Most wanted languages in the world that can get you a job?

[israelrt]

Proficiency in Cantonese and Gujarati would serve to set you apart from the usual applicants.

Many expatriate "Chinese", business people are Cantonese (in Australia and the US), Hokkien, Teochew or Hakka speakers (Singapore, Taiwan). Although they often understand Putonghua ("Mandarin" /Huayu/Guoyu), speaking their native language would be obviously beneficial.

Similarly although many North Indians will understand and speak some kind of mangled Hindi, speaking their native language would be better. Gujaratis are prominent in Indian business, both at home and overseas. If you choose a Dravidian Indian language, Tamil would be a great choice.

[kulaputra]

Proficiency in Cantonese and Gujarati would serve to set you apart from the usual applicants.

Many expatriate "Chinese", business people are Cantonese (in Australia and the US), Hokkien, Teochew or Hakka speakers (Singapore, Taiwan). Although they often understand Putonghua ("Mandarin" /Huayu/Guoyu), speaking their native language would be obviously beneficial.

Similarly although many North Indians will understand and speak some kind of mangled Hindi, speaking their native language would be better. Gujaratis are prominent in Indian business, both at home and overseas. If you choose a Dravidian Indian language, Tamil would be a great choice.

On the other hand, learning Hindi and Mandarin will allow you access to more material resources (not to mention cognates, etc.) with which to actually learn Gujarati and Cantonese.

[SM11]

Hello everyone, I'm planning to enroll Philology faculty but I don't know what to chose. I'm interested in Scandinavian, Japanese, Arabian and Chinese. Can I find a good job (or go abroad) with those languages? Or is there something better right now to chose?

Hi Doctor035,

Well, yes the first one that comes into my mind is Chinese Mandarin.

I'm a French native, currently studying economy at university and I have Chinese Mandarin classes as well. I went to study for a month and a half in Ningbo (near Shanghai), and I met some French expatriates working there. One of them told me how it was easy to find a job after he got his HSK 5.

The guy did a bachelor degree in France with something related to economy, then he spent one year in Ningbo just to study Chinese. He got a great job as soon as he started to look for jobs, working in with suppliers for big companies. Apparently just the fact that he spoke both French and Chinese was so precious. He didn't have to do such complicate things in his job I think, and his Chinese wasn't perfect as well (far from that he told me), but it was enough to communicate with Chinese people.

Even though he wouldn't put the words in the right order (which is really difficult when you're European), Chinese people could still understand him, and it was more than enough for him to get a job there. And obviously, he had a good salary there, and since the cost of live is so cheap there, he's doing pretty good right now ^^

So yeah, if you already speak a Western language, it's really good advantage to know a non-Western one, because there's few people like this. And I think Chinese is the one with the biggest opportunities yeah.

Hope that can clarify your thoughts a bit.

Good luck with Chinese if you plan to learn it, it's not an easy one, that's the only problem... ^^'