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
Cantonese - same writing, way better sounding when spoken.
i think cantonese sounds more harsh
Totally agree with you. They sound like they're having a fight.
That's an insult to Koreans
Seems like Cantonese sounds harsh to every Mandarin speaker, and vice versa.
Japanese, Spanish, French, Korean, Mandarin
Priorities people
Japanese for the anime. Spanish for the food. French so that they won't hate you when you visit France. Korean for the K-pop. Mandarin for business.
French so that they won't hate you when you visit France
If you're going to Paris, no amount of french study will save you from that…
Hahah! Well, I was lucky I guess. I got a away with bonjour, oui and mercie. But you had to show you were really trying to sound French. Like, you have to go boonshoor and mee-akh-see.
Ridgey didge dead set Strayin.
elvish
kidding.
the obvious one is mandarin, but if you dont have any business interests it wont really come into use unless youre alreadying dealing with china for your job.
otherwise id say any programming language would help A LOT for jobs. C++, java or python. or a combination of the three (better)
Better off with c#
What about D flat?
Definitely this. And by extension (scuse the pun) you'll also know what java will look like in four years when they catch up.
Latin!
Yes, learn Latin and you'll impress the priests.
Useful to learn to say stop buggering me in Latin.
More number of languages will not help in your career unless you are thinking about being a translator. Learning to communicative effectively will certainly do.
There's also asymmetrical rewards, knowing a popular language Spanish broad but shallow benefits whereas learning a less popular language like Korean is not as broad but it could have deep benefits, they're one of our biggest export partners and proud of their culture.
Mandarine, Spanish, Arabic, French ….in that order and uve covered evry majour nations/countries
Try English first bro.
I don't think you should bother learning any other languages. Unless you are planning to work to ASIO or ASIS!
Like it or not, English is the universal trade and IT language.1.3 billion Chinese don't speak English in China, English is Not Universal language.
I didn't say it was a universal language though - I said it was the universal trade and IT language, like it or not.
An Aussie can't just walk into China and do business one-on-one with 1.3 billion people, you need local trade contacts and govt approvals… such International transactions are discussed in English with big business / govt people (PS - I have been to China).
OP asked what language other than English should ALL Australians learn… there is not a need for all Australians to learn a language in mass.
You mean no one in China can speak English ? lol
chinese and indian because those two are the largest populations on earth.
When you say Indian, do you mean Tamil?
When you say Indian, do you mean Tamil?
Or Hindi, or Bengali, or Urdu, or Malayalam, or….
There's no such thing as Indian language, but there are Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, etc.
You forgot Marathi, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Kannada, Sanskrit, etc. There are 122 official languages.
It's a total mess, why would you not have just 1 official language.
It's a total mess, why would you not have just 1 official language
That's an easy one - Indians across states mostly just communicate in English, since the educated ones all know it.
There's been some push for Hindi to be more widely spoken by the other states, but it's really native to parts of north India only. The rest of the country speaks their own native language and there's no sensible reason for them to learn Hindi.
Think about it like this: Say China invades the south pacific and makes Australia, NZ, PNG, Indonesia, all one country to make things easier: Southland. The majority of Southlanders would speak Indonesian, so they make that the official language.
How hard are you going to work to learn fluent Indonesian?
I am not going to learn Indonesian at all. First thing I will do is move to a English Speaking country.
Well let me give you another example, imagine if Australia's states had different language in each state: can you imagine if you had to move to another state and learn different language. It's frustrating especially for people wanting to move interstate ( likewise in India too).
You are right as well that every region has its own language and Hindi is not spoken outside north.
Arabic and Malayalam if you consider to live in the middle East
Wait, why is Malayalam good for living in the middle east?
Mandarin for the old world and Spanish for the new world :)
English is the only one you need.
Hindi as every business down under are being purchased by the Indian community now, It wont be long all the big chains will be Indian owned too like in the UK , Look at Bose speakers owned by an Indian Dr Amar Bose are among the best in the world.
Look at Bose speakers owned by an Indian Dr Amar Bose are among the best in the world.
Amar Bose was born in the USA, doesn't that make him American?
My comment is pretty far down, so I don't know how many people will actually see this.
I know three languages fluently, English is my native language, but I also know one Asian language and one European language. Firstly, I think learning new languages is great - sure it's a lot of work, but it can be rewarding and it can open your eyes up to new cultures that are intriguing and interesting. Of course, there's also the feel-good element of being a more multi-cultural person too.
However, I think it goes without saying that learning a new language (without any plans to use it) is a terrible return on investment of your time. If you have a plan to move to Germany, then sure, learn German (or if to Korea, then learn Korean). If you wish to do business in China, sure learn Mandarin or Cantonese. However, without any sort of plan, learning a new language is not going to help you all that much. In my time studying and working, I have never had to use any language apart from English and I doubt it would help me in any material way in a professional environment.
If you want to learn a new language that will truly help you in the 21st century, it should be a programming language (and I'm not joking). Knowing a programming language has helped me in my professional life far more than knowing any foreign language will (and I don't work in IT). I think it goes without saying that programming is being more emphasised in schools these days and I think it's a good thing - us adults need to catch up before we won't be able to compete with the younger generation!
We are lucky that English is becoming the de facto standard language for the rest of the world - it does mean that we can get away with not learning another language. The truth is, most people can get by today by just knowing one language - i.e. English - sure, it's a very anglo-centric view of the world, but that's my honest experience. Learning another language is fun, interesting and great, but if you're looking for something to further your life, there are plenty of better things to learn that have a much higher return on investment.
To make this clearer for people: learning a new language is hard.
Let's take 7 years of high school as a unit to measure an amount of study: For me, learning to speak fluent Japanese (not native-level or even reading much, just conversational and a bit of technical talk) was about half of a "high-school worth" of vocab and grammar study, not including the day-to-day practice while living in Japan for two years.
You could learn it faster if you have no job etc and can study 8 hours a day, but even those who did that (and were geniuses who really wanted to learn it) took at least 6 months.
Learning something very similar to English like Spanish or Italian is an order of magnitude easier than Japanese or Mandarin, but still a lot of work.
You could definitely learn to program in just a fraction of that time/study.
American.
Currently, I'm able to speak Australian, American, and British.
what about Texan?
Mandarin for a better business/Management Career and too speak to your Chinese masters once they have conquered/bought out and Inslaved/owned all of WA and NT … also good for ordering Chinese food.
While Japanese for Anime/Manga with No subs and a clearer screen when watching/reading or even korean .. Their manhwa is very good and slowly translated to english compared to Japanese
French to Impress the ladies or If you want to conquer/travel to one of northern/central african countries
German to start/join the eventual Fourth Reich/ 3rd German Empire / European Union …. lol
Portuguese for Career potential in Brazil and brazilian ladies.
One of the many programing language's.
Spanish for world travel.
Indonesian for Bali and Phuket trips, e.g most of us WA Aussies only travel to indonesia anyway, world travel is too expensive/Impractical.
Indonesian for Bali and Phuket trips
You know that Phuket is in Thailand, right?
I thought Bali is in Thailand, its an island south of Koh Samui, and Kuta is next to Phuket :P
Learning Chinese, when there are already hundreds of thousands of Chinese who speak English doesn't feel like a good use of your time.
I would look into emerging economies that need to trade with Australia.
Bullshit. Most Aussies speak it already anyway.
All Australians should learn Indonesia
Can you please tell me why ?
I don't know just because
So you have no idea what are you talking about ? lol
yea you could say that
You just need to learn a few pick up lines in several languages and life will be good.
Kecap manis is the best language
python
Klingon…in case we ever get invaded by aliens
All this talk of Mandarin misses a key point: the skill will always be overshadowed in the sea of kids who grew up speaking Mandarin at home, and learning Chinese writing on the weekend. There are far fewer speakers of Japanese or Indonesian in Australia, and, one already important, the other to grow in importance, those would be my recommendation.
Has anyone considered learning an Australian language?
Seems to be the first logical choice that comes to mind.To increase earning potential and open career opportunities, what is one language that you would recommend others to learn?
It doesn't fit the OP's criteria, unfortunately.
There's no need to learn Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc) to trade with them on any scale, this is just a widespread myth to boost tourism here, that's it.
The Chinese have multi=billion dollar deals with many other countries like the UAE, and the people of UAE aren't bothered learning or being remotely close to China in any other way: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/31/china-300-million-investment…
The fact is that China will send it's resources your way when you satisfy their interests: Property, Agricultural Land, Gold, Infrastructure, etc. At that point language is not a barrier as they have the tools to overcome it.
Example, there are several Asian real-estate agents operating here to serve the needs of (overseas) Chinese people who don't speak a work English, nor have any idea about Australian suburbs. As such, they make contact with people here to serve as Agents to buy them property, this is an example where language barrier did not stop trade in Australia.
Some of these agents are ABC's (Aussie born chinese) so it's not as if they didn't need to learn Chinese as an additional repertoire in their skill sets.
C#, JS, PHP, SQL
It looks like you made a typo there in between JS and SQL
Japanese. Learn good expressions and better understand english grammar through learning Japanese and its patterns and construction.
I agree we should all learn a second language, as it supports your first language. i didnt have much care for understanding english studies until i started learning japanese.
and the jetstar deals are good too, so it'll help when you frequently travel here.
Desu.
Top 10 tips for watching animes.
From all the misapprehensions posted about other countries, I think the language should be Geography. ;)
Learn a different language? I think Aussies should just focus on learning how to properly speak and write in their supposed native language first. The amount of brain cells I feel like I've lost from
readingdecoding poorly constructed sentences written by adults is criminal.The adult literacy rate in australia is a problem but thankfully 99% of kids (born) here should know about english and math better than their parents.
Nah. I don't think their that bad. If we had a large Asian population with bad grammar, I would of thought it would be worse here, but there posts are mostly alright. I've seen worse grammar on other sites. Much, much worse they're.
This took me longer to write than it should have. I'm a trained writer, and it's surprisingly hard to write bad English.
Hahaha I was just about to cry case in point until I realised what was going on. Got me good.
Mandarin, soon the no 1 language once they take over
I only speak two languages lady, english and bad english
Isn't that three? 😁
The Economist posted an article answering your question a few years back and decided that German was the way to go. However there are a lot of caveats. A few people have pointed out already that you might be better off learning something relatively obscure (so if there are a lot of fluent Mandarin speakers in Australia, you might be better off with something with fewer speakers).
Although overall, unless you have a plan to use the language, I can't see much economic sense in learning a foreign language. You can probably spend your time learning a more valuable skill.Mandarin so we can use Xiaomi products.
I would choose Mandarin and Korean (Korean Hangeul alphabet and written word construction is very simple). I'd love to learn French properly and Italian too. Not enough time in the world.
Learn a language for what? Just to learn a language? For business/career sake?
I think that learning a language is always a +! No matter what language, it really change how ur brain is wired and really opens up ur perception of things, so…any for me!It would be good if more people learned the aboriginal language for their region. Not sure if it'd improve business opportunities, but it would lead to a better understanding of their culture.
The issue there is even elders have different opinions of what some obscure words mean. I listened to a insiteful ABC Radio show about this last year where the elder was telling a story of a group of them discussing a word and each one saying it ment something slightly different until one of the oldest said how his grandfather had used it to mean X. And that's how they rediscovered its actual meaning.
I'd love to learn chinese. Purely because I wan't to know what the people are saying when I go for my neck and shoulder massages… :/
"Oh, man. Not this guy again."
"I wish he would shower before coming. And his facial expressions are so creepy."
I recall back in the 1980s there was a huge push in Australia to learn Japanese. Back then the Japanese were about to become the kings of global business, virtually buy up Queensland, and if you didn't know Japanese you were going to miss out on business. Then the 1990s happened, and a depression that Japan has not recovered from 27 years later.
I can't help but feel we're seeing something similar, but not the same, regarding Mandarin and China right now. I bet in 20 years time the hot language to learn will not be Mandarin but something else. Maybe Hindi, Arabic, or even French (think rapidly growing economies in Africa).
I was born in Europe so the obvious choice for second language was easy. English.
Learning a new language doesn't really help with your career. You'd need to be proficient at it and that would take 10+ years to master. Even if you're proficient, doesn't mean it'll be put to good use in a career. Look at how many bilingual/trilingual people there are in Australia already. Most only need to speak English at work. Foreign language skills are only useful when dealing with foreign customers/suppliers and you'd need to be damn good at it.
I say this as someone who speaks 4 languages. They aren't that useful in a career.
Go learn a programming language instead.At this stage they're not useful in Australia, as English is the region's lingua franca. European languages are very useful for working in the UK and Ireland, as many companies base their regional headquarters there. This may well be the case when the Asian middle classes are well and truly arisen and buying our services (currently I think we sell more commodities, which don't require much interaction by their nature). As for needing 10+ years to learn one - that's at the long end; with a little talent and a bit of motivation, it can be done in a couple of years easily (less if you live abroad for 6 months+).
Agree about usefulness of programming (if you're going to work in the IT/corporate world).
Che?
Mandarin
To increase earning potential and open career opportunities,
might help if you tell us which field you are working in at the moment, and what career are you planning for in the future?
if you are aiming to become a real estate agent/handbags sales person, then yeah, mandarin, or rather, potonghua would definitely help.
otherwise, best way to open doors and advance your career would usually be attaining higher level of education and networking with the right people.
@John on 30/09/2017 -
Mandarin obviously, China being the biggest economic house of the world. But I can't speak it unfortunately..
Wrong if you combine all others together it will out weigh the Chinese.
Indigenous "aboriginal "language would be a the best choice as that is the nearest thing locally. We need to learn this other than anything from outside as we can support Australians here down under with partnership.
What's important is our people here our past and future culture as we live among each other locally.
I really don't see learning Chinese would benefit us in terms of business as therefore not everyone has the interest to work in this field. As the vast majority of the society will be conflicted to learn Chinese anyway I would say let the Chinese themselfs handle what they do best.
Just started learning Mandarin, apparently if you don't use tones properly you risk calling your mother a horse. Same letters, different tones = different words.
This is why I couldn't speak it right. I'm not tone deaf, but I my speech is pretty monotone, and I find it hard to change that.
I speak 5 languages (6 if you want to be pedantic).
2018 will be my year for starting Mandarin. Can't wait!!
….
You already learned at least 1 language. It's the same with the next, small steps, lots of repetitions, lots of practice.
How long will it need me to get from 0 to 100 in Mandarin, based on your experience (may be different languages)
Mandarin, like English is one of the hardest languages to master.
English was my 4'th language and I struggled for a while due to very large vocabulary.
Mandarin is hard due to different tones. 0 - 100 in Mandarin ? depends on the time spent on it. It's like anything.
Practice 1 hour/week will take you 5 years or more. Practice 1 hour/day will take you 2 - 3 years. Practice more gets you even faster. Like anything in life.
According to this, roughly 2200 hours to get fluent. I believe that includes being able to read/write though - if you only intend to listen (and not speak fluently, read or write), it probably won't take as long.
I wouldn't trust that. That's roughly 9 months of full time study.
Going by this: https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-easily-learn-Mandarin
As everyone else replied: You can’t. I spent 2,5 years studying mandarin full time, every single day, and I’m proficient, but not like a native. However, I can give you some advice on how to learn:
And I believe that's for speaking only. Writing is another story as you have to learn signs by heart, each with its story. Hard to learn to write.
Also for OP, have a look here mate: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-worth-learning-Mandarin
@zapy: I'm not sure spending ~8 hours/day is really an effective use of time, to be honest. A language requires a lot of memorization, and stuffing your brain for such long periods each day isn't going to work.
In my opinion, studying for 1 hour/day over a longer period of time should be more effective. Of course, this can vary greatly from person to person.
All Australians should learn Swahili