"My career has been heavily influenced by my Chinese language studies," as Cassandra Olson told her story, the passion for Chinese culture can be seen in her eyes.

"During the application process to my current Chinese-rooted company, I had a competitive advantage compared to my peers because I spoke Chinese fluently."

Olson, from the U.S. state of Texas, started learning Chinese at the age of 18 at Bard College in New York City. Continuing to develop her Chinese, Olson studied abroad in China at Peking University and the Harbin Institute of Technology.

Now, working in Los Angeles as the Manager of Business Development for JL Real Estate Development, Olson speaks Chinese daily in the office for meetings and casual conversation.

"I uses Chinese to respond to an average of 4 to 60 WeChat messages every day," Olson told Xinhua Monday. In addition to phone calls, emails, and meetings in Chinese, she also gives at least one public speech per month to Chinese speaking audiences.

"Because of my language skills, I am able to become a bridge and open up a market that would be inaccessible for many Americans."

Increasing numbers of companies in Los Angeles are recruiting bilingual Chinese speakers.

A quick search on LinkedIn shows nearly 500,000 current job openings requiring Chinese language skills in the United States, these openings are in different industries including technology, education, entertainment, hospitality, health, finance, banking, real estate, marketing, and many more.

Demand for Chinese language skills is fueled by increasing numbers of Chinese speaking customers in the United States, according to the most recently published research by the American Community Survey. More than 1.6 million of the almost 3 million Chinese speaking immigrants in the country have reported limited English proficiency, it showed.

In addition to immigrants, local businesses are taking Chinese speaking travelers into consideration.

In 2016, almost 3 million Chinese tourists visited the United states and more than one of three of them selected Los Angeles as their first stop of the trip.

Research by the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that Chinese tourists spent 33 billion U.S. dollars in the country that year while experts expect these tourist numbers to continue to grow.

"In the Chinese outbound tourism industry, culture and language gaps prevent Chinese tourists from having an optimal travel experience in foreign countries," Betty Ban, co-founder of Voyadi.com, told Xinhua.

Voyadi is a travel tech company that offers personalized travel experiences for international travelers; their primary market is Chinese outbound travelers. "We need more Chinese speaking job candidates to work in marketing and in customer facing roles."

"With the booming growth of venture capital and the huge financial market in China, companies whose staff can communicate in Chinese stand out in raising funds, marketing and sales," said Xiaowei Ding, a UCLA research Assistant Professor of Computer Science and co-founder and CEO of Voxelcloud, a Los Angeles based startup that provides automated medical diagnosis assistance through AI and cloud computing technologies.

"It's a demand that will continue to increase," Jeff Allred CEO of the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership told Xinhua.

Allred's organization is a regional, non-profit corporation that supports businesses, non-profits and local governments in the San Gabriel Valley, the eastern section of LA county famous for Asian cuisine, where over half of the United States' Chinese population lives in according to recent research by Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Reaching Chinese customers is not just about speaking the language, Allred told Xinhua, adding that they are helping organizations in the San Gabriel Velley to engage with customers on the Chinese social media giant, WeChat.

"You have to understand the market in order to tailor an effective marketing strategy," Zhihong Xie, head of User Acquisition for Airmule, said.

Another Los Angeles-based startup, Airmule, is a technology platform that allows travelers to earn money during international flights as on-board couriers.

"WeChat and Weibo are great channels. They can help our company to target a specifically Chinese audience. However, to maximize the power of these marketing channels, knowing the Chinese market is important. For example, if your company is targeting the young generation, you need to know what Chinese millennials are interested in and what are the newest trends going on in China."

Reflecting on her experiences learning Chinese, Olson expressed the wonderful surprises that her Chinese understanding has brought to her life and career.

"The truly awe-inspiring thing is realizing that knowing Chinese opens up communication with over 1.3 billion people that I would not have been able to communicate with before. That is truly amazing to think about!" 

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