I am a rising senior this year, and I strongly believe that I want to pursue International Business and hold a position within the gaming industry in the future. Obviously, most programs require that you learn a second language to compliment the IB major, and I am personally interested in learning a foreign language myself. Therefore, I was wondering which foreign language would be the most viable to learn for that particular industry, or in other words, in what country is the gaming industry most prominent?
If you were ranking from 1 to 10, English would take the top 8 spots, followed by Chinese and Japanese. In terms of skills needed to get a job in the industry, I think foreign language skills are pretty far down the list and whether you can actually get a job in one of those countries is a totally different question.
Mandarin is by far the #1 language to learn for the next few decades. Spanish if you plan to work only in the Americas.
Japanese
If you want to work in IB in gaming, I’d think Korean would be your language. It seems like an odd choice, but behind soccer, gaming is the nation’s number two spectator sport! Gaming is HUGE there. Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese are all solid options too, as is Spanish. Unlike Romance languages, Asian languages are difficult to be competent in after only three or four years. Good luck.
1 Choice is English because obvious reasons
2 Choice is Korean/Japanese depending on your preference
Mandarin Chinese is the typical recommendation for “business”, but that really is only true for industries that have a core competency of manufacturing. With the huge movement of gaming moving to a more digital platform and due to the culture and legal setting, industries dominated by IP don’t work with China very well.
In China and some surrounding countries, there is a philosophy along the lines of “a man cannot own thy thoughts”, which basically builds the culture that doesn’t promote innovation which is why you see many knockoffs and replicates of products. Also why, manufacturing is such a high priority in China, if you can’t win by out innovating, you have to win by minimizing cost.
That being said, depending on what you want to do in the gaming industry will determine the actual value of a secondary language. I always recommend an international business degree as one of those things that compliments most degrees, but holds little value alone.