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What language should I learn next?


Aaron

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I'm studying international business, and I'm currently finishing up my German and thinking about what language I want to start on next. I figure another year and I'll be fluent in German. What language should I learn next? I'm wanting to know from the perspective of what language will likely land me the best job.

I have some limited experience with French and Russian, so those two might be worth considering just because they're relatively easy and I already have a head start. But I'm thinking that Chinese or Japanese would be useful to me. I'm really leaning towards Chinese. I know it's hard, but I think it will put me on a higher level. It seems the international business scene is pretty much dominated by English, German, and Chinese, so I would have the trifecta, in addition to being a native American English speaker.

Thoughts?

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4 hours ago, Aaron said:

BTW, how do I follow a topic to get email alerts on this site? I'm looking all over the a subscribe or follow button and I'm just not seeing it.

Welcome to Linguaholic

On the top right corner you got a follow button. Click it and choose your prefered option.

If you need any more help, just let me know.

kind regards

Lingua

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1 hour ago, linguaholic said:

Welcome to Linguaholic

On the top right corner you got a follow button. Click it and choose your prefered option.

If you need any more help, just let me know.

kind regards

Lingua

Ich danke dir! (Ich darf hier du sagen, oder?)

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5 hours ago, Aaron said:

I'm studying international business, and I'm currently finishing up my German and thinking about what language I want to start on next. I figure another year and I'll be fluent in German. What language should I learn next? I'm wanting to know from the perspective of what language will likely land me the best job.

I have some limited experience with French and Russian, so those two might be worth considering just because they're relatively easy and I already have a head start. But I'm thinking that Chinese or Japanese would be useful to me. I'm really leaning towards Chinese. I know it's hard, but I think it will put me on a higher level. It seems the international business scene is pretty much dominated by English, German, and Chinese, so I would have the trifecta, in addition to being a native American English speaker.

Thoughts?

I actually think the best person to answer this is you.  You might try checking out job opportunities in the fields you're interested in. After getting a few leads, perhaps invade a few forums that are inhabited by expatriates to find out if they're happy, if their salaries are reasonable, etc.

The only other thing I'll say is that Russian was quite difficult for me, mainly due to its grammar. Of the languages I speak, Chinese and Japanese were the hardest to learn by far, Thai and Russian were tied in third, Korean was fifth. Swahili, French and Spanish were all about the same, and I would guess approximately as difficult as German for an English speaker.

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4 hours ago, Wanda Kaishin said:

I actually think the best person to answer this is you.  You might try checking out job opportunities in the fields you're interested in. After getting a few leads, perhaps invade a few forums that are inhabited by expatriates to find out if they're happy, if their salaries are reasonable, etc.

The only other thing I'll say is that Russian was quite difficult for me, mainly due to its grammar. Of the languages I speak, Chinese and Japanese were the hardest to learn by far, Thai and Russian were tied in third, Korean was fifth. Swahili, French and Spanish were all about the same, and I would guess approximately as difficult as German for an English speaker.

Yea, I remember Russian grammar was kind of messed up. They have verb endings that match the gender of the subject? Was that it?

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7 hours ago, Aaron said:

Yea, I remember Russian grammar was kind of messed up. They have verb endings that match the gender of the subject? Was that it?

No, but it's a lot more messed up than that. Cases, verbs of motion, aspects, etc.

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23 hours ago, Aaron said:

I'm studying international business, and I'm currently finishing up my German and thinking about what language I want to start on next. I figure another year and I'll be fluent in German. What language should I learn next? I'm wanting to know from the perspective of what language will likely land me the best job.

I have some limited experience with French and Russian, so those two might be worth considering just because they're relatively easy and I already have a head start. But I'm thinking that Chinese or Japanese would be useful to me. I'm really leaning towards Chinese. I know it's hard, but I think it will put me on a higher level. It seems the international business scene is pretty much dominated by English, German, and Chinese, so I would have the trifecta, in addition to being a native American English speaker.

Thoughts?

Those kind of questions are always so hard to answer. But as Wanda already pointed out, Russian is really not supposed to be easy. Well, it always depends on what kind of language you do speak in the first place, but I suppose your native tongue is English, I do not think that Russian can be considered to be an easy language coming from English. I studied Linguistics for many years and I have some friends that speak up to 10 languages, and usually they would put the difficulty level of Russian higher than Chinese. I have been studying Chinese at University and I am fairly fluent in it, but it took me many years. I am living in China now and that helps a lot. Still, coming from German Or English, I woudl definitely regard Chinese as a very difficult language to learn. Especially speaking and listening. The Grammar, on the other hand, is pretty basic. 

 

Just some thoughts after all...If you have any questions about studying Chinese, please let me know.

regards

Lingua 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 16.10.2017 at 8:32 PM, Aaron said:

Yea, I remember Russian grammar was kind of messed up. They have verb endings that match the gender of the subject? Was that it?

Only in the past tense. In other tenses our verbs don't care about the gender, but conjugate instead. Sorry:D

Still, there are true enthusiasts who manage to learn our language and speak it neatly.

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Well, I think for a lot of people, Spanish is a prerequisite. I agree that German, French, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese are all super helpful in international business, but I think maybe you should add Spanish to that list as well, it's at least worth some time. Also, I would suggest Korean because it is another attractive language for businesspeople. It is also hard, writing and reading aren't too difficult, but the grammar is quite different from European languages. Either way, what really matters isn't what to learn but how much you can realistically learn. You'll probably get farther in Spanish or French in a few months than several years in Chinese or Japanese. That's just my opinion though. No real right answer. Just find a language you are really good at and learn it thoroughly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

That choice is ultimately up for you. It is important to reflect on the reasons why you want to learn this language. Is it for a potential job or is it for pleasure? Once you start you are opening a huge box of amazing experiences and possibilities. 

If you are aiming for a useful language, I would recommend Spanish. Spanish is spoken on multiple continents making it applicable in numerous countries. 

Best of Luck!

Marta

 

 

Edited by Wanda Kaishin
removed self-promotion link
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  • 3 weeks later...

I am trying to learn Japanese in Japan and it is proving really difficult with Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana somehow ok but Kanji is really tough for me. I would say speaking and understanding Japanese can be challenging as well since there are many different ways of saying the same thing but still this should not be a very different than learning any other language but reading and writing is a whole lot of different story. I assume it is the same for Chinese. Having said that, I see many friends around me who are quite good at Kanji which is the most difficult alphabet (basically originated from China) among three, this means if you are really into it you can do. Learning Japanese and Japan would be very interesting and unique experience, this is for sure.

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