WHAT IS THE MOST USEFUL FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR IB?
Hi guys!
I am currently a freshman and I am passionate about foreign languages. I currently speak 3 languages fluently and I have just started learning a fourth one. From your experience, what languages are the most useful for the Investment Banking and/or consulting? Also, my goal is to know 5 languages at the end of undergrad. Would you guys rather spend time on learning foreign languages or something else that is more useful in the finance industry?
Thanks!
Klingon
GAAP
BDSM
you probably won't be speaking Italian with the clients but you'll definitely be using BDSM in the sex dungeon with them
If you can read “managing director” you’ll be very well-situated.
If you are US-based, Spanish is great bc all the BB's have a lot of business in LATAM. If you ever want to go to Europe and already have Spanish in the bag, French is your next best bet. Apart from those, Mandarin. Those would cover the language requirements of a solid 90% of front office jobs.
German is way more useful imo
French is a useless language to learn since almost all French people in the business world speak english.
Also, most French people have no sense of humor
You clearly do not know the French business world
lol what? it's the fastest growing language
English
As someone who has used a foreign language as a way to help market myself for FO Banking SA's, please please please make sure that you achieve fluency.
As for languages: Mandarin, Spanish are the two best bets for maximizing ROI.
Have a friend that did a foreign exchange trip where he spent a year in Hong Kong. Claimed to be fluent in Cantonese. Landed S&T interview at JPM where the interviewer just so happened to be fluent in Cantonese.. Guess who didn't get the offer
mandarin hands down
german next
(i am biased i speak both)
As a multi-lingual, LDN based analyst who also spent significant time in Asia (but has no Asian heritage whatsoever!) I'm a bit skeptical about suggestions to pick up Mandarin. It's a very cool language and if you decided for it, just do it - but I can't see it as the wisest choice for a student looking to improve their skill-set ahead of entering IBD. It will take literal years to master written Mandarin and there will always be the US (or European for the folks in LDN) educated Chinese who can do a much better job than you.
Otherwise, you can of course pick up Mandarin as a spoken language only via pinyin, which is what I did. But at that point, it becomes more of a "fun fact" than a proper skill in the eyes of your recruiters, as you won't be able to read materials/email/etc (albeit I'm now trying anyway to use it to better position myself in getting staffed on cross-border deals with Asia).
I do agree that Spanish (and potentially Portuguese?) may be better choices if you're US-based (in terms of LATAM activity).
If you're interested in Europe (cross-border staffing and potentially spending some time there), best bets would likely be French, German and Italian.
.
Couldn’t agree more. It’s nearly impossible to ever rise to a level where you are fluent, especially behind spoken Mandarin. Sure, it’s possible. But it takes an obscene amount of time and effort. And in the end it really doesn’t add too much to your profile given the amount of Chinese business people who speak English. I usually tell people they are better off pursuing languages that give them a realistic chance of becoming fluent.
In the US, Spanish is useful and maybe Mandarin. In Europe, French and German are very desirable
IFRS
Mandarin, Russian, German, Spanish, Arabic
If you're in Europe, Spanish and Italian are quite useful for distressed funds/NPLs
Mandarin may be over-rated. Not going to take you far in China unless you're actually mainland Chinese, given how the hiring trends are going.
Spanish or Portuguese duh
Only foreign languages specified on US job posts
LatAm stuff of course
Going to disagree with some of the comments about Chinese. Mandarin is neat if you think China is neat, but it's a waste of time as a business endeavor for a number of reasons:
If I had to recommend an east asian language offered in colleges which might be impactful, I would lean towards Japanese as a money center economy with a uniquely low quality of English. Japanese is also wildly complicated for its own reasons, but both listening and speaking are relatively easy to pick up for native English speaker due to the similarity in sounds and lack of tones. Given what seems like natural aptitude you probably learn by listening/experience rather than by rote. This also gives the edge to Japanese as the amount of available Japanese media is far greater than Chinese - unless things have changed since I stopped learning Chinese.
European language pick is German, mostly because of how French business is conducted (no real examples just bad vibes)
Arabic/Indonesian would be something interesting as well, though I have no insight on the business dynamics. I'm not bullish on Russia/Russian as a business center.
Disagree about comments saying learning Chinese is impossible but from an IB perspective:
In the US: 1)Spanish 2) Portuguese
In London: 1) German 2) French - over German because French are a bit snob and prefer natives, also all applying to LDN 3) Italian 4) Spanish 5) Dutch/Nordics language - very low ROI since these guys speak multiple languages esp. in the Nordics 6) Russian
would advise against Dutch/Nordics since these guys are killing it and speak multiple languages Fluently (eg. all the Nordics languages).
however, Nordics languages have a high ROI in VC (Stockholm being a hot VC market)
More or less agree with this. There is a huge overlap between Swedish, Danish and Norwegian - if you are fluent in one of those you are fluent in all.
Language is important, but not the deciding factor if you will land and internship. There are probably thousands of people that speak the same language.
Spanish obviously, but if you're good at that, Arabic or Bahasa may be worth looking into to provide lots of geographical flexibility. Agreed that for Mandarin the ROI isn't as high as it would appear because of the massive supply of people who will always be way better at it than you.
Arabic is of quite limited use especially from the US, however if he’s willing to go to Dubai he can make a lot of money there... entry salaries there are very high to attract labour
In our EU offices the most commonly used languages are Spanish, German and Italian. But everyone (and I mean everyone, regardless of nationality) speaks English. French would be good to have if you have business relations in either Quebec, France or comparable countries.
This is one of those moments where I enjoy being a lazy American who was born speaking English. :)
The British Empire truly was very global. I have walked into so many offices without speaking one word of the language and got away with English. This, of course, doesn't mean we shouldn't be learning new languages, but English is the language in finance and global management. In almost any country.
CFA
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