Most profitable foreign language?

[The Bandit Fish]

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Never - Sanskrit

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Droz: What's Your major?
Sanskrit Major: Sanskrit
Droz: Sanskrit. You're majoring in a 5000 year old dead language?

[JoeDimaggio]

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We'll, I'm still at a toss-up between civil engineering and economics... but as far as languages go..

Japanese vs Spanish vs German?

Any of them = profit?

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It depends on which area you are talking about. Obviously in Asia Japanese is the most profitable with Chinese becoming more important every day. If you are talking about South America unless you deal with Brazilians everybody speaks Spanish. For Europe I would say the most profitable is German because the most people speak it and Germany is the most industrious country along with Britain in Europe. The easiest to transition to from English and most profitable out of them I would say is German.

[hauchen]

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Didn't read thread, but the answer is Mexican

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Is this some sort of joke? Hope it is because you are either:

A) A [censored] idiot.
B) An unethical person (to not call you racist).
C) A [censored] idiot.

You pick.


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My opinion: Spanish
No way influenced by the fact that I'm Puerto Rican and apparantly speak "Mexican."

<^>-.-<^> [censored]

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LOL it's the internets chill out bro

FYI I'm taking some Mexican classes next quarter in school so hopefully I can post some quality posts in Mexican soon [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[bmxicle]

I've been studying Spanish for 2 months in spain and it's pretty easy, there is nothing hard about it to understand, and it's very straightforward...not to mention tonnes of words are the same or simmilar.

So i think if it's close then learn spanish simply cause it's easier. I heard that when the US army teaches someone a language it takes 6 months to get someone fluent in spanish, and 2 years in things like korean, cantonese etc.

[NozeCandy]

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Didn't read thread, but the answer is Mexican

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this some sort of joke? Hope it is because you are either:

A) A [censored] idiot.
B) An unethical person (to not call you racist).
C) A [censored] idiot.

You pick.


---
My opinion: Spanish
No way influenced by the fact that I'm Puerto Rican and apparantly speak "Mexican."

<^>-.-<^> [censored]

[/ QUOTE ]

Well congratulations, you just made me think all Puerto Ricans are really stupid.

[AlphaFiveThree]

I would say don't rule out Arabic - Dubai is one of the largest growing places in the world, [censored] loads of trade going over there, especially with the war - do not underestimate it.

[MrMon]

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I would say don't rule out Arabic - Dubai is one of the largest growing places in the world, [censored] loads of trade going over there, especially with the war - do not underestimate it.

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This is actually the best answer. There are tons of Chinese Americans who can already speak both English and Chinese, plus, many Chinese businessmen know English, so the market for Chinese is somewhat restricted. However, if you want a decent paying job with the government in the intelligence services (NSA, FBI, CIA, etc.), Arabic is definitely the way to go.

[Thremp]

MrMon,

If you want to spend 3 years on a language, then yes.

[amplify]

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Never - Sanskrit

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Droz: What's Your major?
Sanskrit Major: Sanskrit
Droz: Sanskrit. You're majoring in a 5000 year old dead language?

[/ QUOTE ]
I probably know more Sanskrit words than chinese. I may know more Pali words than Sankskrit and that's an even more obscure language. This is what interest in Buddhist Scriptures will do to you.

[mengzi]

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I would say don't rule out Arabic - Dubai is one of the largest growing places in the world, [censored] loads of trade going over there, especially with the war - do not underestimate it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is actually the best answer. There are tons of Chinese Americans who can already speak both English and Chinese, plus, many Chinese businessmen know English, so the market for Chinese is somewhat restricted. However, if you want a decent paying job with the government in the intelligence services (NSA, FBI, CIA, etc.), Arabic is definitely the way to go.

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i have to disagree. i think you are pretty much restricted to intelligence/gov type work with arabic. and i would be willing to bet that a much larger proportion of arabic speakers are more proficient in english than native chinese speakers.

in fact, i would say that is one of the things westerners learning chinese or even japanese/korean have going for them: even though a ton of people in these countries study english, only a very small proportion reach the level of proficiency that jobs in mnc require.

i don't really know what constitutes a ton, but there certainly aren't enough chinese americans who can speak chinese well enough to meet the demand. sure they have a huge advantage, but we aren't just talking about getting an a in your college class; most american born chinese have to go aways uphill before they 'master' the language.

this is to say nothing of the future potential for growth. trade/interaction with china looks to continue to grow rapidly. the arabic speaking part of the world? depends on what type of 'interaction' we are talking about.

but these are just my thoughts. reading through the thread, it doesn't appear as though anyone has done an exhaustive survey and can speak authoritatively as to what is the best language to learn.