Language for business success

416 501

Posted Jul 22, 2012 18:39

What language you think will be most beneficial to business success in today's economy.

Of course, the lingua franca is English but what language will be the second most valuable after English. In the past, French used to be very important but apparently not more so and people tend to believe Chinese is a a great asset today.

Spanish can be useful when you see the rise of Latin America in recent years.

While the success and endurance of German economy means German is also a language to really consider

Please share your thought

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Duncan

13.782 15.333

Posted Jul 22, 2012 20:59

I think this might a factor like (((medium term market size)-(availability of English in that country))*(openness to using English))/(difficulty of learning the language). It will differ between industries.

For people strong with English, I'd generally suggest: Spanish; French; Portuguese; German; Italian; Russian; Turkish and Japanese.

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ezra

521 711

Posted Jul 23, 2012 14:43

For people strong with English, I'd generally suggest: Spanish; French; Portuguese; German; Italian; Russian; Turkish and Japanese.

Good recommendations, Duncan - the other European languages would definitely come in handy.

My list would be similar, although I'd include Mandarin and Arabic in place of Turkish. But like you said, it really depends on what business you're in and who you are working with.

<blockquote>For people strong with English, I'd generally suggest: Spanish; French; Portuguese; German; Italian; Russian; Turkish and Japanese.</blockquote>
Good recommendations, Duncan - the other European languages would definitely come in handy.

My list would be similar, although I'd include Mandarin and Arabic in place of Turkish. But like you said, it really depends on what business you're in and who you are working with.

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Duncan

13.782 15.333

Posted Jul 23, 2012 14:46

In the time it takes a native speak of a European language to learn Mandarin, they could learn four or five of the other languages I mentioned to an upper-intermediate level.

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donho199

416 501

Posted Jul 24, 2012 10:00

Yeah, I think learn a couple of European Languages aside from English would be beneficial.

Also Arabic and Mandarin will be very useful but they sound very funny and if you pick up those, they may well destroy your proper London or Munich accents that you tried to pick up

BTW, Is Arabic the main language of the Middle East gulf countries?

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ralph

692 1.074

Posted Jul 30, 2012 13:23

BTW, Is Arabic the main language of the Middle East gulf countries?

Generally, yes. But depending on the country and your interaction, English can often be just as useful. For example, in the UAE, there has been an increasing adoption of English as the business language over the past decade or so. Some companies don't use English, though; and anything involving the government will most likely be completely in Arabic.

It's similar in Qatar: unless you're dealing solely with expats and multinational firms, it's probably good to have some command of Arabic if you're in business.

<blockquote>BTW, Is Arabic the main language of the Middle East gulf countries?
</blockquote>
Generally, yes. But depending on the country and your interaction, English can often be just as useful. For example, in the UAE, there has been an increasing adoption of English as the business language over the past decade or so. Some companies don't use English, though; and anything involving the government will most likely be completely in Arabic.

It's similar in Qatar: unless you're dealing solely with expats and multinational firms, it's probably good to have some command of Arabic if you're in business.

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