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Best Languages in the Region | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6127 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 17 of 43 29 April 2009 at 7:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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Just based on what TV is available in Northern California, I'd say the most common are English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese.
Employment is another question. Honestly, I have no idea. Do people in the USA actually use learned foreign language skills in their work, and how do they do it? I'm studying Japanese, but this is mostly for my own pleasure -- really there are enough Japanese natives coming here to the USA and I'll never compete with them. With my work, we've mostly outsourced translation to European companies -- we just pay money and the English comes back translated. I guess maybe there are some government jobs where they have preference for Spanish-English bilingual people? I'm not sure. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TerryRoberts Diglot Newbie Spain languagelearningworl Joined 5692 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 18 of 43 29 April 2009 at 8:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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For Madrid Spain, the most useful (foreign) languages to learn are:
1. English 2. French 3. German 4. Italian After no. 4 spot, the order changes regularly depending on the economic circumstances in the rest of the world - Madrid attracts a lot of foreign tourists, but the majority nationalities change according to the ups and downs of the economy in their own countries. At the moment - and just going by what I see on the street - I'd say that Japanese would still be very useful, followed closely now by East European languages and Chinese. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6254 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 19 of 43 29 April 2009 at 9:15am | IP Logged | |||||
That's a good point. I didn't mean for people to restrict their lists to the most common languages of their region necessarily. Certain languages seem to be useful whether there is a big population nearby that speaks the language or not. I do think that it helps though. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lecorbeau Diglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 6022 days ago 113 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Turkish | Message 20 of 43 29 April 2009 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
As someone from the greater Los Angeles area, I will wholeheartedly second the first three languages on this list, but would probably replace Russian with Vietnamese and Japanese with Mandarin or Korean. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 21 of 43 29 April 2009 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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For Dublin, Ireland in 2009, I'd select,
1. Hiberno-English - This is basically English, with an understanding of Irish place name pronuciation, and some idioms. In Dublin, many a visitor has difficulty with Tallaght and Dun Laoghaire. 2. Polish - Huge immigrant community. Polish chleb (bread) is delicious, so it's nice to know how to order it in a specialist store. 3. Irish (Gaeilge) - Though everyone speaks English, some Irish would be appreciated in the Gaeltacht's. 4. Mandarin - A large student population will give you plenty of practice. 5. Telegu - I've encountered more Telegu speakers here, than any other language from the Indian subcontinent. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JasonBourne Groupie United States Joined 5754 days ago 65 posts - 111 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Arabic (Written), Turkish | Message 22 of 43 09 May 2009 at 1:05am | IP Logged | |||||
They kind of go hand in hand, though. If there is a high immigrant population using a certain language, there will be a need for bilingual speakers who can communicate with them, which translates into more employment opportunities, especially as translators or social services jobs. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5917 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 23 of 43 09 May 2009 at 1:34am | IP Logged | |||||
Also, are you sure about Mandarin? 70% of the Chinese immigrants here speak Canto. I think languages like Hindi and Russian are spoken by more people. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| stephen_g Groupie Canada Joined 6331 days ago 44 posts - 84 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Italian | Message 24 of 43 09 May 2009 at 9:06am | IP Logged | |||||
I think French is important to include simply because it opens up more job opportunities than any other language in the GTA (apart from English, of course!). I've heard many stories of people receiving higher salaries just for being bilingual, even if their skills are rarely put to use. When it comes to foreign languages and employment, I don't think any other language can match French. Good point about Mandarin. That fifth slot is the most difficult to fill. I think we need to consider not only which immigrant languages are most popular, but which among them represents the highest amount of speakers who are not bilingual. I'd wager that many more Punjabi speakers are not bilingual than Hindi speakers, for example, because most Punjabis here are from a rural, agricultural background. Do you have any proposals? How is the grasp of English amongst Sri Lankan Tamils? I'm not from the east end, so I can't comment. I can't seem to locate census data which gets into specific languages or language groups... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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