<p>if you want to study german, does anyone know where the top undergraduate programs are?</p>
<p>My dad's been in business for around 20 years or so. He's travelled all over the world. I know for a fact that when he goes to Japan, he has no problem speaking with his associates in English.</p>
<p>Some people may not know this but business people in China will know Russian. I would say Russian is a good langague to learn but if I had my 2 chocies MAN and JAP. Usually business people learn english.</p>
<p>I'd definately say Mandarin or maybe even Cantonese. Mandarin is DEFINATELY easier to learn though because Cantonese in spoken form has quite a lot of slang.</p>
<p>China is the center of the largest economic boom of any IC.</p>
<p>I'm a mom borrowing my daughter's login but just wanted to throw a few ideas and questions out. I would think that for languages like Mandarin and Japanese, first of all the written language is so cumbersome (I've heard that even native speakers don't master it until middle school), and especially in Chinese, there are so many highly achieving native speakers in the U.S. that it could be a waste of time for a non-Chinese American to spend a lot of time learning Chinese. I've travelled a lot, and with the exception of the French, most people will be very satisfied if you just know how to say some pleasantries, and it's helpful to be able to get a room and dinner in a language like Japanese or Chinese and then do your business in English. If a company really needs someone to negotiate with Chinese people in Chinese they can have their pick of Chinese-Americans.</p>
<p>Many Indians speak English at home as their first language. I don't think there's a need to learn an Indian language beyond pleasantries either.</p>
<p>Spanish is much easier for an American to learn and useful at home and taught in schools everywhere. So go with Spanish.</p>
<p>German language for sure, but maybe after some years the language that they talk in India?</p>
<p>Gosh.. I wish I am from China :(</p>
<p>All I know is English(fluent), Korean(fluent), Japanese(not so fluent level, but can have some conversation), and Spanish (which 3 years in high school course that taught me nothing)....
I am on my second month of learning Mandarin and it's so freaking hard :(</p>
<p>As A Person Of Indain Descent All I Can Say Is This:</p>
<p>Ppl Use English For Business Purposes In India.</p>
<p>U See Only 40% Of Indians Speak Hindi In India As Thier 1st Language.
So There R Many Languages In India, These Ppl Communicate To Each Othr In The Business Field Or Othr Field By Using English.</p>
<p>India Was Ruled By The British For Over 200 Yrs So English Is Taught From Kindergarden Till Like College In India. Indians Themselves Give More Importance To English Over Their Languages To Use In The Proffesional Field.</p>
<p>For Ex. My Cousin Works In India, He Speaks Malayalam.
He Works In A State Where They Speak Kannada.
His Coworkers Speak Indain Languages Like Hindi, Gujarathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu Etc.
How Do You Think These Indians Communicate W/ Each Othr?
Answer: By Using The Language Called English.</p>
<p>READ THE BELOW INFO FOR INFO, FRM WIKIPEDIA.</p>
<p>Neither the constitution nor the laws of India accord the status of "National Language" to any language in India. There is a law which basically says no language will be made the National Language unless and until all the constituent states of the Union of India accept it. Out of the 28 states and 7 union territories, only 10 states and 3 union territories have Hindi as the principal official language.</p>
<p>As drafted in the constitution in 1950, English ceased to exist as an official language (on par with Hindi) in 1965, after which it was intended to continue as an "associate additional official language" until such time that a duly appointed committee can decide on a full-scale transition to Hindi, based on a periodic review. However, due to protests from South Indian states where there is low Hindi penetration, the "twin language" system is still in vogue. Due to rapid industrialization, and a bustling multinational influence in the economy, English continues to be a popular and influential means of communication in the government and day-to-day business, and moves to replace it have effectively been shelved.</p>
<hr>
<p>I AM OF INDAN DESCENT AND MY ANCESTORS NEVER SPOKE HINDI.
AND HINDI WOULD NEVER BE USED AS A MAJOR LANGUAGE ALL OVER INDIA AS LONG AS SOUTH INDIA IS PART OF INDIA.</p>
<p>BANGLOURE IS A MAJOR IT AREA IN INDIA AND MOST INDANS COMMUNCATE IN ENGLISH THERE</p>
<p>"No offense, but thats total BS. India "democratic ideals" will oneday lead to its downfall. Ever since the late 1970s, China has been strictly enforcing the One Child Policy. While China's population is still growing, pretty soon it will stop and slowly decline. Meanwhile, India's population still grows exponentially. In about 20 years, their population will reach 2 billion and the imbalance between population needs and actual resources will create massive war and starvation. Not to be cynical, but I see a heavy dark cloud billowing over India's future."</p>
<p>I THINK IN MY STATE, KERALA, HAS A LOW BIRTH RATE THESE DAYS.
AND THE LITERACY RATE IN THE STATE IS OVER 90%</p>
<p>What does India's population problems have to do with using other languages to communicate in India or China? </p>
<p>Just learn how to say hello, good-bye, please, thank you, in every country you visit and then switch to English. You'll do fine.</p>
<p>That Works Great In The Indiain Business Fields And Other Fields...</p>
<p>Also tom, I think you underestimate the Hindi speaking population. South Indians might not speak Hindi often simply because they are nto comfortable with it. However, they do speak it! I was born and brought up in a school with lots of South Indians and they all spoke Hindi ( although not that well... )..Hindi is probably the most widely spoken "uniting" language in India other than English. For those who dont speak English ( which I agree with you is probably going to be rare ), Hindi is your best bet among the businessmen folk ( this includes South Indians ) ! Also, please dont generalize about South Indians not speaking Hindi.... My brother-in-law is from Kerala and he speaks perfect Hindi ( including his family ). </p>
<p>The idea of learning a local language is to strike that "personal" note... To be honest, there is no need to learn another language if the perspective you want to take is that English is enough to get by.. Virtually most of the businessmen in this world speak english so there is no urgent need to learn a language.> However, no one can deny that it definately helps!</p>
<p>only real reason to learn another language, coupled with learning their culture, is to incorporate a business environment inviting and comfortable for the foreign party</p>
<p>
[quote]
only real reason to learn another language, coupled with learning their culture, is to incorporate a business environment inviting and comfortable for the foreign party
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I concur [10 char]....</p>
<p>some south indians speak hindi and some donot.</p>
<p>most people I know donot and most people you know speak hindi.</p>
<p>Tom, thank you for supporting my stand that one must not generalize.</p>
<p>Like I said before, look for languages which you will be able to eploit in the future such as Mandarin, Russian, Turkish and so on. Look for countries where business is going to boom and start pursuing that language.</p>
<p>If you're pre-med, figure out where you want to practice, or do your internship, and study a language of recent immigrants. I would think that good old Spanish is very useful in medicine.</p>
<p>Also, travelling around the US, Spanish can very useful. I've been is situations where something has gone wrong in the hotel room in the middle of the night and the housekeeping people only spoke Spanish. </p>
<p>And what about the logistics of studying Turkish or Urdu? Every high school and college will have Spanish, and you can take AP Spanish. I know it isn't very exotic, but it would be kind of sad to study Hindi for years and then never use it.</p>
<p>Ummm Spanish is useful for people living in the US. For those wishing to go International, Spanish is not of much use unless your going to Latin America/Spain. </p>
<p>As has been stated before, it all depends on where the person wants to be and what language will come in use.. It "would be kind of sad to study Spanish for years and then never use it" internationally if thats what the person wants to do. On the other hand, your statement about studying Hindi holds true if the person wants to stay in the US..</p>
<p>five letters H I N D I</p>