English also opens doors in the academic world. Journalists and writers around the world are finding a good command of English to be an increasingly useful skill. Even if you’re writing your articles and doing interviews in your own language, with good English you can get background material from international wire services and papers and magazines from around the world. You can interview foreign businessmen, diplomats and maybe even get sent to cover overseas stories. Good English skills mean that you are not reliant on translators and can work faster and more accurately with English information sources.