How to Find Languages Spoken on LinkedIn Profiles: Complete Guide 2026

You’re prospecting internationally or recruiting multilingual talent, but can’t figure out which languages your LinkedIn prospect actually speaks? The “Languages” section doesn’t always show up on profiles, and even when it does, proficiency levels aren’t always filled in.

In this guide, you’ll discover how to easily extract language skills from any LinkedIn profile, automate this process at scale, and leverage this data to refine your commercial targeting or recruitment campaigns.

Extract languages from your LinkedIn prospects automatically

Derrick enriches your lists with language skills for each prospect in a few clicks, directly in Google Sheets.

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What you’ll learn (and expected results)

By the end of this guide, you’ll know how to:

• Identify languages spoken by a LinkedIn profile, even if the Languages section isn’t visible
• Automate language extraction across hundreds of profiles
• Leverage this data to segment your prospecting or recruitment lists
• Avoid common pitfalls that cause language enrichment to fail

Expected result: You’ll have an enriched database with languages for each prospect, ready to use for multilingual targeting or international recruitment.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

• A list of prospects with at minimum their full name OR LinkedIn URL OR email address
• A Derrick account (free for 200 credits/month) or equivalent LinkedIn scraping tool
• Google Sheets or Excel to store your data
• Estimated time: 5-10 minutes setup + automatic enrichment

Why finding languages on LinkedIn is crucial

Before diving into the tutorial, let’s understand why this information is a game-changer.

The multilingual imperative in prospecting and recruitment

According to a National Foreign Language Center study, 93% of employers value employees who can work effectively with international clients. More specifically:

• 66% identify language skills during the hiring process
• 41% give preference to multilingual candidates
• Demand for bilingual jobs more than doubled between 2010 and 2015, jumping from 240,000 to 630,000 listings
• Bilingual employees earn on average 5 to 20% more than their monolingual counterparts

For an international recruiter, identifying candidates who speak German, Spanish, or Mandarin makes all the difference. For an SDR prospecting in Switzerland, Belgium, or Canada, knowing your contact’s languages allows you to personalize your approach and increase response rates.

Limitations of LinkedIn’s Languages section

LinkedIn allows users to add languages in the “Accomplishments” section, with 5 proficiency levels:

1. Elementary Proficiency
2. Limited Working Proficiency
3. Professional Working Proficiency
4. Full Professional Proficiency
5. Native or Bilingual Proficiency

The problem? This section is optional. Most LinkedIn profiles don’t list their languages, or do so incompletely. Result: you miss relevant profiles simply because the information isn’t displayed.

This is where an automated enrichment workflow becomes essential.

Step 1: Prepare your prospect list in Google Sheets

The first step is gathering basic information about your prospects.

In Google Sheets, create a sheet with at minimum one of these columns:

• Full name (first name + last name)
• LinkedIn profile URL
• Professional email address

Example structure:

Expected result: You have a clean Google Sheet with your prospect identifiers.

💡 Tip: The more information you have (name + LinkedIn URL + email), the better your match rate during enrichment.

Step 2: Install Derrick in Google Sheets

Derrick works natively in Google Sheets via an extension. Here’s how to install it:

1. Open your Google Sheet containing your prospects
2. Go to Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons
3. Search for “Derrick” in the Marketplace
4. Click Install and authorize necessary permissions
5. Once installed, a new Derrick menu appears in your toolbar

Alternative: You can also install Derrick directly from the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Expected result: Derrick is installed and accessible from your Google Sheet.

Step 3: Launch the “Find Languages by Fullname” workflow

Now that Derrick is installed, you’ll enrich your prospects with their spoken languages.

3.1. Select the appropriate workflow

In the Derrick menu, several workflows can extract languages. The simplest is:

“Find Languages by Fullname” → Workflow documentation

This workflow works as follows:

• I have: Full name (first name + last name)
• I want: Languages spoken by this person

How it works behind the scenes:

1. Derrick uses the LinkedIn Profile Finder to locate the LinkedIn profile matching the full name
2. Then, the LinkedIn Profile Scraper enriches the profile with 50+ attributes, including spoken languages
3. Languages are extracted with their proficiency level (when listed)

3.2. Configure the enrichment

1. Select the column containing your prospects’ full names
2. Choose a destination column for languages (or let Derrick create one automatically)
3. Define the number of rows to enrich (or select “All”)
4. Click Launch enrichment

Expected result: Derrick launches enrichment in the background. The process takes approximately 2-3 seconds per profile.

3.3. Alternative workflows available

If you already have LinkedIn URLs or email addresses for your prospects, you can use these alternative workflows:

• Find Languages by LinkedIn Profile URL: If you already have LinkedIn URLs
• Find Languages by Email: If you’re starting from a list of professional emails

The result is identical: you get spoken languages with proficiency level.

Step 4: Analyze and leverage the results

Once enrichment is complete, you have a new “Languages” column in your Google Sheet.

Results format:

Languages are displayed as a comma-separated list, with proficiency level in parentheses:

French (Native), English (Full Professional), Spanish (Limited Working)

4.1. Segment your prospects by language

You can now filter or segment your lists by spoken languages.

Segmentation examples:

• International recruiter: Filter all candidates speaking German for a position in German-speaking Switzerland
• SDR prospecting in Belgium: Identify prospects speaking both French AND Dutch
• Growth marketer: Target Spanish-speaking profiles for a Latin America expansion campaign

How to do this in Google Sheets:

1. Select the “Languages” column
2. Click the filter icon (funnel)
3. Type the language you’re looking for (e.g., “Spanish”, “German”)
4. Google Sheets displays only matching rows

Expected result: You have targeted sub-lists by language, ready for your campaigns.

4.2. Enrich further with AI

If you want to go further, Derrick offers integrated AI features:

• Ask Claude or Ask OpenAI to reformat languages or detect patterns
• AI Lead Scoring to prioritize bilingual or trilingual prospects
• AI Segmentation to automatically create groups based on language skills

Example prompt for Ask Claude:

“Does this person speak German fluently? Answer Yes or No.”

This creates a boolean column for quick filtering.

Expected result: Your data is not only enriched but also automatically qualified.

Step 5: Automate the process for future lists

Don’t want to repeat this every time you import new prospects? Automate the workflow.

5.1. Create a reusable template

1. Save your current Google Sheet as a template
2. Derrick workflows are already configured
3. Simply copy-paste your new lists into the template
4. Relaunch enrichment with one click

5.2. Integrate Derrick into your automation stack

Derrick connects to 3,000+ tools via Zapier, Make, or n8n. You can:

• Automatically trigger enrichment when a new lead enters your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive)
• Sync enriched languages to your cold emailing tools (Lemlist, Instantly)
• Create complex workflows combining enrichment + scoring + segmentation

Example Make (Integromat) workflow:

1. New lead added in HubSpot
2. → Derrick enriches with spoken languages
3. → If lead speaks German → Add to German email sequence
4. → Otherwise → Add to English email sequence

Expected result: Language enrichment happens continuously, without manual intervention.

Final result: what you’ve accomplished

At this point, you have:

• A prospect list enriched with spoken languages and their proficiency level
• Targeted segments by language to personalize your approaches
• An automated workflow reproducible for all future lists
• A multilingual database ready to use for prospecting or recruitment

Real-world example: Jessica, recruiter for a European SaaS startup, needed to find 20 Customer Success Managers speaking fluent German and English. By enriching 500 LinkedIn profiles via Derrick, she identified 47 bilingual candidates in under 10 minutes. InMail response rate: 38% (vs. 12% with generic targeting).

Common mistakes (and how to fix them)

Problem 1: Languages don’t show up for certain profiles

Symptom: The “Languages” column remains empty for several prospects.

Impact: You miss relevant profiles and your targeting is incomplete.

Solution:

1. Verify the LinkedIn profile is public: Derrick can only enrich public profiles. If a profile is private, languages won’t be accessible.
2. Use an alternative identifier: If starting from a full name, try with LinkedIn URL or email to improve match rate.
3. Accept that some profiles don’t list their languages: This is a LinkedIn limitation, not a tool issue. Approximately 30-40% of profiles don’t fill the Languages section.

Tip: Combine language enrichment with profile content analysis (via Ask Claude) to infer languages from work experience or education.

Problem 2: Proficiency levels aren’t consistent

Symptom: Some prospects display “Native” for English when their profile suggests otherwise.

Impact: You risk targeting profiles whose actual level doesn’t match your needs.

Solution:

1. LinkedIn levels are self-reported: They’re not verified. A user can declare “Full Professional” without proof.
2. Cross-reference with other signals: Look at location, work experience (did they work in an English-speaking country?), education (international degree?).
3. Use Ask Claude for qualification: Ask a question like “Based on their background, does this person speak English fluently?”

Example prompt:

“Analyze this LinkedIn profile. Is their declared English level consistent with their background?”

Problem 3: Enrichment uses too many credits

Symptom: You have a list of 1,000 prospects but only 200 free credits.

Impact: You can only enrich part of your list.

Solution:

1. Prioritize high-potential profiles: Enrich decision-makers first (CEO, VP Sales) or most engaged profiles (InMail responders).
2. Segment before enriching: Use criteria like location or industry to reduce your list.
3. Upgrade to paid plan: The Small plan (4,000 credits/month at $9) or Medium plan (10,000 credits/month at $20) enables larger-scale enrichment.

Tip: Unused Derrick credits roll over to the next month, unlike most competitor tools.

Problem 4: Can’t differentiate “Professional English” from “Native English”

Symptom: You’re looking for native English speakers only, but enrichment returns “Full Professional” profiles too.

Impact: You need to manually sort results.

Solution:

1. Filter on “Native or Bilingual Proficiency”: Use Google Sheets filter function to keep only this level.
2. Cross-reference with location: A “Native English” profile based in the US, UK, Australia, or Canada is more likely to be truly native.
3. Analyze education: If the prospect studied in an English-speaking country, it’s a good indicator.

Google Sheets formula to automate:

=IF(AND(REGEXMATCH(B2,"Native"),OR(REGEXMATCH(C2,"United States"),REGEXMATCH(C2,"United Kingdom"))),"Native confirmed","To verify")

This creates a column indicating if native status is “confirmed” or “to verify”.

Problem 5: Languages are in a hard-to-use format

Symptom: Results are in unstructured text format: “French (Native), English (Full Professional), Spanish (Limited Working)”

Impact: Difficult to create filters or automatic segments.

Solution:

1. Split languages into distinct columns: Use Google Sheets “Split text to columns” feature with comma as separator.
2. Create boolean columns: “Speaks French?”, “Speaks German?”, etc.
3. Use Ask Claude to reformat: Ask the AI to convert to JSON or structured CSV format.

Example prompt for reformatting:

“Convert this language list to JSON format: French (Native), English (Full Professional), Spanish (Limited Working)”

Result:

{
  "French": "Native",
  "English": "Full Professional",
  "Spanish": "Limited Working"
}

Going further: advanced optimizations

Combine languages with other enrichment criteria

Don’t stop at languages. Derrick can enrich your prospects with 50+ attributes per LinkedIn profile:

• Current position (Current Job Title)
• Company (Company Name)
• Location (City, Country)
• Professional email (via Email Finder)
• Phone number (via Phone Finder)
• Technical skills (Skills)
• Education (Education)

Advanced targeting example:

“Find me all profiles who speak native German, are based in Switzerland, hold a Head of Sales position, and work at a company with 50 to 200 employees.”

With Derrick, you combine these criteria in a few clicks.

Automate multilingual prospecting with personalized CTAs

Once you know your prospects’ languages, personalize your prospecting messages.

Complete workflow:

1. Language enrichment via Derrick
2. Segmentation by language (French, English, German, etc.)
3. Creating email sequences specific to each language
4. Automated sending via Lemlist, Instantly, or La Growth Machine

Result: Your open and response rates skyrocket because prospects receive messages in their native language.

According to a HubSpot study, personalizing an email in the recipient’s language increases response rates by 27%.

Create language diversity reports

For HR teams or recruiters, knowing languages spoken in your candidate pool allows you to measure language diversity.

Example report:

This helps you identify gaps and adjust your recruitment campaigns.

Legal aspects and compliance (GDPR)

When extracting data from LinkedIn, you must comply with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe.

What’s allowed

• Scraping public LinkedIn profiles for professional use (B2B prospecting, recruitment)
• Enriching data from publicly accessible information
• Storing spoken languages if publicly indicated on the profile

What’s prohibited

• Scraping private profiles or hidden information
• Reselling enriched databases without consent from individuals
• Using data for discriminatory purposes (e.g., excluding candidates based on native language)

GDPR best practices

1. Define a clear purpose: Commercial prospecting, recruitment, market study.
2. Limit retention: Only keep data as long as necessary (6 months for a prospecting campaign, 2 years for a candidate pool).
3. Respect opt-out rights: If a prospect asks you to delete their data, do so immediately.
4. Secure your databases: Use Google Sheets with restricted access or a GDPR-compliant CRM.

💡 Derrick is GDPR-compliant: Data is stored securely and you maintain full control over your exports.

Conclusion: where to start now

You now know how to find languages spoken by any LinkedIn profile, automate this process at scale, and leverage this data to refine your targeting.

Key steps recap:

1. Prepare your prospect list in Google Sheets (name, LinkedIn URL, or email)
2. Install Derrick and launch the “Find Languages by Fullname” workflow
3. Analyze results and segment your lists by language
4. Automate the process for future campaigns
5. Combine with other enrichment criteria for ultra-precise targeting

Immediate action: Test Derrick for free with 200 credits to enrich your first profiles.

Start enriching your prospects with their languages

200 free credits to test Derrick without a credit card. Enrichment in Google Sheets in a few clicks.

Try for free →

Whether you’re recruiting multilingual talent or prospecting internationally, knowing your contacts’ languages is a decisive competitive advantage.

FAQ

How does LinkedIn determine language proficiency levels on profiles?

LinkedIn uses a scale based on the ILR (Interagency Language Roundtable) with 5 levels: Elementary, Limited Working, Professional Working, Full Professional, and Native or Bilingual. These levels are self-reported; users choose them when adding languages to their profile.

Can you find spoken languages if they’re not listed on the profile?

Not directly, but you can use AI to infer languages from work experience or education. For example, a profile with German education and Siemens work experience likely speaks German. Use Ask Claude with the prompt: “Based on this profile, what languages does this person likely speak?”

How much does language enrichment with Derrick cost?

The free plan offers 200 credits per month. 1 credit equals 1 enrichment. To enrich 1,000 profiles, the Medium plan (10,000 credits at $20/month) is ideal. Unused credits roll over to the next month.

Can you filter LinkedIn candidates by language without Sales Navigator?

Yes, with Derrick. Sales Navigator offers a native language filter, but Derrick allows enriching any list (even without Sales Navigator) with spoken languages, directly in Google Sheets.

How do you know if a prospect truly speaks a language fluently?

LinkedIn levels are self-reported, so unverified. Cross-reference with location, work experience (worked in a country where that language is spoken?), and education (degree earned in that language?). Use Ask Claude to analyze consistency of declared level.

Can you export languages to a CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce?

Yes, Derrick integrates with 3,000+ tools via Zapier, Make, or n8n. You can automatically sync enriched languages to HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or any other CRM.

Is it legal to scrape languages from LinkedIn?

Yes, as long as you comply with GDPR. Languages publicly displayed on a LinkedIn profile can be collected for professional use (B2B prospecting, recruitment). Never scrape private profiles and respect individuals’ opt-out rights.