What's a good language to learn for future job prospects?

[Orgasmo]

A lot of government jobs in Canada requires you to be somewhat fluent in French, so I'm picking that up since my company is on a federal government contract. Once I got that down, I might pick up Arabic.

 

[guiza]

Here in California every job application I would apply to at the time had Spanish, Arabic and Chinese fluency listed as highly desirable.

 

[Kick Strickland]

As many others have said Mandarin is a great one to know and for me at least was easier to pick up than spanish. Though memorizing the characters can be a bitch.

haha Mandarin was easier than Spanish huh? cool

 

[DaleBoca]

haha Mandarin was easier than Spanish huh? cool

Yeah, not sure if he's trolling or what...

 

[Doughbelly]

Yeah, not sure if he's trolling or what...

Same.

Mandarin isn't a language you just "pick up." If you think you have, you don't speak it nearly as competently as you think you do.

The vast majority of westerners who live in East Asia for 3/5/10+ years can barely rub out a coherent phrase or two and can't construct a single grammatically correct compound sentence to save their lives. The few who can did it in an immersion atmosphere after concentrated effort.

 

[Fatal Catro]

As I am Canadian ( In an English speaking Province ) I decided to learn French many years ago.
However I only ended up using it to order from a pretentious French restaurant.

 

[YoungBoyd]

I know several Nederlands-speakers IRL, the white side of my family is at least part Dutch, and I've already tried German and didn't like it.

Nice. I might pick it up later when my german has improved.

 

[PG29 red0 Jr]

C++

 

[IIIIIIII]

spanish is helpful in the americas. internationally, it still has to be english. it seems that chinese is becoming the next new language that is valuable to know.

 

[IIIIIIII]

As I am Canadian ( In an English speaking Province ) I decided to learn French many years ago.
However I only ended up using it to order from a pretentious French restaurant.

i brother recently moved to paris to improve his french. but luckily for him, he already had a job lined up there.

 

[MustangCobraSVT]

Spanish or Mandarin, Spanish is more helpful at the moment. French is useful in certain international business situations.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Sorry but unless you totally immerse yourself in a language and culture for at least a couple of years, there won't be any use for your skills in most cases.
And by immersion I mean moving to the country in question.

However if you are young and any good with languages you will be surprise at how much you can learn in a short amount of time abroad.

Learning a language at home or in college for the fun of it is a great activity though. Just don't expect a career boost.

 

[lilianjie]

No no no we don't' say that when you make a point (it ain't soccer). It's the combination of a pole, a rim and a net (the thing most of us played Bball on in our driveways). THAT thing IS called a basketball goal! Idc what you yankees call it, it's a basketball goal. You Northerners call it a "basketball hoop" but that shit sounds wrong to me. It's a basketball goal and you BETTER start saying it right. lol



I'm thinking Chinese sounds more lucrative than Spanish. More exotic, too, and probably MUCH harder to learn for Americans. I just don't care that much for Spanish myself, but if I had to I'm sure I could learn it.

I'm fluent in Mandarin Chinese (reading, writing and speaking) and that's one of the main reasons why I was chosen for this high paying position. (General Manager of a foreign enterprise based in Shanghai China)

 

[lilianjie]

As many others have said Mandarin is a great one to know and for me at least was easier to pick up than spanish. Though memorizing the characters can be a bitch.

Nice username.

 

[groo]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...klfjfLamPYGAEzWCg&sig2=qYemIYKgty6-yq7u-w_Xsw

I'm thinking of going back to school as soon as I can, and I'm trying to decide what to study this time around. I have 1 friend who learned Spanish in the Army and she is currently working as a translator at a high school. I also know a dude that majored in french and he's also working as a translator somewhere.

I have heard that you can make good money translating if you learn a middle eastern language. No clue if that's true but I imagine it is. I also wonder about learning Japanese or Chinese for business negotiations and whatnot.

You guys have any idea what might be a marketable language to learn? I imagine I could pick up a new language pretty damn quickly if I really devoted myself to it. I don't imagine I'd have to take very many expensive courses to do so, either. Hell I might even be able to do that with one of those online programs, but I'd opt for a university route just to make contacts and get the professors to hook me up with employers.

Anyway, you guys know anything about this? Would it be worth my time, and could I get a job? And what type of job?