Now that I’m done with my studies for the charter, I am thinking of taking up learning a second language. I am leaning towards Spanish, but I wanted to get others input on what might be the best language to learn to futher my career in the finance industry.
Also would like to know if anyone has used Rossetta Stone or what other lesson software / classroom experience has worked for you.
Mandarin/Cantonese or Japanese
I know Spanish/Portuguese and I only use it when I am on vacation in Latin America or in Portugal.
I haven’t been on the job hunt in a while, but when I was (approx 4 years ago) there was always postings for Japanese or Cantonese speaking traders, no experience nessesary, to work the overnight shift in NY, 6 figures to start. Back in the day they could never fill those jobs.
Oh, Rosetta stone isn’t bad. I used it for Portuguese alongside language classes 1/week in NYC. It’s easier when you can get some sort of emersion. My gf’s family is portugues speaking at home, so that helped a bunch.
I have heard that speaking Chinese is no longer an automatic ticket to wealth considering the amount of chinese students at US universities who want to enter finance. It’s not as rare as it once was to find English/Chinese speakers. I would learn German if I could any language. Not sure what good it would do me, but would be fun.
^ Wie Gehts? That, “zurück bleiben bitte”, and some curse words are about all I remember from 3 years of high school German.
Has anyone used Fluenz? I am thinking of taking the Mandarin Fluenz course and it seems to get positive reviews.
I think Spanish is the most useful to most people in the US, simply because of our proximity to Mexico and the Caribbean countries. And it’s probably one of the easiest to learn.
Arabic or Chinese Mandarin would be a lifelong learning event.
French/Italian/Portuguese are all “sexy”, but much less useful than Spanish.
it’s a no-brainer - definitely Chinese for sure!
If you learn a language for pleasure, any language is good but for usefulness i don’t think there is another language now that is more useful across all industries.
I mean, unless you are in specific industries like a car dealerships where you may benefit from speaking German, or if you work in technology and may benefit from speaking Japanese or Korean… but all in all, Chinese is the way to go.
i am thinking about learning chinese as well, it’s not only an interesting language but i think it will help me open doors in the future.
NANA
That’s only if you think in the perspective that you want a job in China, but in reality, many businesses outside of China has a lot of Chinese clients and having some background in Chinese really set you apart.
And from what i know about Chinese students, they may go oversea to study but most of them go back to China eventually after graduation to work in China. The chinese you see working outside of China are usually from Hong Kong or very few mainland Chinese who decide to work oversea (obvious a small % is still a lot of people for China).
And think about it, if i were Chinese and have foreign experience, why wouldn’t i go back to China and make probably mroe money and better economic outlook?
S2000 - LOL. Epic link
NANA - Maybe my personal experiences have changed my perception of the Chinese/English combo. A friend of mine was from Hong Kong, so I’m sure you’re right a lot of the workers in the US/England are from there. He told me that if you’re a white guy who can speak Chinese people in China will hire you because it’s seen as prestigious to bring white people to board room meetings. I don’t know if he was just pulling my leg, so to OP if that’s true, and you’re white maybe it will help.
I think about my college and I was with a lot of Chinese speaking students in my Accounting major. Some were from China and stayed afterwards working at Big 4s (in roles that didn’t require any knowledge of Chinese). Others were from China Town/NYC and worked afterwards at Big 4s (in roles that didn’t require any knowledge of Chinese).
I’m not trying to say it wouldn’t be helpful, but I just don’t think it’s going to help you become a BSD. When my dad was my age he said learning Russian was considered a big door opener, then it became Chinese, now it’s Arabic - the real question is what’s after that? If you could speak fluent Arabic/English I think you’ll get more job opportunities than Chinese.
Side Note: I refuse to learn Spanish. I’m an ignorant person.
I think Chinese is still more widely used than Arabic, not to say that speaking Arabic wouldn’t be an advantage, it is a huge benefit of course.
But i am thinking about on average, in business or finance, what language would i be using more often. If i am a business owner and outsourcing production to China, or if i am an exporter trying to get into Asian market, or a wealth management firm trying to manage money… i would say Chinese is still more widely used at this point.
What’s next i do not know (very possibly Arabic), but for the next 10 years it’s safe to say that Chinese will still be relevant. There is a saying if you make a product that sells $1 in China, that is a $1.3billion market already.
ps* just think about all the luxury shops in paris champ elysees, everyone of them hire manderin speaking sales, as snooty as parisians… same thing in Germany for their super cars, same thing in Japan…
I think where we’re not connecting is not the fact that China is a huge market and every international company needs Chinese speakers, but that the skill of doing both is not RARE. The OP is asking what he should learn to gain an edge. I’d say that because the English/Chinese combo is no longer that rare, it’s not as valuable as other things. If you speak Arabic/English you’re in a very small subset of people. Add to that a knowledge of the oil industry, or finance in general and you can make a lot of money. There is plenty of money in the Middle East (http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/21/oil-scion-writes-his-name-in-the-sand-and-its-big-enough-to-be-seen-from-space/) and people are going to need finance professionals.
OP is asking about finance, not selling handbags to the new Chinese tourists.
I know what you mean, but i don’t think the OP necessarily said it has to be RARE.
it’s like English, it is not rare but it’s foundamental to know. i am only saying, Chinese is perhaps the next langugage where it’s foundamental to know because practically all industries relate to China these days. Learning Chinese may not be a “special edge”, just like companies having social media is not a special edge but you fall behind if you do not have it.
My .02 - If you want to spend a thousand hours trying to gain “an edge”, learn your job. Spend the extra thousand hours doing whatever it is you do for 40 hours a week. That will probably pay your more dividends than learning a language that you might never use.
If you want to learn a second language for some other personal reason, that’s a different story.
When I was consulting with Mistubishi Nuclear Energy Systems I wanted to learn Japanese; I tried to get into a company-sponsored Rosetta Stone program.
However, I was told that my learning Japanese probably wouldn’t be appreciated by the customer: apparently they preferred being able to converse amongst themselves, safe in the knowledge that the consultants or clients or regulators or whoever couldn’t understand what they were discussing.
^ so I assume you bought Rosetta Stone yourself and didn’t tell anyone just so you could understand what they were saying about you?