Career Profiles

Career Profiles

Asian and European Languages

Why Study Languages?

The rewards from studying languages are many and last a lifetime. There is the personal satisfaction you get from taking on an intellectual challenge and achieving a definable outcome. Languages fall into that rare category of skills that give real-world feedback about whether you’ve got it right or not.

There is the social confidence that comes from being able to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds. Not only will this widen your circle of friends, it will make travel in other countries a much richer experience. After all, most of the world’s population do not speak English as their mother tongue. There is the practical payback that Language graduates have in the job market. Whether or not your job demands a foreign language skill, possession of it can give you that ‘something extra’ that employers look for in a competitive market.

There is the ability to actively participate in the issues and events that shape the social, political and economic direction of the entire world. Climate change, terrorism, international debt and the balance of trade are issues which will not be limited to conversations in English.

Languages are Where the World is Going

• Overseas surveys report that, on average, people who use languages in their job earn 8% more than their colleagues
• It’s increasingly recognised that languages are basic life skills. In NZ there is both political and educational support for students to learn at least a second language. European countries are aiming for skills in three languages
• Although English is currently the dominant language, it’s predicted that Asian languages and Spanish will increasingly gain ground over coming years
• More books are published in German than in any other language except English.
• Apart from English, the business languages most in demand in the European Union are German, French, Spanish and Italian, followed by Dutch
• In the world context there is an increasing demand for Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Japanese and Arabic
• Currently it is estimated that the Internet is about 80% English but that percentage is predicted to drop over the next decade as other languages gain strength. German is the second most used language on the Internet after English
• Website designers need linguists in order to reach global markets. ‘Website localiser’ has emerged as a job title.
• As cultural identity grows stronger, media groups need linguists for subtitles and dubbing.
• There is a steady demand for teachers of English, particularly in European and Asian countries and there are opportunities to live overseas and teach English while deepening one’s knowledge of the local language.
• To take advantage of opportunities for teaching English in NZ it is most useful to know an international language.

Want to read more? Download a complete copy of Career View on Asian and European Languages.