The future of business is global, and there’s no getting around learning top business languages to survive.
By 2025, almost 50% of the world’s biggest companies will be in emerging markets. This is up nearly 10-fold from only 5% in 2000.
CareerBuilder.com’s 2010 hiring forecast showed that 39 percent of U.S. employers said they plan to hire bilingual candidates, and half said that if they had two equally qualified candidates, they would be more inclined to hire the bilingual one.
What’s more, salary bonuses vary depending on which languages you’re able to speak. Here’s a quick breakdown of a few different secondary languages and their annual bonuses, as reported by The Economist:
- Spanish — 1.5 percent bonus
- French — 2.3 percent bonus
- German — 3.8 percent bonus
This means you can earn an additional $50,000 to $125,000 just for knowing how to speak a foreign language!
5 Top Spoken Business Languages You Should Know To Get Ahead
To arrive at our 5 top spoken business languages, we considered several factors.
The first one is the number of native speakers. While this shouldn’t be the only factor you consider when choosing what business language you should learn, it correlates with how much impact your new language will have.
The second factor compares countries with the largest GDPs in the past (2010) and where they will be in the future (2020).
While there are more minor variables to consider, these two factors can help us narrow down the world’s languages to the 5 top spoken business languages you should know to get ahead in your career.
1. English
365 Million Native Speakers
English is the obvious first choice when it comes to top business languages. With economic powerhouses like the U.S, the U.K, and Australia, there’s no getting around English.
Even when you’re speaking with native speakers from other countries, they likely speak English as their second language. Since most of the readers here are already English speakers, we’ll move on.
2. German
92 Million Native Speakers
German is a perfect example demonstrating that the best languages shouldn’t be based on the number of native speakers worldwide.
Not only is it Europe’s most prominent economic powerhouse, with a GDP of 2.4 trillion Euros, but it’s also the largest export market for British goods.
For anyone seeking a job in the U.K, Austria, Germany, or anywhere doing business with the companies in Germany (nearly everyone), understanding the differences between ‘Danke’ and ‘Ihr Willkommen is critical.
3. Russian
160 Million Native Speakers
Germany may have the largest export market for the U.K, but Russia is the U.K.’s fastest-growing primary export market. While there are abundant opportunities to work with companies in Russia, there aren’t as many fluent English speakers living in Russia, and knowing how to speak Russian comes with a significant advantage.
4. Spanish
406 Million Native Speakers
Recognized as one of the most famous European languages, Spanish is a beloved language in terms of usefulness in business and in many areas of society.
The leading language fuels many of the fastest-growing Latin economies in South America, Central America, and North America (Mexico).
Given that it’s the second most spoken language in the U.S, with over 20 countries around the world that use Spanish as their official language, 37% of American employers prefer hiring people who know how to speak Spanish.
5. Mandarin
935 Million Native Speakers
With just under a billion native speakers worldwide, Mandarin has more native speakers than English and Spanish combined. This makes Mandarin-speaking countries some of the most attractive places in the world for businesses to target. Learning Mandarin is an excellent investment for any professional to make today.
Bloomberg has also ranked Mandarin as the number one business language to know after English.
What Business Languages Are You Learning?
We’ve given you the 5 top spoken business languages, but it doesn’t mean they’re the only ones you should learn.
