Language to learn

CoxyBoy123

CoxyBoy123

CoxyBoy123

Associate
Joined
30 Oct 2009
Posts
480
Location
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Been speaking to my boss recently discussing my future training.... my job is role is being an Export Co-ordinator meaning I deal with people from many many different countries.

I suggested I learn a language, which is something I have always wanted to do anyway, and he agreed which is great. Now I have to decide which one to choose, the percentage of people I work with is spread out around the world and there is no majority.

Sooo which would be the quickest language to learn. I know this depends on my personal abilities etc but what language's are known to being 'easier'

The only language I would cancel out is Spanish.

Joe
 
Deadbeat said:
I hear Japanese is surprisingly easy to learn, once you get the alphabet down.

Edit: Of course, so many Japanese people speak English that it may be pretty pointless. Are you looking for something practical or something to enhance your profile?
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Seriously? I could imagine it being complex, a bit of both really, the expansion of my profile would allow me to visit the customers more freely using the language
 
scorza said:
LOL why? That was the language I was going to suggest as it's spoken by a hell of a lot of people around the world and is said to be quite easy for English speakers to learn.

Maybe Portuguese (for Brazil) or Arabic since that's where the money is these days.
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Part of my job is obviously to find new customers, and it really is pretty impossible to get a customer in spain. We deal with resin flooring but the Spanish are mad for tiles
 
slambo69 said:
Why cancel spanish? Remember not only spain speaks it, it would open up doors in south, central and even north america where there is a massive latino minority.

Of course, I say Russian! It acts as a springboard for other slavic languages as well, such as Czech and polish.
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Polish I would definately be interested in as I have uncovered a potential massive customer there, but I dont think I could learn it quick enough to benefit
 
Thanks for the info guys, leaning more towards French and German, but what would you recommend for learning these languages. I can go on day release to college to learn, or would you say Rosetta stone sort of thing?
 
Begbie said:
Why cancel out Spanish? Is it not the second (maybe even 1st) most used language?
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I didnt know this until the Wiki page was posted, its definately now in consideration, will have to sit and chat with my Manager about where we aim to target and work on before I make a final decision
 
sh4rk said:
Really?

The vocab is pretty easy to learn but the grammar side is probably one of the hardest out of the western European languages. I'd say French/Spanish/Italian would be a bit easier to learn.

Also if you can spend time out in the country of the language you're learning you'll pick it up much more quickly.
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The company are trying to introduce me more to the customers, this is the reason the topic came up
 
stockhausen said:
Seems to me like a spectacularly good reason to learn Spanish :confused:

Incidentally, you do know that Spanish is spoken outside of Spain as well, don't you?
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I know that, I didnt know how much it was spoken though, the reasoning for the work being hard to get is, we deal in Resin Flooring, Spain and countries like that always use tiles. Always.
 
Makhaira said:
Have you considered not fully learning any ONE language, but rather learning a reasonable chunk of several?

There is reason to my comment...nearly all international businessmen speak English these days, and the sad truth is they tend to speak English better than we can speak their native language. What IS a good gesture though, is being able to converse a small amount in their own language, as it is often seen as a respectful and understanding gesture. To that end, being able to talk a small amount in a selection of the languages you deal with might be just as useful to you.
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I fully agree with this tbh. hmmm

German
French
Spanish then I think
 
alex_tank said:
I think realistically you have these options... in order of difficulty to learn for English speakers. What language you think is most useful is up to you really, there's a good case for all of them.

1. Spanish
1. French
2. German
3. Russian
4. Cantonese
4. Japanese
4. Arabic


These are all the major languages everything else is a waste of time imo (except maybe Portuguese and Italian). Unless you have a good reason to want to learn a language like Finnish or something they're just not spoken by enough people or economically important enough.

If you learn a Romance language it will be a lot easier to learn another one (The 'Latin' languages; Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian).

German is apparently harder because of the grammar, although pronounciation is supposed to be easiest for English speakers.
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Thank you very much for your reply
 
I am taking all this on board, but I really am struggling on finding out the best way to learn the languages. I live in Halifax and I am struggling to find courses, is Rossetta Stone worth it? any suggestions?
 
I really am beginning to need this, struggled on the phone with a Malaysian and Romanian today. Boss offered to get me a rosseya stone tomorrow. Go???
 
dazzerd said:
Got to be Mandarin, the chinese will rule the world in the next 10/15 years.
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See this is another thing, our company, could become huge (its pretty big already) quadruple the value of the company. all this is down to a company in malaysia, if i learn their lingo, it will lead to me going over there very often, very often
 
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