Which Language Should You Learn For Business?

World becomes smaller and connection becomes bigger. Business is absolutely limitless. Today's business people doesn't aim only their home country anymore, they aim the world market. They are right, because World is a real business market. Local companies with local plans have no power and no future.

In the past, we could say that `Countries are different, People's taste is different etc.` But, today, with the help of globalization everyone's taste become the same. In Paris, people wear the same shoes with the people in Dubai or Tokyo.

And in Today's business, one language is not enough even though if it is English. If you want to be successful, make more connections, earn more money; You have to speak at least one more language than your native. (Except English)

When I look at the job offers, every time I see at least 5 job offers just about language. What is more, bilingual, trilingual people are in front of you. I'm sorry but English can not create advantage for you because nowadays, almost every university graduate can speak English. (Specially in Europe) Talking English is not so unique like it was.

In this article, I will try to explain; Which Language Can Make You Different From Others? Which Language Can Help You in Today's Business World? 

1- Chinese Mandarin

Mandarin Speakers Map

Many US and European companies do business in China; it can be because of cheap labor, cheap raw material, enormous market. And the thing is, they make long-term investments in China. Nowadays, we can see a lot of Western Companies in China. You can see all the reasons in  Why Western Companies Move To Asia? Part-3 article. Also, China is the largest trade partner of USA.

Furthermore, China is the second biggest economy in the world after USA and it seems like it will be the first in near future. Yes, it is right that Chinese Mandarin is SO hard specially for Europeans but Can you imagine how rarely Europeans talk Mandarin? How can it raise eyebrows to you in job interview? Exactly.

Also, Mandarin chosen by Bloomberg Business the second top language in the world after English. Total 850 million people in other words one fifth of the world talk Chinese Mandarin which makes Mandarin the most popular language in the world.

Moreover, China is `one of the biggest market` in the World and knowing Chinese Mandarin can help you to do business, make connections in Mainland China. If you still think that, China means Cheap Labor, Poor People, Low Purchasing Power, just remember that 10% of Chinese Population is ultra-rich. (100 Million People)

                                                 2- Russian

Russian Speakers Map

Nowadays, Russian investors are everywhere. If you travel Europe recently, you can see that all signs are English and Russian. Specially, year by year Russian oligarchs get richer and they invest more money to many sectors such as Tourism and Real-Estate.

If you talk their languages, If you understand their business culture, probably you can make business with them and earn good money. With Around 200 million `native` speaker, Russian language is also acceptable in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Specially, In the Emerging Economies of Asia and Eastern Europe, Russian is an official or not official but second language for sure.

Russian Market is huge and Knowing Russian can help you to do business in this market.

Where Russian is talking?

Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, some part of Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria and also Russian is the second language in Armenia.

So, As you can see, with Russian you can communicate almost every former USSR country citizen and make business with them. Specially, in some developing Central Asian countries; Russian can help you much more than English.

3- Arabic

Arabic Speakers Map

If you know Arabic and If you are in oil or construction industry, probably now you are a millionaire. There are over 350 million Arabic Speakers in the world and Arabian Peninsula's total GDP is more than $500 billion.

Nowadays, Arabian countries are the world's wealth centers and their market size gets bigger and bigger yearly. Arabian investors, want to expand to the world and specially to the Europe. Over $2 billion investments made to UK by Arabians last year. They are rich and they want to invest. They are demanding this from you, and knowing Arabic can make you different than others.

After English, Arabic can be the most international language of the world. Why? Because, basically, Arabic is the language of Islam and like Islam spreads all over the world, Knowing Arabic is getting more and more opportunities for you. Nowadays, there are 15 million Arabic Speakers in Europe and Arabic is not only the language of Middle-East, North African countries such as Tunisia, Libya and Egypt's primary language is also Arabic.

Furthermore, I can easily say that there is a huge demand but low supply of Arabic language in the West. In the future, Demand to Arabic will grow with the help of growing importance of Middle-East in business and trade. Moreover, Arabic talking countries such as Kuwait, UAE are fast-growing and rich markets.


In conclusion, In this article, I mentioned only  `non-western` languages. Of course, in today's business, French and Spanish is also relatively important. However, there are a lot of articles about `Importance of Learning French or Spanish for Business` and I want to write something different than them.  If you have any question about `how to learn these languages` just comment and we can provide you some e-language course sites to make you start.