No matter which corner of the world this year finds you in, we are all living a more and more international life. Our projects may take us to different cities, countries or even continents in a matter of hours. However, it takes more than a plane ticket to get a foot in a foreign market. And speaking the language is often a formidable advantage to making it big.
So what are the top business languages of today (and hopefully the future)?
Here’s our take on it:
5. Portuguese
Brazil’s influence on the global economic arena has been growing in the past years. It also helps that the country boasts a population of over 200 million. Portuguese is also spoken on Portugal (naturally), Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, Macau and a number of communities in Spain, France and Luxembourg.
4. Russian
Despite a number of economic and political issues, Russia is a strong international player. Moscow holds the first place in the worlds when it comes to the number of billionaires and the country is rich in natural resources, which offers great opportunities for investment.
The language is very different from English and not easy to learn. But that’s a good thing! The fewer people speak it, the more in demand you’ll be after mastering it.
3. Spanish
The US alone has over 35 million Spanish speakers and there are over 425 million Spanish speakers worldwide. It is considered relatively easy for English speakers and you will not have problems finding materials or a tutor in any corner of the world.
2. Arabic
Arabic is the primary language of some of the world’s up-and-coming nations, wealth centers, and frontier markets.
Areas like Dubai and Abu Dhabi have become the world’s emerging financial centres but wealthy Middle Easterners will also look to diversify their wealth outside of the region, creating opportunities for those who speak their language to tap into lucrative business deals
1. Chinese
China presents a seemingly endless source of business opportunities in today’s economy. And to add to that, Mandarin (the official language of Chinese mainland) is spoken by over 1.3 billion people. True, a great number of Chinese citizens are going to great lengths to improve their English, but currently barely ten million of Chinese speak good English.