How to Include Languages on Your CV (with Examples)

Businesses are always looking to expand their customer base, and one of the fastest ways to do so is to employ staff who can speak other languages. But how do you list languages correctly on your CV? What other things should, and could you keep in mind?

Why include languages on your CV?

The ability to speak a foreign language is one of the most sought-after skills by employers. Even if they're not listed in the job advert, or central to the role itself (for example, working as a translator or in sales for an international company), being proficient in another language demonstrates various valuable soft and transferable skills. Some of the benefits of including languages on a CV include showing employers:

Highlighting your language abilities on your CV can give you a significant advantage over other candidates, especially if you speak one of these five in-demand languages: Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic, and German.

Including your language skills on your CV can also help you stay competitive against international candidates. Let's look at the best ways of including language skills on your CV.

Who should (and should not) include language skills on their CV?

Including language skills on a CV isn't just for people who'll need to speak a foreign language as a core part of the role. It can be beneficial for almost any job application, particularly if you're likely to be working with cross-cultural/multinational teams, clients from other countries or offices in other countries. At the same time, there are also some situations when it's best to omit them from your CV.

How to describe your language proficiency levels

You have various options when it comes to describing your language proficiency levels on a CV. The approach you take may depend on how central your language skills are to the requirements of the role.

The two most common, formal ways to mention your language skills are the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. A third framework used in certain professional settings is the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). As it's name suggests this is typically used for academic language teaching programmes. To decide which is best for your application, take a look at the following comparison table:

For jobs in the UK and Europe, the CEFR standard is typically the best way to describe your language skills. This framework is widely recognised by employers, especially any who are hiring for roles where foreign language skills are essential.

How to break down your skills by language activity

If you're applying for a job where language skills are central, you may also want to break down your abilities into the different "language activity" subcategories. This will provide the employer greater depth of detail, so they can fully assess your ability to use your language skills in a professional setting. For the CEFR standard, the language activity subcategories include:

• Reception (listening and reading)
• Production (spoken and written)
• Interaction (spoken and written)
• Mediation (translating and interpreting)

How to translate your proficiency levels

For roles where language skills are less essential, or not listed in the job description as a requirement, you may wish to simply use a basic descriptive word for your language proficiency. In these circumstances, consider using the following categories:

• Basic
• Intermediate/conversational
• Advanced
• Native speaker/bilingual

This will make it easy for recruiters and employers to quickly understand your language skills, and focus on other details in your CV. Alternatively, you can also use the following terms to describe your language proficiency level:

• Fluent: You’re a native or near-native speaker and can communicate confidently in almost any situation.
• Very good: You can express yourself clearly with only minor mistakes, including in most professional contexts.
• Good: You can hold conversations comfortably, but may find complex or work-related situations challenging.
• Moderate: You can understand and use basic phrases, but your ability to work in the language is limited.
• Beginner: You have a basic understanding of the language and are still learning.

Expert tip: No matter which scale you choose, be consistent with it throughout if you mention multiple languages. If the job listing mentions a certain scale, present your language levels in that same scale to help your CV pass the applicant tracking system (ATS) scans.

How to put your language skills on your CV

How you decide to format and place your language skills on your CV will make a big difference to their prominence in the final document, and the impact they make on the employer. Your approach will depend on the relevance of language skills to the role, your experience and proficiency levels, and the number of languages you speak. To make the perfect choice, you'll need to consider the following:

Choose the right placement

You could place your language skills in the following places in your CV, depending how much you want them to stand out and how integral you want them to be:

Use a consistent format

No matter where you add your CV language skills, be sure to format the information in a way that’s consistent throughout your CV. Consider the following factors for a consistent approach:

• Level descriptor: Choose a level descriptor to define your language skills, and use it throughout your CV so the employer can easily assess your proficiency.
• Framework: If you're using a standardised framework to describe your language skills, stick to it throughout, whether in the dedicated languages section or elsewhere in the paragraphs and bullet points of the document.
• Formatting style: When creating a dedicated languages section, be sure to format it in a way that's consistent with the rest of the CV. Use a clear heading, bullet points and bold text to highlight important details.

Mention any relevant language courses

As a general rule, it’s best to mention any courses you’ve taken in a separate 'Certificates and training' section of your CV. This typically goes after the ‘Education’ section alongside other optional CV sections. Adding language courses is ideal if you're a student, a career changer or you're looking to showcase your commitment to upskilling and professional development.

However, if you have taken language courses for work, you may want to place them as a bullet point in the ‘Work Experience’ section, so employers can see that these courses are tied directly to work, especially if you’ve taken a course such as ‘Business Spanish’ or ‘Spanish in the Workplace’.

When listing language courses, training or certifications in a dedicated section, format them as follows:

Examples of language skills on a CV

These CV examples showing language skills can help you communicate your foreign language abilities in the most effective way for your next job application:

Language skills in a CV profile

This profile for a project manager role focused on Middle Eastern markets places the candidate's ability to communicate professionally in Arabic at its heart. For a role where foreign language skills are essential, making it the focus of your CV profile can help showcase your skills up front in your CV, drawing the reader in. This example also ties a performance measure to the candidate's use of languages, showing the impact it made.

Language skills in a work experience section

The above work experience section for a social worker job application showcases the use of language skills to build connections with a local Polish-speaking community. The entry details the success rate of the social worker in using their language skills to deliver against key performance indicators.

Language skills in an education section

Above is an example of language skills mentioned in an education CV section. For a role where formal, recognised language skills are essential, it's a good idea to include your qualifications in this section. However, remember it's also necessary to showcase your language skills elsewhere in your CV. If you have space (particularly if you're lacking work experience or other examples of using your language skills), you can also include bullet points that explain the details of your course.

Language skills in a dedicated CV section

If you speak more than one language, you'll probably want to list the details of each in a dedicated languages section. Use bullet points and ensure you add CEFR standard ratings for your skill levels, so the reader can easily see your proficiency. If you have space (and you know your detailed ratings), you may also want to break down your skills according to the main categories of speaking, listening, reading and writing.

In your languages section, it's important to provide details on your proficiency levels. Simply listing a language isn't enough. Omitting information will do little to help the employer assess your qualities and your suitability for the role. Also, if you're a native English speaker, applying for jobs in the UK, you needn't add English to your languages section.

Languages in a CV skills section

Adding a language in your skills section with no context or reference elsewhere in a CV will likely have very little impact. The example below shows how to properly list your language proficiency within the skill section, providing the appropriate information for the employer to gauge.

Where and how you present your language skills is also dependent on your choice of CV template. The structure and presentation of your CV play an influential role, and there is no one correct way; there is only a way that works best for you. See these Jobseeker templates below, with a dedicated language skills section included, for inspiration:

Dos and don'ts for adding language skills to a CV

For a quick guide to adding language skills to a CV, follow these dos and don'ts:

Using a CV builder to add languages to your CV

A professional CV builder such as Jobseeker can help you present your language skills in a way that’s understandable to employers. Using our online CV builder, you can choose to use the CEFR labels discussed earlier, or the terms such as 'Fluent', 'Native speaker/bilingual', and 'Beginner'.

Get a head start on your application by searching for your job title within our library of CV examples. Alternatively, you can build your application by customising one of Jobseeker's professional CV templates below.

If languages are a key component of the job duties, it's also a great idea to talk about them on your cover letter. You can browse Jobseeker's cover letter templates and cover letter examples to find inspiration for your own application. Additionally, check out our CV resources for even more expert tips!