Best second language to learn?

Career Opportunities & Internships Investment Banking
1

<p>What is the best second language to learn for a career in investment banking? Chinese, Swiss, French?</p>

2

<p>It’s a very subjective question, however I’d say one of the emerging market languages. So Spanish of course, Chinese, Portuguese, etc.</p>

3

<p>Chinese. China is the next economic super power.</p>

4

<p>French (or any Latin language) or Japanese. Chinese has at least 8 dialects and China still has fundamental economic and political problems. They’re far from being an economic superpower. Most business in china is done in English because of the number of Chinese dialects.</p>

<p>French is best, it’s the among the most spoken languages but more important it’s more prolific. It’s spoken in West and North Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. It’s also a Latin language 80% so you have a basis for Spanish and Italian. It’s 20% Germanic so it’s easy to learn. When there is confusion, much of the world conduct business in English or French</p>

<p>We’re the only major country that puts Spanish on a pedestal. Everyone else learns English and French.</p>

5

<p>French and Latin is also used in legal language.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/Weber-TopTen7.jpg[/url]”>http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/Weber-TopTen7.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Okay, latin is definitrely not useful. I’m going with Chinese. But really, english is good enough. and tort, i disagree about english being used in china because of the dialects. Mandarin is used because of the dialects, english is used because well, it’s english. My cousin works for Bacardi in Shanghai, which is what I’m basing my answer off of.</p>

7

<p>Chinese or Hindi would be my guess. </p>

<p>Is speaking German considered a plus when applying to Deutsche Bank?</p>

8

<p>Hindi would be a waste. No one in corporate india uses Hindi on a regular basis. Everyone speaks English.</p>

<p>Also, learning a new language is easy said than done. Make sure you actually have the motivation and drive to study it, and use it conversationally. </p>

<p>p.s. There’s no language called “Swiss”. People in Switzerland speak either German, French or Italian.</p>

9

<p>Well which companies in the united states have branches in other countries, like france</p>

10

<p>What do you mean ibmx?</p>

11

<p>well are there any big time bulge bracket firms that have offices in foreign countries?</p>

12

<p>Pretty much ever firm has branches abroad. Generally the biggest offices are NY, London & a locale in Asia (HK, Tokyo, Singapore, etc). However there are either offices in other countries or there are groups that cover them from a main office, like how most BBs have an Emerging Markets team.</p>

13

<p>I would learn German. Germany has the third largest economy in the world and it is also the world’s leading export nation. Also, the German language is the most widely spoken language across Europe.</p>

<p>Although China is an emerging market, the Chinese language has many different dialects which can make it hard for business there. This is why a lot of business done there is usually conducted in English. Not to mention, the Chinese alphabet has many characters (maybe too many) which helps make the language very difficult to learn.</p>

14

<p>As someone who has taken Chinese for nearly four years, I just want to let everyone here know that there is a standardized dialect that everyone learns - Mandarin. It’s one of the easiest dialects to learn and is the official language of the government.</p>

15

<p>seriously. do people really not know that Mandarin is the standard language? It’s spoken by all except in the deep deep boonies! Business there is done in English because well, it’s ENGLISH and it’s the world language, not because Chinese people dont have a language of their own.</p>

16

<p>Isn’t Cantonese the primary dialect of Hong Kong… not quite “the boonies.”</p>

17

<p>[The</a> Twelve Most Useful Second Languages for English Speakers](<a href=“http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-twelve-most-useful-second-languages-for-english-speakers.html]The”>http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-twelve-most-useful-second-languages-for-english-speakers.html)</p>

18

<p>^ Yeah, so maybe it would be best to learn Cantonese instead of Mandarin? Hong Kong is one of the banking capitals of the world.</p>

19

<p>I do not feel qualified enough to really answer that, I know most of the business in Hong Kong is done in English. I was just pointing out that other dialects are not just in small villages or something.</p>

20

<p>I lived in Hong Kong for some years. I traveled to China twice and visited several cities both north and south. While it is true that there are many local dialects, Mandarin is the standard. If you were to learn Chinese, learn Mandarin. You can use it through out China except in remote areas. In cities, the older generation might not know Mandarin, all the younger generation do.</p>