It didn’t take long for Diana Ramirez, a 23-year-old metallurgical engineering student from Mexico, to play her language card.

Last summer, the senior at the University of Texas at El Paso worked at an 11-week internship at a General Motors castings plant in Defiance, Ohio, that turns out parts for cars. An alert went out that a sister GM plant in Toluca, Mexico, was having a production problem that had afflicted the Ohio factory earlier. Company officials from Mexico were on the phone asking for help. But they needed a Spanish speaker also fluent in engineering terms and knowledgeable about casting.

GM put Ramirez on the line. “I was able to help,” she says. In short order, engine heads, blocks and crankshafts were being churned out again. Being bilingual “is very helpful,” says Ramirez, who is set to graduate in December and hopes to be a U.S. citizen by then. She expects to find full-time work in Mexico.

It might sound like a no-brainer that being bilingual or multilingual helps students planning engineering and just about any other career. But it is certainly true and is becoming more important as the economies of nations become more intertwined. What’s more, being able to go beyond mere language ability and understand cultural distinctions are extra advantages.

For evidence look to UTEP, situated at a pivotal juncture on the U.S.-Mexico border. Directly across the Rio Grande is the large Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, so about 10 percent of the students are Mexican citizens and a higher percentage speak both English and Spanish. Some students commute daily across the border.

The border, moreover, has a special economic appeal. Thanks to free-trade pacts, the El Paso-Juárez region has emerged as the third largest manufacturing center in North America after Los Angeles and Chicago. On the Mexican side, a complex tapestry of “maquiladoras” or special tax-free production zones got a boost in 1994 when the North American Free Trade Agreement passed. NAFTA was a landmark bill that eliminated many tariffs and spurred trade among Canada, Mexico and the United States. Many marquee-name U.S. firms, including Delphi Auto parts, modemmaker Scientific Atlanta and peripheral-manufacturer Lexmark, have cross-border plants that take advantage of cheaper labor costs and no to low export fees.