What would be the most valuable language to learn?


I’m going into Marketing, Advertising, or possible PR - I’ll start my graduate work in the fall. I’m not exactly sure what I want to do yet, but I am going to look into a job which operates globally. What language would be the most valuable for me to learn??? Are Hindi, Mandarin, or Arabic the best choices?
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Posted in Languages |

6 Responses

  1. Randall C Says:
    February 25th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    magnetic :)

  2. lwa519 Says:
    February 25th, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    Well, I think you’d have a lot of trouble learning Mandarin, it’s supposed to be very difficult. I guess of those three choices I’d say Arabic.

  3. colejoe79 Says:
    February 26th, 2009 at 11:43 pm

    i´m not an expert but i would`ve thought mandarin or other chinese languages would be useful, as would arabic i think.

    i would also add spanish and german to that list as less exotic ones. lots of global businesses have offices in germany.

  4. Raven Says:
    March 1st, 2009 at 10:09 pm

    (in order) English, Mandarin, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and then any others.

  5. Aleksandra P Says:
    March 5th, 2009 at 8:50 am

    German, French and Spanish.
    In India everyone speaks English, so Hindi is waste of time.
    In Arabic world English and French are spoken.
    In Europe German is terribly useful (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and even Northern parts of Italy- speak German)
    Spanish for Spain, Latin America and Philippines.
    China you could not much cover with this selection, but learning Mandarin will take ages, so…well up to you.

  6. Aidant Says:
    March 8th, 2009 at 8:40 am

    It really depends what you want to do. I’m studying Chinese and as a pure language student, we’re doing quite well in the classes. However, those who are studying business along with Chinese aren’t as good because they’re doing it for the glory and wow factor. Thus, you will need to be extremely enthusiastic about learning a new language. For me, it’s a toss up between Chinese and Arabic because India already has a huge amount of people who speak English to a good degree (it was part of the British Empire). I expect you will live in a country where the language is spoken for about a year, so where do you want to live? In two weeks, I’m going to China to live and study there for a year. Maybe you want to go to Dubai or Saudi Arabia…? It’s your choice - what are you most enthusiastic about?