<p>Hello parents, recemtly I was thinking about my chosen major and I realized that a large part of what I want from my major (international business/relations) is also to communicate with a vast amount of people. I’ve always had a certain affinity towards learning languages, I know spanish as well as a little bit of japanese and I can read italian pretty well. I also started learning a bit of latin but put tht to the side.</p>
<p>I’m interested in hearing if there are any parents up here that speak many languages and how have they impacted your life both career wise and socially. I plan to pick up french, italian later on, chinese or arabic (leaning towards chinese or posibly japanese since I have a background). Thanks!</p>
<p>I speak French (fairly fluently way out of practice) and German. At one time I knew enough Italian to be able to read picture heavy articles in magazines and carry on fairly simple conversations. I tried to learn Chinese and could not make any progress at all, the tones were beyond me. I could read about 200 characters and I can still say “The red car is bigger than the blue car.” I went to a Japanese kindergarten and really regret that I forgot everything I learned when I went to an international school after that. Oh I used to teach myself Swahili every summer when my parents were in Tanzania. I think about all I can still say is “Please give me a coke with ice.”</p>
<p>I have no natural ear or affinity for languages, but I find them fascinating. It took a lot of hard work and residing in the countries for me to achieve fluency in the two languages I speak well. (Three if you count English. )</p>
<p>I’ve studied French, Spanish, and Japanese, but I’m only proficient in French. I can tell you that I have missed out because I don’t speak more languages, and because I’m not stronger at the ones I do speak. I wanted to take more in college, and I would LOVE to take more now. I’m a huge believer in learning language. IMHO, there’s nothing you can do in college that will enrich your later life and career more than learning important global languages like the ones you’ve named.</p>
<p>I am fluent in french and proficient in italian, and use my languages everyday. I am a lawyer, but I work for a large multinational, and I am certain that my career has been greatly enhanced by the fact that I can speak to my colleagues in their native language, even though they are all fluent in english. One note of caution - it is important to spend time in the culture, and not just learn the language in a vacuum, or else speaking the language has no context, and will not give you the insight into others that you clearly want.</p>
<p>I speak Spanish fluently. Enough French to read and understand but don’t speak it well. Some Arabic and Greek. Didn’t help my career much, but I greatly enjoy it anyway. Love being able to understand people in a restaurant or airport when they don’t realize others around them can.</p>
<p>That’s the type of work I’m interested in. Are you in international law or something different? If you don’t mind me asking did you major in international relations/business or get into it at a different time?</p>
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