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johncoltrane

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Is English considered the "universal" language in global business and finance? If not, what are the top two or three languages that are essential to learn? I guess this would depend heavily upon the specific line of business and/or area of finance? For now, I am interested in becoming more marketable...
 
johncoltrane Wrote:
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> For now, I am interested in becoming more
> marketable...

Learn math. It will help more.
 
Yes, English is definitely it, but I would also say that the other popular languages for "universal" purposes could come in handy for finance as well. They're generally not prerequisites, although some positions at the major investment banks in Asias do require fluency in Mandarin Chinese. Personally, I think fluency in multiple languages is one of the most useful skills to have, whether it's in business or something else -- communication always comes in handy no matter what the situation is.

Just curious, what do you guys think are the most practical languages to learn these days? If you could choose two or three languages to learn (besides English), what would they be?
 
English

otherwise only the languages u want to learn or to work in
one important point is that learning a language always includes learning more about the culture of the country region and thats a personal enrichment in any case even if u wont use the language for work
Cantoneese for the HK area, otherwise Mandarin
otherwise its very regional: Arabic for the Middle East, European languages for LATAM and Europe...

to answer Numi: I think Spanish is quite easy to pick up, Portuguese a bit tougher
 
For E. Europe - German, Russian, Serbo-Croation, Czech? I hope.
 
German is useless - they are all fluent in English and hate if someone speks German with an accent (I have grown up in germany)
Serbo-Croatian - thats a pretty small population left speaking these languages (technically two languages since the country separated), and their English is excellent as all movies on TV are not translated (I am Croatian)
same for Czech
Russian - certainly interesting to learn, huge population and huge business opportunities, tough to learn though
Polish - a large country, a bit smaller and less petrol than Russia though, interesting to learn, less dificult than Russian
 
If I had time I would choose Farsi; I bet Iran (Shia) will dominate Middle East pretty soon and there were lots of brilliant poems written in Farsi in medieval times.
 
probably Mandarin (even though I love Hong Kong) and Hindi for business. Maybe Arabic since I grew up in the ME and sadly didn't pick up anything beyond standard greetings and some swear words. Spanish is probably most useful in the US. Already fluent in English and Ebonics (word).
 
Bambi -- I definitely agree with you regarding the personal and cultural enrichment that come with learning a language. The study can be great for the mind, even if it has no direct relevance to one's profession.

I speak Chinese and French, but I actually think that Arabic and Spanish probably have more current global applications than the latter. I'm thinking about learning one of these other languages if time ever permits -- would be nice to go study abroad if/when I decide to take some time off from work. It's tough enough maintaining proficiency in languages that I don't even speak every day.
 
Big Nodge, when did you move to the US? Are your family origins from the Middle East as well, or did you just grow up there because that was where your parents were at the time?
 
I am passively learning Spanish and Russian currently, just listening to tapes
i can now read Spanish and understand it if its spoken slowly by latin americans, still trouble with the spanish from spain
as i understand Croatian I have some basics in russian, but am still lightyears away from anything here, just asked for some language lessons here at the office
otherwise speak french and german (and Latin...)
 
Moved back when I went to boarding school in '96, but I'm not Middle Eastern. Parents still live there working in the oil industry, American expats. I'm visting in December actually, haven't been back for a while.
 
It really depends on where you live and what your job entails. I am fluent in Spanish too, but it has never really come into play for me. If I were to pick up another language it would probably be Mandarin Chinese because of how much of a player China is becoming in the international community. Also, between English, Spanish, and Chinese I would be able to speak with about half the people from around the world. My next choice would be Arabic.
 
Bambi Wrote:
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> German is useless - they are all fluent in English
> and hate if someone speks German with an accent (I
> have grown up in germany)

I disagree. I currently work in Munich (Back office) and we have one client that refuses to communicate in English. We even have to translate all of our instructions for this client into German. And not everyone is fluent either, though it is true, most people know enough to get by. Germans, in my opinion are the most self-critical of their language skills. As an American, with the crap German I know I will go ahead and use it, where as Germans want to get better but are reluctant to use their (normally quite good) English if it isn't up to snuff.
 
i would like to learn spainsh and arabic....can say few words in arabic and farsi....speak hindi, english, gujarti and punjabi
 
I think Russian and Arabic would be most important besides english. All those former russian states (the stans) still conduct most business and retain russian as their official language and All areas east of turkey to iran (iran not included) would be covered by arabic. Aside from china that is where i belive the majority of the investments will go in the next two decades if these countries can get their civial and intellectual property protection laws in order. If you know urdu (much harder to learn than arabic and spoken in india & pakistan) that can also come in handy; esp since within most of the middle eastern states suited for finance (i.e. UAE, Qatar) , have indian and pakistanis as the majority of the population with the arabs a minority. Thats what i hear from friends posted in dubai and doha.

Spanish is useful if you intend to cater to or focus on S. America but most of the educated people are fluent in english anyway. In addition to language, i belive an understanding of history/culture if each country also goes a long way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 06:01AM by 1moreQ.
 
I think you're right about the populations in UAE etc 1moreQ, in that there may be more Asian migrant workers than Arabs. But, if you're talking about the investment world, I think most of the big clients are still Arabs. I think being able to speak with clients ($$) in their native tongue is more important than with other finance professions. In the finance world most probably speak English anyway, but I know Arabs get a huge kick out of Westerners who know even a little bit of Arabic.
 
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