What languages to learn to be confident in the job market

Justine Thomas

In the modern world, fluency in a foreign language is a factor of self-realization. For example, knowledge of English, German, or Spanish, exceeding the school course may be decisive in terms of career. Therefore, it is important to choose the language that will significantly increase your professional opportunities.

Today there are approximately 7,000 different languages in the world. Even the best polyglot won’t be able to master them all. However, most of these languages are used by a relatively small number of speakers. Another thing is the so-called “imperial languages.” If you think about learning a foreign language, you have to pay attention to them first of all. The term “imperial language” means the investment attractiveness of the language.

For many years the index used to demonstrate the economic attractiveness of the language was the number of people speaking that language. For this indicator, Chinese people occupy first place. Latest figures show that the Chinese dialect Mandarin is the most common language in the world. It is spoken by more than 885 million people. Spanish occupies 2nd place (332 million), English – 3 (322 million), and Bengali – 4.

But is Mandarin an attractive investment? As the figures show, the language is primarily interested by the Chinese. On July 5, 2006, China Radio proudly reported that in the world the number of people who study the Mandarin dialect is growing. It appears that the figure has already reached 30 million. Meanwhile 200 million people in the country are learning English. So we can say that the number of speakers is not the main index of investment attractiveness.

The key factor of the language situation is the economy. A minority of people learn languages because of love for the art. Instead a large part do it due to financial or career necessity. The languages which will greatly increase your chance of success, are those:

Rank  Language  Native     The second   The total number of speakers
1         English      340 mln   to 1 billion     to 1 340 mln
2         Spanish     322 mln   to 80 mln      to 400 mln
3         Arabic        240 mln   to 40 mln      to 280 mln
4         Russian     145 mln   to 110 mln     to 255 mln
5         German     210 mln   to 80 mln       to 200 mln

Based on the data in the table, you can determine which languages to pay attention when you are facing a difficult choice. Start this process responsibly: study the industry in which you plan to work, and observe how different languages are positioned.

About author:

My name is Justine Thomas, and I am a blogger and freelance writer. My main interests are foreign languages, psychology, and fitness. Currently I am working at education project Edubirdie.com as a consulting editor.