Study German might be useful for you, but have you realised the advantages of learning an uncommon language? Impress your friends, upgrade your resume!
In the United States, they’re called "Critical Languages", due to little educational supply against bigger professional demand. But the US is not the only place where you can take advantage: globalization and new central economies around the world make it possible to find good job opportunities, and even in your own country you’ll find foreign employers needing language support.
Of course this is a challenge. Grammatical structures and writing forms are often very different from English and it will take time and effort until you reach the ideal accent and phonetics.
But life would be boring if everything was easy.
Think about the success you’ll achieve among your group with your acknowledgements, the thousands of opportunities available for you - in and outside your country - and how easily you’ll face each language barrier. Learning a different language from your own it’s a benefit per se, imagine knowing Swedish or Arabic!
Check out other reasons why study these 10 specific languages. This are our suggestions, remember there are over 7095 languages to try around the world.
And DO NOT forget: community experiences are the best way to learn. Prepare your backpack and go study from the origin (or close)!
1. Russian: more than 150 million people all over the world speak Russian, especially in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia, being the official language in Russia and co-official in some nearby countries. It is a Slavic language, written in Cyrillic alphabet. Besides being one of the 6 official United Nations’ languages, is the 8th most spoken in the world.
2. Chinese: the most spoken language in the world - with over a billion speakers, among native and non-native - and one of which has more dialects. The most famous is Mandarin, established as China’s official language. Thinking about this country as a major world economy, you’ll find thousands of opportunities for your career in various areas. Chinese has no alphabet, so focus to understand the expression corresponding to each ideogram.
3. Arabic: usually, students begin with Modern Standard Arabic, and then specialize in a particular dialect (they are more than 30!), like Egyptian or Lebanese. It’s the 5th most spoken language in the world and one of the most requested by airlines, consular and intelligence services, as well as non-governmental organizations. Archaic Arabic is still used in religious ceremonies, especially in Gulf countries.
4. Japanese: some say it can take more than two years until you be able to read a newspaper in Japanese, but learning this language may ensure a job in translations, tourism, engineering or international affairs. It is influenced by the Chinese, so you'll have to learn some Chinese characters to understand the Japanese symbols system. Currently, around 100 million people speak Japanese in many countries, not only in Japan.
5.Swedish: being Sweden’s official language and also spoken in Denmark and Finland, you will definitely benefit from its Germanic origin and, therefore, its English and German approach. In addition, Sweden boasts good reputation in healthcare, technology and music, attracting many students from abroad. Around the world, more than 8 million people speak Swedish nowadays.
6. Hindi: 260 million speakers, mainly spread in South Asia – native language in northern India - Africa, Australia, Canada, United States and United Kingdom. Hindi is the 4th most spoken language in the world, just behind English, Spanish and Chinese, and finds its roots in Sanskrit, still used in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism liturgical events. If you already know that India is a growing economy, especially in IT and communications technology, there you have reason to study.
7. Bengali: original from Bangladesh, it is also one of the official languages in India, spoken by nearly 200 million people worldwide. It is the 7th most widespread language in the world, right after Portuguese, ranked in 6th. Because it is an Indo-European language, is closer to English than other oriental languages, despite having a symbolic writing. If you dream about working in South Asia in NGOs or business, learn Bengali will be definitely helpful to you.
8. Korean: a unique language, distinct even from other oriental languages, using a blocks alphabet called Hangul. It is spoken by over 66 million people - originally in South Korea and commonly in some regions of China and eastern Russia. Besides being a good way to understand Korean universe, you’ll also take advantage from many job opportunities offered by governments connected with South Korea (United States, for instance).
9. Persian: also known as Farsi, is spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Qatar. This language, with an Arabic alphabet, has about 23 million speakers worldwide. If you want to work in areas such as diplomacy, security services or military, journalism or politics, studying Persian is a good option, especially in countries demanding help to manage their Middle-East relationships.
10. Turkish: Turkey is not the only place where it is spoken - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece, among other countries, are also included in statistics reporting that around 50 million people speak this language. Originally, Turkish began using Arabic alphabet, but since the late 20s it turned its bases into Latin, which is good news for those who have some knowledgements in Spanish or Portuguese already.
Source: Ethnologue, www.ethnologue.com
