<p>Arabic-speakers are in high demand from US intelligence agencies.</p>
<p>Also: Think Arabic, think oil. The Arabic countries still have a huge portion of oil reserves. They cannot be ignored. Infact, our trade deficit with oil producing countries was significantly larger than our trade deficit with China (big surprise!).</p>
<p>It's not like all of you are headed into the CIA. I'd place my bet on Chinese (Mandarin). The best way to butter up potential Chinese businesses is to show your skill in their language. If it comes down to your firm and Billy Bob's, and you can, in Chinese, discuss the pros and cons of the Tang Dynasty while Billy Bob can only go, "Ching chang chong", (which, by the way, is more characteristic of Cantonese, than Mandarin) who's gonna get the contract?</p>
<p>I know Chinese, English and a slight bit of French. I'm learning Korean and Japanese in my free time, but I have to say that Chinese is probably the best Asian language to learn if you're going to learn any. </p>
<p>Also </p>
<p>Richest Countries in the World
Rank Country GDP - per capita
1 Luxembourg $ 55,100
2 Norway $ 37,800
3 United States $ 37,800
4 San Marino $ 34,600
5 Switzerland $ 32,700
6 Denmark $ 31,100
7 Iceland $ 30,900
8 Austria $ 30,000
9 Canada $ 29,800
10 Ireland $ 29,600
11 Belgium $ 29,100
12 Australia $ 29,000
13 Netherlands $ 28,600
14 Japan $ 28,200
15 United Kingdom $ 27,700
16 France $ 27,600
17 Germany $ 27,600
18 Finland $ 27,400
19 Monaco $ 27,000
20 Sweden $ 26,800</p>
<p>Japan is #14.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>As rich as some of those countries are, I don't think knowing Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish, or whatever they speak in Luxembourg's gonna make you anything more than an interesting novelty at a cocktail party.</p>
<p>nbachris is right. You have to consider the country's situation. Luxembourg, Monaco, and San Marino are tiny countries, and Norway has high taxes.</p>
<p>I love the title of this thread...so CC-like!</p>
<p>not hindi, most indians learn english and definitely the ones you would deal with in the business world know english</p>
<p>german?</p>
<p>look at all the rich countries!!!</p>
<p>What about Spanish? Don't we need to communicate with our neighbors to the south?</p>
<p>they can just learn English. :)</p>
<p>Spanish is already VERY prevalent in the US</p>
<p>It seems like French would be a really valuable language that may be more plausible for some of us that will have an already difficult courseload. I hear Japanese and Chinese are very difficult to learn, whereas French, German, Spanish, etc. are pretty easy to catch onto. I'd imagine they are all quite valuable as well.</p>
<p>For US citizens Spanish/Portoguese is a very good language combo to learn. You can learn these two languages with the same time involvement as learning Mandarin or Japanese.</p>
<p>Learning Spanish AND Portuguese is still a lot easier than trying to learn Mandarin or Japanese.</p>
<p>Yeah, I didn't want to overestimate. However, with that said, one could tack on French or Italian very easily (French being the more economical). You can get 2-3 romance languages for the price of a single Asian language. To me the choice is clear.</p>
<p>I think the cultural rewards of knowing French and Japanese are much bigger and unique than knowing French and Spanish. But that's a pretty tall order, taking the time to learn a Romance and East Asian language.</p>
<p>Well, obviously. But, as you said, for an English speaker can learn 3+ Romance/Germanic languages for a single East Asian language.</p>
<p>Hi folks. Thanks for your replies. Haven't been around for a long time due to first months at university.</p>
<p>Yeah, according to the logic I stated on my original post, the only really valuable language would be English, since everyone is learning it... and everyone can communicate in English :D</p>
<p>I think I failed to correctly express what my friends told me:
That attitude-wise, people from certain countries - especially Japan if we talk about Asia - are not so open, and less incline to learn foreign languages.
And therefore, learning their languages might also be more in demand. Might show them more respect, etc.</p>
<p>I don't know whether this is a stereotype since I've never been to Japan, but from what I heard around, the folks are said to be very [too] proud of their heritage, culture and language.</p>
<p>As for those who would like to study European languages, I'd suggest German and Russian. Russian, because it is spoken throughout all former Soviet countries, which are now ranked among the countries in process of potential economic development.</p>
<p>Spanish? Isn't spanish your second native language, in USA?</p>
<p>They speak German in Luxembourg ;]</p>
<p>NO IM PRETTY SURe THEY SPEEK LUXEMBOURGish</p>