Spanish doesn't come to mind when I think international business language.

Some parts of England have already been colonised by Punjabi speakers.

I know a lot of people who are taking up Mandarin. It's important if you're dealing with any kind of production, so you can phone around the factories and get the best deals. I imagine it'll come in handy with other industries too.

I guess it all depends on what you're thinking about working in.

Hmm, not sure if Spanish would come a long way in Britain. If you moved to America, then that'd be another story really.

Although, knowing Spanish wouldn't hurt... I suppose... i say some middle-eastern language would go a longer way in Britain... possibly? Dunno, Britain doesn't seem like a very bilingual country.

>>231

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers

>>250

Large quantity of speakers does not imply, in any way, that it is an international business language.

>>251

It's not foolproof, but as a rule of thumb it works.

Learning Spanish makes more sense than learning Welsh or Māori for example.

But if you're going to learn a language I'd recommend Latin or Ancient Greek, it will make you look a lot more intelligent and better educated.

And it helps you hang out with a certain class of people - Oxbridge, Mensa, ect - If you know when to laugh when they start telling jokes in Latin.

>>252

Why would you want to hang out with them?

>>260

Well if you're a cunt, you would.

Based purely on numbers, Punjabi would be the best. Though I'd go for Mandarin, Japanese, German to a lesser extent. We are lucky really, we don't need to bother at all.

>>252
I wouldn't want to fucking look educated, I'd want to be educated. To that end, not being an Oxbridge arsemaster, I wouldn't waste my time learning a dead tongue unless I was going for a career where it would be a prerequisite i.e. archaeology. I'd want to learn French or Spanish or Chinese or any number of other languages that have significantly more practical use in today's world for obvious reasons.

>>263

As all European languages evolved from Latin, learning it helps you learn more languages later.

?And being able to hang out with rich, well educated and well connected people WILL help your job prospects, I thought that was obvious.

>As all European languages evolved from Latin
Orly?
East Europe, Scandinavian and Baltic countries, Greece and Balkans.
As you see, not all the languages are derived from faggy latin.

>>274

I was going to mention Basque - but thought perhaps that was too naughty. So how about Gaelic?

>>272 Also English. It has Latin elements (notably some grammar and vocabulary) but is not a Latin language like Spanish or Italian. At it's core it's Germanic. I don't know what percentage of European languages are Latin based but I'd bet it's less than 40.

>>274 But the Western European, non Scandinavian countries are the richest ones, so it still makes sense from a business viewpoint.

I would have suggested Ancient Greek, but I heard It's extremely difficult to learn

Speaking as someone who works in a trilingual company, it depends on where you want to do business. However, your best bets are German, Japanese, Mandarin and Standard Arabic.

If you're lucky, though, you get say an A-level and when you're hired, the company will pay for your continuing education in said language.