Hello Everyone,
Happy new year, I am interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on what top 5 languages you guys believe are the most used languages within business
Look forward to your replies
Jack
I work in a automotive company so I think English, Mandarin, German, Japanese and Spanish are the important languages within business.
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It probably depends on your industry and your location.
I´m assuming that you´re asking because you are thinking about your career development?
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I think it really does depend on the industry. That said, every language can be viable from a business perspective though likely some have more opportunities than others. In financial services, many times certain investment strategies specifically in emerging markets will want people with certain language skill sets. In engineering, being able to explain technical concepts to a manufacturing group in China or somewhere in Southeast Asia can be essential. In other cases, companies could be expanding oversees and might need individuals that can use there sales, strategy, or engineering skills combined with a foreign language to help make in-roads there.
So there is no simple answer but there is viability if you look for it.
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In my opinion, English takes 99% share of all int’l business communications. It makes other 4 top languages practically irrelevant. If you have stable business with some country - sure, it’s a good idea to learn their language, but otherwise - you’ll be disappointed finding yourself always having to speak English.
Of course, it doesn’t make other cultures and places less interesting - pick the language you like, not the language somebody told you to learn. For example, my motivation to learn German is all about people and places I’ve visited. When it comes to business, Germans speak better English than me.
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Yes of course, career development is always something that is on my mind, I plan on learning and becoming fluent in Spanish, Portguese, French and Italian, I am a software developer so I was interested to see how these languages would improve my employability
since you already speak english ,knowing spanish and portuguese as well opens you up to millions of people and business sectors in north ,south,and central america if this part of the world interests you
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very interesting!