To increase earning potential and open career opportunities, what is one language that you would recommend others to learn? Is your preferred language easy to learn? How has it helped you with your personal life/career?
What Language Other Than English Should All Australians Learn?
MasterNoob on 30/09/2017 - 01:22
Last edited 30/09/2017 - 09:49 by 1 other user
Last edited 30/09/2017 - 09:49 by 1 other user
Comments
The only language which provides consistently positive outcomes across all measures is Latin.
And especially useful if you plan on going on holiday to ancient Rome.
I understand Latin. Not that useful. Get italian or spanish, much more useful than Latin unless you plan on becoming a lawyer.
Salamat pagi bu.
Pagi? Sekarang petang lah.
Bangun pagi, gosok gigi, cuci muka.
Kadang-kadang saya bangun petang.
minum susu
I only remember salamat pagi bu from high school Indonesian lol.
Spanish. You hear enough of despacito. Learn what it mean
C language. The master of all languages.
It would be nice if they could get English down first hahah
Proper English
Easier than trying to understand a hardcore Scottish accent, I guess:
C++
R or Python are more approachable choices too.
Endangered languages, imagine you are the chosen one
For Australians, Chinese is the only logical choice. I am Chinese and I want to learn Italian just because I like it.
Indonesian would make more sense, they are so close they could invade us before we knew what happened… But then they would get shapelle back, and they only just got rid of her so I think we are safe ROFL.
Make more sense if you are French.
Shinglesh
seriously ah?
None.
In IT there had been few occasion where speaking chinese is a selection requirement.
My guess is the company deals a lot with chinese counterparts, or their clients are china based.
I have seen a few IT jobs advertised requiring someone fluent in Japanese or Korea. So it could only mean liaising with either colleagues overseas or clients.
I'm fluent in google translate
Mandarin.
I for one welcome our new Asian overlords.
In Freakonomics they explored this. The conclusion was English is the best language to know, if you are going to attempt to learn a second one, its best to choose a rare language as it will give you a specialty. eg there would be a lot of people who speak English and Mandarin, but not many who speak English and say Nepalese.
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/is-learning-a-foreign-langua…
Mandarin!!!
Javascript! Learn to code on the frontend and on the backend!
Great plan, just don't assume that one should be used for both. NodeJs is great… if you are looking for an excuse for poor performance.
Also start looking at WebAssembly if you are trying to get ahead of the curve.
what did OP choose?
* Since he didn't like Chinese
* Context would be nice in terms of what field he/she is in
* Poll would be nice in terms of what languages he/she believe fits in your 3 criteria(a) it is extremely difficult to speak for those of non-east asian descent
What language isn't?
(b) the chinese will always be able to pick up on english MUCH more easily
What?
(c) the language lacks sex appeal and therefore there is less motivation to learn the language
- Stereotyping? Please provide examplesTo increase earning potential and open career opportunities, what is one language that you would recommend others to learn?
- English - Public speaking
- MandarinIs your preferred language easy to learn?
- YesHow has it helped you with your personal life/career?
- Proficient in ordering yumchaHere is my bold reply.
Strayan kent
klingon
the only language worth learning to increase your career potential is CODE!
Bargainese.
I came from a migrant background, so I know Mandarin already. I suggest either Cantonese or some big east Asia trading partner's language. Some people say Korean or Japanese, but from what I can tell, Korean pretty much only help you ordering food at Korean suburbs better, and Japanese is very limited unless you plan to work in only Japanese company or in Japan. Sure they have their uses in business, but it is still limited when compare to Mandarin or Cantonese or east Asia languages.
And about programming language, from my experience, knowing Java could get you some stable jobs in Canberra, which equals stable life. There is never shortage of IT jobs in government area now because every department is trying to transfer to Information era. However this is only from the department I am working in, others might use different softwares and might lead to need of different languages.
JavaScript and C# is pretty good too, JS for web side C# for mobile apps side.
North Korean - I heard ASIO is looking for new recruits to spy on Mr. Rocket Man, Kim Jong Un or….if Mr. Dictator offers you a better remuneration package with dental plan, you could work for him and do his biddings.
Was this supposed to be funny?
It is, unless you're Kim Jong-Un or his supporter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_num…
First one from that list looks like a good choice.
I'm really surprised by the amount of Mandarin responses.
The majority of experiences, including business related that the average person will encounter will probably be someone that also speaks English as they know they need to learn English to get a lot more business from the US/Australia etc.
In terms of situations where people don't know any English and you can't communicate, I think would be a lot more common with other languages.
That wasn't my experience. I had to be a fill in / back up interpreter once for my company. After the phone conversation with the client, the company's sales manager was thrilled as he was finally able to understand all the client's needs and concerns. I could tell the client understands and speaks a bit of English, but not enough to really clearly communicate the details. The sales manager had several conversations / e-mail exchanges with the client previously, but one phone call with an interpreter solved all the questions / uncertainties that those previous phone calls and e-mail exchanges couldn't.
It doesn't hurt to be able to speak and understand your client's native language.
Thats a good point, I guess there is a lot you can miss out on when they can only speak the basics.
I am surprised that I can't see Hebrew in the replies above. Some conspiracy theories say that 48% of US billionaires are Jewish.
My vote - Hebrew!Korean may not be the most useful language an Australian could study, especially with a very small percentage of citizens in Australia being a Korean, but I personally think it's a very logical language that anyone could pick up with some time invested into it.
Korean could be also useful when getting into the large companies such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai and Kia- I heard that they prefer if the applicants could speak Korean.Also significantly easier than Chinese (Alphabet too).
Ok I have decided to learn French, I would love to learn Mandarin but seems like it will take 5 times as much time.
youre all missing the point. explain why on earth you feel you would need another language in australia to further anything.
Job prospects
Maybe feeling foreveralone and would like to hook up with someone from overseas. <insert me love you long time jokes here>
Without job prospects / economic rationalism in mind, all Australians should learn some of the local, indigenous Australian language of the land they are learning on. More respect for country would not not go amiss.
When USA starts speaking more spanish than english in the next 50 years, we'll see who gives a damm about mandarin.
Even if the united states all spoke spanish tomorrow. They will still be outnumbered by mandarin speakers. So i don't know about your prediction.
当然是中文啦～～
Louder English. English speaking people win, we conquered the world. Everyone can learn English.
Everyone can learn English.
Feel free to go to France and tell them this. Pretty sure the reaction will start with sacré bleu.
French people can't learn English, interesting.
Its to do with patriotism. Same goes for japanese and koreans. They do not have as much 'want' to learn english in general. So not so much about not being able to.
@kakubin: i don't doubt that. Again its to do with their nationalistic nature. Ever seen an olympics where french wasn't spoken eventhough the host country is an english speaking country? Try suggest that it should just be english then see how up in arms the french speakers get.
Chinese cause soon we'll be invaded by them…..
Soon you might say.
Can't beat them join them
C#
mandarin so you can take chinese bribes and there are no consequences even when caught, or is that just a politicians perk?
Politics and banter aside -
Being able to speak Mandarin fluently and understand the needs of Chinese and Chinese-diaspora clients has been vital to my career, and it has often been the deciding factor on whether I get shortlisted for certain roles. Actually getting the role is reliant upon my presentation and skills, as it should.
My first language is English and my second is probably Cantonese, and it took a fair bit of effort for my Mandarin to reach native proficiency, but if I had sat back and not bothered with Mandarin I would probably be getting paid half of what I get now.
Edit: I should add that this is only relevant to my experiences in the financial services sector.
Ripping off rich Chinese bogans?
long drag on durry, sips pint
Yeah nah nah nah mate it's too hard for me to build rapport with that particular demographic, I can't stand the sight of LV monogram. Not to mention servicing them is usually a race to the bottom when it comes to fees.Not my cup of tea and unnecessary for me to get involved in. YMMV
It's probably already been said. But all Australians should probably learn English properly before moving onto another language
Proto Indoeuropean.
Arabic + Mandarin. Soon over 50% of children worldwide will be born to Islamic parents. Religious fundamentalists (of all varieties) have the highest birth rates, while atheists struggle to get more than 1.0 child per women, and are thus becoming extinct (good riddance).
I remember reading last year about a town in upstate New York whose population exclusively belonged to an orthodox Jewish sect, and their population growth rate was phenomenal. The average age of its residents was 13. In Oz it is close to 40.
Ooh inbreeding, yummy
while atheists struggle to get more than 1.0 child per women, and are thus becoming extinct (good riddance).
Not an attack. Just wondering. You don't like atheists?
English will be the worlds language for at least the next 50 years. Most of the worlds scientific documentation and journals are in English. Most of the worlds software also is English, so if anyone wants to do technical work or use the mountain of software in English, they have to use English. 99% of the worlds programming is English, Android. IOS, Java, .net its all English, if you dont know engish youa rent going far.
The world knows this and everyone everywhere wants to use this software so they are slowly learning english.
How about learn mathematics? Surely a good grasp on maths would have way more real world applications?
Interesting proposition. How do you say "where is the toilet?" in maths?
If you only need to ask things like that you could buy a phrase book or just Google it on your phone.
@Yumi: Agree with you. Just saying that 2200 hours isn't nearly enough time to be fluent in English/Mandarin. Both a hard languages to master along side Slavic languages and some romantic languages (eq: Romanian).