What are the most important languages in business life?
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tilc (
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October 1st, 2009
I am curious about your opinion, what would be the most important languages in business life? In the EU and/or world wide? I know English is the most important and everybody should speak it, but beside English, what would be the 3–4 or more other languages you speak would make you a successfull business man at your international company or a good human resource on the international job-market?
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10 Answers
If I were doing international business I would say Chinese (Mandarin), Russian, Spanish, German, and like you said English. But it would be hard to learn all the languages, but important.
That all depends on where you do business, doesn’t it? I would say in the U.S. you should know Spanish. After that, French, Mandarin, Japanese, or German.
I would think it would be English, French and Spanish, they are the most used languages, and alot of other languages are really close to the those three !
Germans speak English for the most part. Mandatory curriculum in grade school sorta thing. Same for Indians. Personally I’d say Spanish, Japanese, and Body Language.
I think learning languages is overrated when it comes to business. I mean they are fun and interesting to know and it makes travel easier. I studied both French and Russian in hopes of getting an interesting job thanks to my knowledge. I have still to use my language skills in a business setting and I am quite disappointed actually. The reason seems to be that most people around the world seem to want to speak English. Also, getting to a sufficient level of proficiency when learning a foreign language is difficult and takes ages – their is a huge difference between getting by socially over drinks and being able to discuss for instance contracts in a foreign language. Linguists often say that there is no way in hell that an adult will learn to speak a language fluently without years of study and actually living in a country where the language is used.
But knowing a language certainly helps overcome cultural differences and sometimes it certainly helps putting people in a more favorable light – one always gets an A for effort at least.
If I had to pick five languages, they would be, in no particular order, English, French, Mandarin, Arabic, and Spanish.
Laguages of customers or clients with whom you’re making your business with.
And, suppliers or vendors if any.
English, Spanish, and Mandarin
Spanish is the second most used language in the U.S.
Others would be German, sign language, Italian, Chinese and Japanese.
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