Most logical foreign language to learn. (loan, living, legal)

[fjtee]

I speak Russian and it hasn't been that useful in terms of jobs. It's been fantastic for living there and making friends. A lot of Russian business people speak excellent English. You're right in thinking Spanish and Chinese. Loads of people speak both Spanish and English, so I think you should choose Chinese. Yes, it's difficult, but go live there. That's how I learned Russian. Immersion is the way to go!

[histmaj]

Arabic is a tough language to learn as an English speaker (atleast for me it was!) but it will be well worth it in the business sector, with oil being a very central topic in the economy. Mandarin is also tough because of the characters and strokes, but would also be good. I just dont feel that Russian would be as important as Arabic or Mandarin, but thats just my .02

[Hasdrubal]

Originally Posted by Simple Living

How easy is Norwegian to learn?

why would you learn it?

[Simple Living]

Originally Posted by Hasdrubal

why would you learn it?

Why wouldn't I?

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by Cornwell

I'm about to start college and I was just wanting some input on which foreign language would be the most useful to learn If I plan on trying to get an M.A in Economics concentrating on global business. Would Spanish be the best bet because it has the most countries speaking it, or Chinese because it will probably have the most thriving economy by the time I'm done with school. Or would anyone else have a different recommendation? Thanks.

On international business, I would say Chinese though Spanish is good too. Keep in mind that the educated classes in both China and Latin America speak English and learn it at an early age. I'm of Chinese/Taiwanese ancestry and speak Chinese but chose to learn Spanish in middle and high school which is useful in the U.S. increasingly. Yes, I believe Mexicans and others coming here should learn English and assimilate but the fact is that sometimes Spanish can be helpful.

English will always be the international language since so many powerful countries speak it like the US, Canada, Australia, and Britain. Also it is well spoken in India too which is another economic powerful in the future. English is sometimes used as a common language in India because each part of India has its own language.

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by Taty

Forgot to mention.. he does not pay taxes at all. (Since the job is International).

I assume that he is a U.S. citizen? The United States is one of the very few countries in the world that tax based on citizenship rather than residence. There is an $80,000 exemption, but he still needs to file his U.S. taxes every year and pay U.S. income taxes on anything over that.

There has been some attempts in recent years to take that $80,000 exemption away and tax U.S. citizens on everything they make worldwide.

[TKramar]

Originally Posted by Cornwell

I'm about to start college and I was just wanting some input on which foreign language would be the most useful to learn If I plan on trying to get an M.A in Economics concentrating on global business. Would Spanish be the best bet because it has the most countries speaking it, or Chinese because it will probably have the most thriving economy by the time I'm done with school. Or would anyone else have a different recommendation? Thanks.

I would start with Mandarin or Japanese. Actually, right now, you have many nations in what we call the Far East, that are coming up as far as international business is concerned. Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, China, India, Korea...there are two others.

The way Spanish comes in handy is that it will help you to understand French and Italian, since they share root words in some cases.

But, of course, many foreigners that want to get into business are learning ENGLISH as the language of choice. Is there a specific ASPECT of business that you are interested in? Would you rather work in finance, publishing, etc? Are you interested in working primarily in Europe, and the EC, or are you interested in Asia?

[TKramar]

Originally Posted by bale002

I believe the distinction is among eastern, western and southern (yugo) Slavic.

So Russian would be most closely related to Ukranian, Belarusian and Rusyn. Then Polish, Czech and Slovak are in the western group; Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian in the southern group.

Don't forget Hungarian.

In the Czech Republic, many speakers use Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian to communicate with the different groups that live there.

[Mar0]

I studied Japanese for 10 years and majored in it, and I would say that it is a VERY difficult language to learn. Like a previous poster mentioned in regards to Chinese, to understand Japanese, you need to understand the culture. On top of that, you need to be able to learn a few thousand kanji to be considered proficient. Although I did not spend any time studying Chinese, I would venture to say that some of the frustrations that I incurred while studying Japanese would be true about Chinese. The sentence structure is ENTIRELY different and not being able to recognize all of the kanji is especially frustrating. If you want to master Japanese, you need to be extremely dedicated.

On the other hand, I studied Spanish and although I have more of an emotional attachment to Japanese, I LOVED Spanish. It was such a breeze to learn, as it is so similar to English.

So, I guess I would just ask you how dedicated are you to this goal? If you are truly dedicated and motivated, try a harder language like Chinese or Arabic, but know that it will be frustrating and you will hate it at times. If you want to learn a language to add to your resume and possibly help you later in life (although your future isn't necessarily dependent on it...), I would say go with an easier, Latin-based language. Honestly though, I was so set to use Japanese in my life and I moved to Hawaii figuring it would get me far in life...I never use it. Good luck in all your endeavors!

[TKramar]

I would suppose that READING some foreign languages, that don't use the English alphabet, is more difficult than speaking or understanding it when spoken.

What I know of Japanese is how the words sound, and how they are transliterated into English.

konnichiwa is something I can read, something I can say, but I can't read the kanji.