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Best of the future business languages?

  Tags: Business | Career | Usefulness
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work Post Reply
39 messages over 5 pages: 13 4 5  Next >>
Mandira
Triglot
Newbie
Norway
Joined 4633 days ago

8 posts - 8 votes
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 9 of 39
25 July 2011 at 3:57am | IP Logged 
aquablue wrote:
Are the differences
between MSA and dialects that pronounced?


Absolutely. Arabic is defined as a macrolanguage (like Chinese).

kanewai wrote:

I would add Cantonese to the list


The usefulness of Cantonese is limited in my opinion since most of its speakers also speak Mandarin and/or English. Of course if you are likely to be doing much business in its core area it may provide a closer relationship to your partners to speak the local vernacular as well as a way robbing them of their "secret language".

For the special case of the nordic countries, I have been thinking that if one were to learn a dialect of Chinese in addition to Mandarin, Shanghainese would be very beneficial since many nordic enterprises have co-located their Chinese operations in the Nordic Industrial Park in Ningbo, near Shanghai.
1 person has voted this message useful



noriyuki_nomura
Bilingual Octoglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 5099 days ago

304 posts - 465 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1
Studies: TurkishA1, Korean

 
 Message 10 of 39
25 July 2011 at 5:12pm | IP Logged 
What about Turkish language? The economy of Turkey seems to be doing pretty well lately...perhaps the ability to speak Turkish might prove useful?

Personally, I also feel that Cantonese or Shanghainese could be useful business languages, especially given the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, the cultural confidence in this region will correspondingly increase too...resulting in a more 'enthusiastic' push for the need to speak/understand local languages, such as Cantonese and Shanghainese...

Regarding Russian language, from my understanding, there were many international companies 'bullish' about the Russian market 3 - 4 years ago and were all eager to jump into the market, but many (banks, IT companies) were also quick to close their branches and exit the Russian market...I think it's not such an easy market as many think. I was told by a friend working in the private equity business that, Russia is a complicated market, rampant corruption, rules/laws can change randomly at any time, to the detriment of business. Hence, more and more international companies bypass the Russian market altogether to focus more on other emerging markets.





Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 25 July 2011 at 5:33pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



topaztrex
Triglot
Newbie
Indonesia
Joined 5928 days ago

20 posts - 37 votes
Speaks: Mandarin, Indonesian*, English

 
 Message 11 of 39
13 August 2011 at 11:43am | IP Logged 
I made an Excel file that counts the languages spoken in the top ten financial centers
in the world, which are defined by 4 different agencies on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_centre

Below is the result, sorted with number of counts.

Languages Count
1     English : 23
2     Mandarin : 10
3     Japanese : 4
3     Cantonese : 4
3     French : 4
4     German : 3
5     Dutch : 2
5     Korean : 2

I defined Singapore as speaking English and Mandarin; although speaking Mandarin is not
necessary, it is a huge employment boost compared to Singapore's other official
languages: Tamil and Malay. Also, I defined Hong Kong as speaking Cantonese, Mandarin,
and English, since the knowledge of these three languages is extremely important in
doing business in HK. My other definitions are self-explanatory: Zurich-German, NYC-
English, London-English, etc.

My other top language picks are, in no particular order:

Spanish
Portuguese
Arabic
Russian
Hindi
Malay-Indonesian

However, of course, extending the list might also depend on how far you would go in
your "business" pursuit. For example, you obviously need Persian if you do business in
Iran, Romanian in Romania, etc. Moreover, bear in mind that using a language in a
professional setting requires a really high level of proficiency, and that would mean
having the abilities to: write and give presentations, negotiate, discuss about deals,
write essays/comments about recent economical/political situation, understand
conference talks, etc.

Edited by topaztrex on 13 August 2011 at 11:44am

11 persons have voted this message useful



liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 5988 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 12 of 39
13 August 2011 at 5:06pm | IP Logged 
This is a great article which, although a little bit dated, dissects out which factors make a language "influential".

I personally like the graphic which shows the influence of languages through the centuries.

The Top 10 Influential Languages

Enjoy & Thanks George Weber!
3 persons have voted this message useful



VityaCo
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6840 days ago

79 posts - 86 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English
Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French

 
 Message 13 of 39
17 September 2011 at 6:58am | IP Logged 
Dear, aquablue!
For those who live in the Americas it is Spanish, no questions!
For Europe it is the Germanic family.
And for the rest of the world English/French will suffice. That simple.
1 person has voted this message useful



nway
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Vic
Joined 5174 days ago

574 posts - 1707 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 14 of 39
17 September 2011 at 7:04am | IP Logged 
VityaCo wrote:
For those who live in the Americas it is Spanish, no questions!

Try doing business in the US without knowing English.

VityaCo wrote:
And for the rest of the world English/French will suffice.

Try doing business in China without knowing Chinese.

VityaCo wrote:
That simple.

Perhaps too simple.
6 persons have voted this message useful



VityaCo
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6840 days ago

79 posts - 86 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English
Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French

 
 Message 15 of 39
17 September 2011 at 7:28am | IP Logged 
nway wrote:
VityaCo wrote:
For those who live in the Americas it is Spanish, no questions!

Try doing business in the US without knowing English.

.


I thought that 'aquablue' speaks English natively. So the next he needs is Spanish.
2 persons have voted this message useful



nway
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Vic
Joined 5174 days ago

574 posts - 1707 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 16 of 39
17 September 2011 at 7:29am | IP Logged 
VityaCo wrote:
I thought that 'aquablue' speaks English natively. So the next he needs is Spanish.

Well, when you say, "For those who live in the Americas", you're presumably referring to everyone who lives in the Americas, and not just aquablue...

Anyway, the reference to China (and other predominantly monolingual non-Anglophone/Hispanophone/Francophone/"Germanophone" countries) still applies.

Edited by nway on 17 September 2011 at 7:32am



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