Best Language to Learn?
Hey,
Rising high school senior here looking to go into finance one day after college. Though I'm interested in finance, I am also highly interested in international business and learning a new language.
What would you guys suggest as a language for someone to learn for international business / international finance?
The schools I'll probably be applying to:
University of Massachusetts Amherst (Safety)
University of New Hampshire (Safety)
University of Pennsylvania (Super-Reach)
Villanova University (Reach)
Harvard College (Super-Reach)
Northeastern University (Match)
Babson College (Match)
Bentley University (Match)
Boston College (CSOM) (Reach)
Bryant University (Safety)
Cornell University (Reach)
Fordham University (Match)
Well it depends a lot on where and what type of work you want to do. French, German, Russian, Mandarin (not in that order) are probably the top across finance that are valuable to know outside of english.
Mandarin for sure
As mentioned above - It depends where you want to work, doing what and who with/for.
In the USA I would imagine Spanish being your best option generally.
I would opt for: - Spanish (relatively easy to learn, many people speak it as their first language (or second), and it is spoken in many emerging markets) - Russian (a bit harder to learn but not as bad as people seem to think apparently, a necessity really in Russia and many former Soviet nations which have a lot of potential to grow 'powerful', and it's quite an uncommon language to learn outside of the former Soviet nations) - German if you want to work in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Most natives will speak good English anyway, especially at post-university level, but jobs there tend to require fluency)
I wouldn't bother with Mandarin if the reason is professional - In China they'll recruit a native Chinese person who speaks English as well as most native English speakers. You're highly unlikely to get a job in China (certainly entry-level), and in the Western world it is of little use, even if you deal with the Chinese. If you do deal with them, learn their customs and basic Mandarin/Cantonese. It's a very challenging language to learn, really not worth the effort in my opinion.
Do a search on this, there was good commentary on a similar post about language learning a little while back.
I took a few languages in college, never really got good at any of them. My opinion is that when learning a language:
Think long and hard about the time you're willing to commit to learning. Its useless to take a few semesters and quit, you'll learn nothing besides basic things you can use in a broken conversation and you'll probably end up forgetting it all anyways.
Pick a language that is spoken in a country that you would want to live in or spend a significant amount of time in. It's no use to learn mandarin if you'd never really want to live in China. Learning a language will really help you to better understand a specific culture so just make sure its a culture you actually want to understand.
Know that it will be impossible to become fluent in a 2nd language without having spent some period of time in an immersive environment. You'll never learn french just by studying everyday, at some point you're going to need to work or live in a french speaking country, probably for a minimum of 6 months in order to really cement that knowledge. Make sure you're willing to make that commitment and plan for it when you're going to college. Study abroad will be a must and ideally, you'll have summers you can commit to travel and language learning as well
To actually answer you question of which language to learn? Spanish,French, German, will be the most useful and easiest to learn.
Mandarin is very difficult, some have an easier time, some really struggle. Depends on how good your ear is. Mandarin would be super useful, but its going to takes years of practice. At my college we had a strong language program and some kids could go from 0 Chinese knowledge to fluent by graduation, but it took a ton of work, lots of Chinese extracurriculars and a 9 month - 1 year study abroad program that was a strict no English program(as in they would literally send you home if they caught you speaking English). With that being said, the kids learned Chinese well.
First of all - I commend you on a worthy goal. Learning a second language is enormously rewarding, often in indirect ways that aren't as noticeable as 'being able to speak to someone in their native tongue'.
My normal recommendation would be to choose the language of a country you like / find interesting: I think it's more likely you'll stick to learning once you're past the initial semester or two, when any language feels new and fun.
However, if we also want to think long-term about using your language in international finance, in ways that go beyond 'ordering breakfast at the hotel', we could look at a couple of different aspects.
You're going to want to learn how to read and write at a grad school level, so keep that in mind for non-Indo European languages. You're going to want your language to be relevant, and in demand, with relatively limited supply. Languages that are easier to pronounce are easier to learn.
I've studied a number of languages, and speak a couple of them fluently. My choice might be biased based on my strongest foreign language, but I would strongly recommend you consider Japanese.
Japan is one of the world's largest economies, particularly in terms of per capita GDP, and has one of the largest financial markets in the world. It is, and will remain, very relevant. Icelandic is a wonderful language but the Icelandic financial markets are somewhat more...limited.
Japanese is dead-easy to pronounce, with only five vowel sounds that basically have exact counterparts in English.
Japanese grammar is largely straight-forward.
The same can be said of Chinese and other non-alphabet based languages, but: The writing can scare people off, but it really shouldn't. Yes, the initial hurdle is higher because it's not based on the familiar alphabet, but there are benefits - for example, the character for a verb doesn't change depending on tense. Can you imagine being a foreign speaker learning English and having to deal with run, ran, run but write, wrote, written??
Japanese is still in demand, and because more students are flocking to the new 'hip' languages like Chinese, fewer people are learning Japanese.
Tokyo can be a bit grim if you're living with a family, but being young and single in Japan is fantastic. It's clean, safe, the food is amazing, if the train doesn't come on time you know your watch is wrong, enjoyable nightlife, etc.
I guess at the end of the day, any language you learn - if you remain committed to it and really learn to read, write and speak at a grad student level - will be beneficial (even Icelandic). But I'd definitely consider Japanese if it's offered at the school you go to.
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