<p>If I hope to work in international humanitarian aid/public health/that kind of thing, what are the most valuable languages to learn? I’m already studying Spanish and French but would love to pick up a third later on.</p>
<p>Hm, I’ve heard Chinese is best these days, but that could be mainly for international relations stuff.</p>
<p>I would think that either Chinese or Arabic would be the most beneficial.</p>
<p>the critical need ones, duh</p>
<p>chinese, arabic, hindi, farsi, persian, and maybe some others i forgot.</p>
<p>just look up security languages initiative or something</p>
<p>yes, chinese seems to be the most useful for the future because of china’s current economic rise.</p>
<p>but, i think chinese will be too difficult. perhaps arabic will be more manageable. </p>
<p>the least useful language is probably latin, a dead language. but it will help u learn romance languages and even improve ur english reading comprehension.
greek is perhaps more useful than latin because u have access to ancient works (including the New Testament of the Bible, and works done outside greece stretching from alexandria to middle-east and roman empire), but also the modern greeks speak the similar ancient greek.</p>
<p>in conclusion, greek and arabic is most useful for an INTELLECTUAL (especially for a classicist or historian)</p>
<p>sorry, maributt, maybe i should have been more specific. i was wondering specifically what the most valuable languages would be for someone who’s primarily interested in working in humanitarian aid in extremely poor countries, not in security policy or business.</p>
<p>thanks to everyone</p>
<p>actually, chinese, arabic, hindi, farsi, and persian - speaking countries are pretty poor.</p>
<p>critical need languages - terrorists - poverty</p>
<p>they all go together</p>
<p>“the least useful language is probably latin, a dead language.”</p>
<p>Actually, Latin is probably the most helpful language for English and Romance language speakers – whether you’re in a related major or not. I’ve heard that Latin’s very helpful in law, too and obviously biology.</p>
<p>It’s more useful to know 3-4 romance languages than Mandarin or Cantonese. That is the trade off you are looking at.</p>
<p>You could be fluent in Spanish/French/Italian/Portuguese for the fluency in Mandarin or Cantonese. This shouldn’t even be a choice.</p>
<p>chinese i’d say</p>
<p>For international humanitarian aid/public health/that kind of thing, where are you interested in working? What issues really interest you?</p>
<p>Answer those questions, and you’ll know what languages you’ll want to learn. Spanish and French are certainly good ones to know.</p>
<p>Yes, Chinese is spoken by 1.3 billion people, but only in one country!
For humanitarian aid stuff, the most useful would be Arabic in my opinion. It depends on the region of the world you’re planning to work in. If you’re looking at the middle east, learn arabic. In North Africa, arabic will be also very useful, as well as French in the Maghreb. For sub-saharan Africa, I think you’re set up with French and English (which act as linguae francae). In south Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc…), English, or a very rudimentary form of it, is spoken by many people (trust me, I live there), so you’re fine. However, you might want to learn some Hindustani, it could be helpful.</p>
<p>Conclusion, go learn Arabic, and perhaps the basics of Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu).</p>
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<p>uhh…actually three. China, Taiwan and Singapore</p>
<p>If you’re interested in international development, this is what the World Bank likes to see in its interns ([link](<a href=“http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTHRJOBS/0,,contentMDK:20515785~menuPK:64262363~pagePK:64262408~piPK:64262191~theSitePK:1058433,00.html"]link[/url]):”>http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTHRJOBS/0,,contentMDK:20515785~menuPK:64262363~pagePK:64262408~piPK:64262191~theSitePK:1058433,00.html)):</a>
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<p>Chinese is spoken in many countries.MAlaysia,Taiwan,Hong Kong and many more…</p>
<p>Chinese, definitely, because if you do humanitarian work in Africa, most of them will speak English or French (so brush up of French). In Latin America, Spanish will get you everywhere (it?s much better to speak Spanish in Brazil or the Islands, since most will understand you, and you won?t look like an American tourist). But in Asia, Chinese will be your best choice!</p>
<p>Oh, and if you do any work in mid-Asia - Kazahstan, Uzbekistan, Azeibarzhan, Moldova, even Afghanistan, and many-many more, you definitely need to know Russian!</p>
<p>Hindi may be one of the two official Indian languages, but English is the other… We sponsored children through Plan USA, even the poorest of the poor are learning English, plus their native language and probably Hindi.</p>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, the “in” language was Russian. So what happens when you spend literally years and years learning Chinese only to find that 10 years later it is not “in” anymore?<br>
Least useful language: French. I don’t know why schools even bother to teach it. It is increaslingly one of the least spoken languages.
BTW, Brazillians speak Portuguese, not Spanish.</p>
<p>Mandarin .</p>