List of most common languages... (Seattle, Spokane: lawyers, law school, living in)

[Nalahacjr]

Hello! I am currently living in FL, but will be moving to Seattle soon. I just finished up law school down here and I am wanting to learn a second language that could benefit me in Seattle. I was wondering what the most common/spoken languages were in Seattle (besides English). I was thinking Mandarin or Japanese, but I would love any help or lists you could give me. Thank you for the help!!

[allforcats]

This article from the Puget Sound Business Journal might be helpful:
Our state's students need more language training - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

According to the local station of one of the three networks, there are 94 languages spoken in Seattle. http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4166076.html

You might want to use the demographics (see City-Data.com) to make a choice.
Races in Seattle:

• White Non-Hispanic (67.9%)
• Black (8.4%)
• Hispanic (5.3%)
• Two or more races (4.5%)
• Chinese (3.4%)
• Filipino (2.8%)
• Other race (2.4%)
• Vietnamese (2.1%)
• American Indian (2.1%)
• Other Asian (1.8%)
• Japanese (1.6%)
• Korean (0.9%)
• Asian Indian (0.5%)

[MaikeerinWA]

For what it's worth, King County offers voting registration materials in Chinese, Spanish, Cambodian, Korean, Laotian, Russian and Vietnamese, in addition to English.

[la_fuerza]

These are the second languages:

Seattle proper - Chinese and Vietnamese

Washington State as a whole - Spanish

[Freebird2007]

Spanish.....America as a whole seems to be going that direction

[dxenopoulos]

In King County, the most common foreign languages are Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Vietnamese, Tagalog and Korean. In Washington as a whole, Spanish is most common, but the larger concentrations of Latinos are on the east side of the state (Yakima, Wenatchee, Tri-Cities, etc)

The largest visible minority in Seattle/King County area are Asians. The Seattle area probably has one of the most diverse Asian populations in the country. Bellevue is around 25% Asian, Seattle probably not too far behind. Chinese and Vietnamese are the most common Asian languages, also common are Tagalog (Filipino), Korean, Japanese, Cambodian and East Indian languages.

There is lots of immigration from Eastern Europe. Russians live all over, especially in the suburbs south and east of Seattle, like Tukwila, Renton and Bellevue. Even Spokane and Bellingham have significant foreign-born Russian/Ukrainian populations. There is significant recent immigration from Africa - Somali, Ethiopian and Arabic are increasingly common.

I would say Chinese would be the best language to learn moving to the Seattle area. The population is growing rapidly and Seattle does a lot of business with China. Vancouver, BC is the closest major city and almost a quarter of their population is Chinese.

[MaikeerinWA]

Unless things have changed recently in Vancouver, a majority probably speak Cantonese, though.

Originally Posted by dxenopoulos

Vancouver, BC is the closest major city and almost a quarter of their population is Chinese.

[redrum]

I don't think a second language is going to help you professionally, at least from a financial stand point. I know a lot of bilingual people and it hasn't really helped any of them advance in their respective careers (including lawyers). If you decide to learn a second language, I'd just pick one that looks fun and interesting.

[tada]

Being that most of my time in Seattle proper is spent at UW, I hear languages from all over the world on a regular basis.

Originally Posted by Nalahacjr

Hello! I am currently living in FL, but will be moving to Seattle soon. I just finished up law school down here and I am wanting to learn a second language that could benefit me in Seattle. I was wondering what the most common/spoken languages were in Seattle (besides English). I was thinking Mandarin or Japanese, but I would love any help or lists you could give me. Thank you for the help!!

Only a little (yeah right) biased, but I recommend Japanese. There don't seem to be any major second languages here, so if you're learning a language only to speak with people around here, I wouldn't. I obviously have motivation for my second language, though.

[Tallahatchie]

I'm a few years late on this thread but have a similar question.
I'm finishing my biology bachelors here in TN and am going to minor in a language. I already am pretty close to fluent in Spanish and part of my veterinary technician job is translating. However I plan on moving to Seattle in a couple years for grad school (and as a permanent move hopefully) and was wondering if Spanish as a second language is as in demand there as it is here in middle TN. Have trends changed at all since this thread started in '08? I've always wanted to learn Russian as I find it a beautiful language but is it a worth while investment of my time to minor in it? Or should I just stick with just Spanish.