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Languages for International Business | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| serenity Newbie United States Joined 6360 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 13 03 July 2007 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
I'm currently debating which language to take this upcoming semester in college (nevermind how foolish it was to wait till the third year to begin a language), and, being that I'm leaning toward completing a master's in international business (undergrad degree in history with a concentration on contemporary European history), I'm wanting to pick a language that would be relevant for the field--otherwise I'd take Quechua (absolutely fascinating language). The downside is that I don't want to take the four major European tongues (German, Spanish, Italian, French), as the programs are quite difficult for those who have lackluster high school experience (I slacked my way through high school Spanish). Also, being that those languages are relatively easy for native English speakers, I figure to learn two on my own by the time I'm done with grad school--probably French first, then German. So, I'm considering Hindi, Swedish, Polish, Serbian/Croatian, Hebrew, Irish Gaelic, and Swahili. The problem is that each of them have their downsides, and I still have questions about each of them-- With Hindi, it seems that English is still the language of the business class, so learning it would have limited benefit, job-wise. With Swedish, it seems that most everyone there speaks fluent English, though I'm guessing they prefer Swedish for business. On the plus side, Sweden is one of the top countries in terms of international competitiveness. Poland has an improving economy, but they're still not outstanding in terms of international competitiveness. Hebrew has some relevance to my concentration (specifically, I plan on concentrating much study on the Holocaust), and Israel has a good economy and a fairly developed international development, but like Sweden, it's a small country. Swahili is becoming a more common tongue in Africa, but the economic competitiveness isn't really there. So, which language(s) do you think would be the wisest? Any help (or corrections, if my info/assumptions are errant) is much appreciated :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Green_Tea Newbie United States Joined 6474 days ago 13 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 2 of 13 03 July 2007 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Have you ever considered Romanian? I hear the country is growing at an incredible rate economically and is in great demand for translators with some business sense.
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| serenity Newbie United States Joined 6360 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 13 03 July 2007 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | ||
I didn't know that about Romania; it'd be an interesting language to learn, but unfortunately it's not offered at my college. Still, I'll consider learning that one on my own :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Green_Tea Newbie United States Joined 6474 days ago 13 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 13 03 July 2007 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Which ones are offered at your college if I may ask?
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| serenity Newbie United States Joined 6360 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 13 03 July 2007 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
The major ones: German Spanish Italian French Japanese Chinese Korean Portuguese A healthy dose of Slavic ones: Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian Russian Polish Slovak Ukrainian Hungarian Hebrew Then the less commonly taught ones: American Sign Language Arabic Aymara Irish Gaelic Indonesian (they're discontinuing this one) Modern Greek Hindi Quechua Swahili Swedish Vietnamese 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes  5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 6 of 13 03 July 2007 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe just consider, with which country you would like to do business. The major languages are useful also in contact with other countries, the ones you consider mostly in these countries only, where they are official languages. If you want to do business in Sweden, you can learn Swedish. Otherwise you don't need it; and in Sweden of course many people speak fluent English.
Hungarian is not bad, specially if you dream of a language adventure :) and you want something useful as well. Polish is not a bad idea, maybe Ukrainian as well. They aren't big economies, though. What's good about Slavic languages, as far as I know it's not difficult to learn other languages from this family if you already know one. So you don't have to limit yourself just to Polish - you can try Ukrainian or Russian, or maybe Bulgarian (a new country in European Union) as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7162 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 7 of 13 03 July 2007 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
In my experience, the most important things for business are to have acumen and connections. Linguistic abilities are more useful in customer service or sales and less frequently in analysis jobs (e.g. you may do equity research of foreign pharmaceutical firms and part of your job is to analyze these firms' financial statements and reports which are not available in English. Or you must do interviews of these firms' executives in something other than English.). As you can tell, you need to know more than just advanced idioms in a foreign language. Can you deal with a frustrated client and convince him or her not to take his or her business elsewhere? Can you negotiate effectively? Can you persuade someone to buy your product or service instead of that of the competition? Do you know accounting standards and how to analyze financial statements while keeping an eye out for manipulation of the financial results? Can you do such things in your native language let alone a foreign one? These business skills also lead to your ability to make yourself or your boss look good, and add to the bottom line. Language skills are nice, and in a few cases can differentiate you from other candidates at an interview. However, without solid work experience, social or technical skills or connections, you may never get the chance to break into the business, let alone seal the deal in Hindi, Polish, Swahili or whatever. People who just can't "get things done" in business won't last long. Being a polyglot means little if you bomb the interview or lose a client because of delivery of low-quality goods or services. Edited by Chung on 03 July 2007 at 10:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkie Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6353 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Croatian | Message 8 of 13 15 July 2007 at 2:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Irish Gaelic? No offence but do you live in the stone age? Nobody speaks gaelic anymore
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