:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

it depends on your business area. If you mean internet-wise, I'd go with Spanish and German. As a matter of fact we do!!! ;) Now, if you've a good knowledge of Japanese market and good contacts, then Japanese all the way, it's where the real bling is. However, a very difficult market, we gave up for the moment

spanish is the way to go, at least in america its becoming a necessity to learn it. all students in school should learn it, instead of german or french, which are useless in this country.

Mandarin

i'd say spanish

depends if the business man is truly learning a 'second language', or a third..
eg: if he already knows french, he should learn spanish as it's SO easy to pick up...
and then he can work on a fourth :)
and yeah, it all depends on where he's trying to do business...
here in Canada, if I only spoke English, I'd want to pick up either Mandarin or Cantonese as my second language, since there's so much growth in those areas..
Probably the most useful second language in Canada..

I am covering all of the bases. By the end of the first quarter of 2006 I shall be able to ask "do you want fries with that" in 12 different languages.

Agreed.

When I was in high school (20+ years ago) my Dad strongly advised me to learn Japanese as the most useful language of the future.

Today, talking about Internet business there is no argument it is Mandarin, which I have been struggling to learn for the last two years. Chinese people are all learning English like crazy too but there are plenty who don't take lessons seriously and/or prefer of course to speak/read in their Mother tongue.

China will soon overtake the USA as the country with the most internet users. Of course very few have credit cards but that number is increasing exponentially every year and they have several popular micro payment systems like via mobile phone, tokens etc.

So you can either trust and pay a translation service to make Chinese versions of your websites (I'm talking mostly mainstream at the moment of course) and to conduct your meetings or learn to understand, speak and read Mandarin and really get a feel for the culture and the unique marketing methods and products that appeal to Chinese surfers. Typing in Mandarin is not real hard but fuck learning to write it. :Oh crap :2 cents:

I'm learning Japanese these days. Easier than I thought it'd be.

depends on the market..

50....... :helpme

spanish..

with spanish you get for free.. Portuguese.. Italian and some French.. so there is no doubt..

BTW Juicy.. too late for that 50

Mandrin will be a player in the world markets; but, the Chinese only want to buy our raw materials and sell us cheap shit. If you want to be a manufacturer's rep for a Chinese company, the Chinese language is also good. If you want to sell USA goods in China, you will have a very hard time as most Chinese have relatives in USA already in place to provide their needs. Unless you have a very unique product, forget it.

On the other hand, the Japanese are on the verge of making a real comeback in the world market now that they are coming out of their depression. The market for Japanese goods is hot all over the world and the Japanese love our culture. With the exchange rate for the US$ in the toilet, the Japanese are poised and ready to begin acquiring USA goods and services again. If you speak Japanese, you can work the markets on both sides of the ocean as supply and demand will be increasing in the near future.

If you really want the edge, take some of both languages and do shortrun production for Japanese companies in China and export to USA and Europe. You will stay very busy.

Madarin, Japanese, Spanish

in that order, for several of the reasons already listed.

Most european languages other than English really aren't heavily needed as the majority of them that you'd want to do business with already speak English and are highly educated.


The problem with learning Chinese is that as mentioned in a post or two above me, mentions how exclusionary that culture is...I've found this to be VERY accurate. Japanese is only moderatly more open in this regard, but not much really. I found Asians to be almost if not more racist in practice than red necks.

chinese for sure

but I dont think I will get there, english is already my second language, maybe I should make more site in french.. hehe

Mandarin is important but I still believe for the next 5 to 10 years Japanese and Spanish will take you further. There's still waay more potential business partners in Japan and Spanish speaking countries than in China for Americans especially.

Depends on what your market is. I think if you speak Enhlish you are good for the most part. Most European countries have a good education on English and most have no problem speaking and/or reading it.

I think it's a cool question tho. Considerate because everyone is bitching and moaning about "certain" people not wanting to speak English. But I would love to hear those same people speak any other language themselves.

If you are in the adult traffic bizz I think Dutch is a good oen to learn since a lot of the traffic guru's are Dutch.

russian ! :)

that's a programming language...

I think Spanish will be ok, its not hard to learn rather than Japanese or Chinese!

this data is not correct, here you have more detailled data of the most common languages in the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...total_speakers

about what is the better... i think that in some years will be chinesse and spanish.

German :2 cents:

Mandarin for sure