<p>English, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Spanish, and French are all nice to have under yourbelt.</p>
<p>FWIW, I watched the 2007 Asian Entertainment award show hosted in Hong Kong. TV and film stars from HK, Taiwan, PRC, Singarpore, Thailand, India, Vietnam, Korea, Japan were in attendance. The show was hosted in English!</p>
<p>If you’re interested in doing humanitarian work, I would advise you to definitely learn Spanish or even French. There are many desperately poor nations in Latin America and the Caribbean whose national language is Spanish, while many African countries actually speak French as one of their primary langauges.</p>
<p>Granted, Arabic will be useful in Africa as well. French AND Arabic would be even better, though. I know for a fact that Morrocco uses both French and Arabic as primary languages, and there might be other African nations that use Arabic as well.</p>
<p>Beyond Spanish, French, and Arabic, I would think about Creole (for work in the Caribbean) or some African dialects such as Swahilli, but you might have trouble finding a college or university that teaches those languages.</p>
<p>Here is a link to the Peace Corps website discussing their geographic areas of operation. You should be able to judge their own language needs by the regions of the world in which they work. Hope this helps. Good luck!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc[/url]”>http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc</a></p>
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<p>you can’t choose a language based on overall GDP, number of speakers worldwide, number of countries it is spoken in, where it is an official language, etc. if you want to get into humanitarian aid or public health. these factors don’t determine where the international humanitarian aid jobs are. </p>
<p>i think you should choose the region or country that you want to work in, and then pick the language(s). some regions that may see more opportunities include china, india, sub-saharan africa, and latin america. </p>
<p>do you plan to work in administration or actually in the field? if it’s administration, then french is probably necessary, since most international agencies are bilingual english/french. if it’s field work, then pick the local language.</p>
<p>to clarify about china… china as a country is rich, but the inequality gap is HUGE. there are hundreds of millions of people living in poverty in central and western china. a huge chunk of china is closer to latin america than it is to shanghai. humanitarian aid, public health, and even disaster management are certainly widely applicable here. of course, this assumes that the jobs are as available as the problems though. for example, the AIDS crisis in china is usually swept under the rug rather than confronted.</p>
<p>don’t ever think about latin. it is the most pointless waist of time. there is no use for it, not even in science majors. cause anyone can major in science and over exceed- w/o ever taking latin. root words are common sense.</p>
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<p>For this kind of work, look at the areas of opportunity in terms of humanitarian needs AS WELL AS access. I don’t think China lets in a lot of foreign workers, if any, who focus on its internal problems. Correct me if I am wrong someone.) Certainly it is not nearly as open to this kind of help as countries in Africa and other parts of Asia and the Middle East.</p>
<p>bedhead,</p>
<p>that is correct. just because the opportunities exist does not mean that they are accessible. for example, i mentioned in my previous post that the AIDS crisis in inland china is usually swept under the rug rather than confronted. the government also tried to hide SARS until the outbreak became too public. i’m sure there are other examples.</p>
<p>I would just go with a language that interest you and which you could see speaking on a daily basis. I for one hope to learn French and Spanish fluently in my life time. I imagine each language will take about 2 years to learn decently, maybe shorter since I seem to pick them up rather quickly. I just can’t see myself ever living in Asia. I can however see myself living in Western Europe. So I don’t know just pick what you like and consider where you could actually see yourself living. Whoever said “Dutch” was hard, they’re silly it is very common to English and German.</p>
<p>I really don’t see why you would want to learn Chinese (Generalizing Dialects) or Arabic (Samething I know there are different dialects). They’re really not the the safest regions for us to travel. I personally would stick to the Latin based languages, because they easily move into one another. German and Dutch are cool too, but many of them are quite fluent in english.</p>
<p>You may not see why someone would want to learn Chinese or Arabic but I do…If you have an interest in china or the middle east it will be increddibly useful. Second some ppl can see themselves living in those places. They may not be the safest regions, but there are safe areas. Besides, are you really safe anywhere.</p>
<p>If you have an interest in a foreign language regardless of which it is just take a class and learn. STOP questioning wether or not it will be useful, no one has a crystal ball to see the future.</p>
<p>@Wanderlust (Wonderful Desire). I think that’s right in German.</p>
<p>Anyway, sure I suppose in a way you’re right, but in general those regions of the world are not safe for your typical average tourist (student), it’s just not what I would call safe. The Latin countries such as France, Spain, and Italy have quite stable governments and would make a great trip and learning exprience. People I’ve met from the U.K. who worked in Egypt had to travel by convoy… that’s not what I call particularly safe for the Average student going abroad not fluent from the begininng. Sure there are safe “parts”… but what I’m trying to get at they’re not the most stable regions in the world and I wouldn’t want to be caught in the middle if anything went askew…</p>
<p>well, since the OP asked about public health and humanitarian aid, i would assume that a significant number of these jobs are in countries that the average student would not regard as “safe.” i doubt relatively safe/stable countries like the UK, france, spain, italy, etc. would need humanitarian aid.</p>
<p>I think for humanitarian work your best bets are french and spanish. If you learn spanish you have access to pretty much all of Latin America. Learning french gives you wide swaths of West Africa. There is a massive amound of development work in these two regions.</p>
<p>Thats what YOU would do. Im not even going to debate whats “safe” and whats not w/ you b/c all of that is relative and Egypt is only one example. Just b/c you are afraid of traveling in China, the ME, or any other Arabic speaking country doesnt mean other people are too. The OP wants to do humanitarian work…be prepared to break the comfort zone.</p>
<p>Again, learn whatever language that interests you. If you have no interest in French or Spanish then there’s really no point in learning either language regardless of how useful they could be b/c if you arent interested then you wont pick it up/gain fluency.</p>
<p>UN Official Languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese</p>
<p>I think English, French, and Spanish would be a good base, especially considering the colonial history of the southern hemisphere, and places like South America and Africa (and thus a lot of the developing world). If you want to do development work in Asia, however, then it’s a different story. I agree with what some other people have said - pick a region first (or even a few). It will make life easier.</p>
<p>straight out Korean!!!</p>
<p>Korean doesn’t make much sense.</p>
<p>I’d say English,Spanish,Chinese,Russian,Arabic.
French is depressing.</p>
<p>China is a poor country but that doesn’t mean you can’t make money from China.Chinese will be a useful language.
but Chinese,as some posters mentioned,is really difficult to learn and quite boring.Even for me,a Chinese</p>
<p>Oh no why is French depressing? I am starting it this year (and continuing Spanish).</p>
<p>learn mandarin. it is the future</p>
<p>Probably french.
As is good for culture, science and law…</p>