Most Marketable Language to Learn

[0roo0roo]

chinese=giant market rising economy
spanish=dealing with illegals😉

 

[theMan]

German.

 

[wahoyaho]

english chinese jap

 

[NoShangriLa]

Mandarin after the various computer languages.

GDP by Language

English in Decline as a First Language, Study Says
"Businesses whose employees are not multilingual will find themselves at a disadvantage, Graddol says. In fact, employers in parts of Asia are already looking beyond English. In the next decade, the new must-learn language is likely to be Mandarin."

What percentage of the world speaks English?
"Americans believe more than half the world speaks English helps explain our linguistic myopia"

Introduction

 

[mrkun]

I'd like to point out that Mandarin isn't a unified language, but a collection of regional dialects which are frequently unintelligible with those of other regions. Standard Mandarin, which is what's taught in schools, is actually a second language for most Chinese, and only a little more than half are fluent in it.

 

[everman]

Klingon always impresses the ladies.
qoSlIj DatIvjaj, Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!

 

[pradeep1]

Local USA - Spanish
International - Chinese, French, German

 

[B00ne]

Originally posted by: jai6638

Originally posted by: fierydemise
German could be relatively useful too however Chinese and Spanish (in the Americas) are probably the most important.

Why would German be useful? I didnt really think it was used outside of Germany.

Well Germany is the worlds largest exporter, so a lot of business dealing will be with germans - who speak english 😉

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: NoShangriLa

Mandarin after the various computer languages.

GDP by Language

English in Decline as a First Language, Study Says
"Businesses whose employees are not multilingual will find themselves at a disadvantage, Graddol says. In fact, employers in parts of Asia are already looking beyond English. In the next decade, the new must-learn language is likely to be Mandarin."

What percentage of the world speaks English?
"Americans believe more than half the world speaks English helps explain our linguistic myopia"

Introduction

i doubt anyone i know thinks that. some studies probably phrase questions badly or in a way to get a certain answer😛
i'm sure there are plenty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...sh-speaking_population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...s_an_official_language

as a second language english is very important, as those who speak it tend to matter more. china does have a lot of chinese speakers, but their population is massively boosted by a load of poor people who really don't matter when it comes to international business.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

spanish and chinese.

if you can speak english, spanish and chinese you're pretty much sorted where ever you go.

also for europe if you know spanish you'll be able to get by in portugal as well, and then you got all the spanish speaking islands in the med, and places like lanzarote (sp?) but those are more touristy holiday places that a full of brits, so...

most of the other european nations, alot of them speak english anyway...even from some of the poorer places like romania, they speak better english than we do romanian.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

i agree with most of the people on here. chinese is going to be big in the near future, moreso than hindi because most people in india speak english. spanish is important too.

how about arabic? it'll be important as we deal a lot with the arab world and because of the emergence of several large financial centers in that part of the world.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: pradeep1
Local USA - Spanish
International - Chinese, French, German

i was about to say german an french are poor choices.... more so german because nearly every german i have met spoke relatively good english, though the problem is the older generation in germany, particularly the working class, dont speak english too well.

however i can see french being useful, afterall the french are truely a bunch of awkward stubborn gits who like us in the UK dont believe too much in speaking another language but our own, only difference is ours is spoken in more countries than theres is. theyre rude too and way too busy setting things on fire to be bothered doing business with you so it might not be useful in the end anyway!

i remember french ATC caused an accident once because they refused to speak in anything other than french, that or they spoke in french to their air france pilots and then in english to others without being clear who they were actually speaking to...foreign plane got confused and an accident happened.

 

[kranky]

In my industry, it's definitely Chinese. Anyone who can speak both English and Chinese and has sufficient business experience could have a job today.

 

[Tiamat]

Chinese

 

[zerocool1]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: jai6638
Chinese.. although its way too hard to learn so I doubt people will switch to chinese as a primary language.. However, it'll definately help

Hindi would be another one ( which is comparitvely easier ) but most educated Indians speak English so I don't think it's as important as Chinese..

Spanish is great only if you plan to stay in the US.. Outside the Americas, its useless

You are forgetting South America.

then you need to include portugese

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: YoungGun21
You live in America? Spanish

^

 

[Atrail]

Arabic

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: jai6638

Originally posted by: fierydemise
German could be relatively useful too however Chinese and Spanish (in the Americas) are probably the most important.

Why would German be useful? I didnt really think it was used outside of Germany.

Most Europeans speak German--being that it is the "official" language of several countries.
It's also close enough to several others (Czech comes to mind...)

But yeah...if your'e dealing with Europe, I'd say go with French and/or German. French was the international language of diplomacy until what...30 years ago? Not that it matters now 😛

 

[Turin39789]

esperanto

 

[Descartes]

As I'm sure it has been said, it depends. If you're in intelligence, then Arabic would probably be best considering the current international relations climate. If you're in construction, food service, etc. then Spanish is probably best. If you're in business, Mandarin (or whatever is most appropriate for China) is likely going to offer some advantages.

For me, Hindi is helpful since I am in software. It's not necessary since all Indians I interact with know English, but it helps establish trust and familiarity very quickly that I have an interest in their culture. It also helps that my wife is Indian 😉. I know a fair amount of Hindi and Telugu and used to be relatively fluent in Spanish.

 

[KarmaPolice]

For me I would learn japanese cause I want to work and live in Japan. People have said Chinese for obvious reasons. Spanish also a good one too.


Really your gonna have to study hardcore to be acceptable in any of them. Japanese and Chinese are very hard to learn. You need to pass tests and become fluent in these languages which will take years.

 

[krunchykrome]

Right now, I'd say Spanish or Mandarin.

 

[AmpedSilence]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome
Right now, I'd say Spanish or Mandarin.

:thumbsup:

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: zerocool1

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: jai6638
Chinese.. although its way too hard to learn so I doubt people will switch to chinese as a primary language.. However, it'll definately help

Hindi would be another one ( which is comparitvely easier ) but most educated Indians speak English so I don't think it's as important as Chinese..

Spanish is great only if you plan to stay in the US.. Outside the Americas, its useless

You are forgetting South America.

then you need to include portugese

portuguese and spanish people can typically communicate pretty well.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

why has nobody said russian?