage costs rise.
So the question is not: what does language training cost? The question is: what does it cost you if you don’t do it?
More than words: the brain as an instrument
Bilingualism is not a cosmetic advantage. Recent neuroscientific studies show that people who regularly use two languages develop stronger executive functions — better decision-making, faster task-switching, higher attention control. A meta-analysis of 170 studies (Frontiers in Psychology) confirmed that bilinguals are significantly faster and more accurate on complex cognitive tasks than their monolingual colleagues.
In other words: those who invest in a second language are simultaneously investing in their cognitive abilities as professionals.
The German-Dutch dimension
In the specific context of German-Dutch cooperation, there are additional arguments. Germany and the Netherlands are aligning together in a geopolitically shifting Europe. The bilateral agenda is fuller than ever: energy, defense, trade, infrastructure. Professionals who carry that cooperation are at the table in Berlin, Düsseldorf, and Munich.
Those who only speak English communicate correctly — but miss the layer of trust that the language provides. Languages create trust. That trust translates into contracts, promotions, and a network that opens doors that would otherwise remain closed.
Executive language training: investing in the difference
A regular language course teaches you grammar. Executive language training teaches you to persuade, negotiate, and present in German — at the level where your conversations take place. Focused on your sector, your conversation partners, your goals.
The wage premium of 5% to 20% has been empirically established. The only question is: when will you start investing in that difference?
Contact us for a non-binding orientation meeting.