I see in college there are language course to take, why? How would it be better than courses like engineering or computer? You can't earn much money if you know another language, you can just learn it on the computer or something, why in college?
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answerbeggar - 33850 dollars
ANSWERS: 5
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The larger the global economy becomes, translators will always be needed. Also, multilingual people are in more demand. Layer multiple language ability and other job skills together and a person can make a lot of money.
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Learning another language DOES improve our chances to make money because we can understand the values and needs of other-language speakers and therefore meet their needs better and market to them more effectively. That said, I'd add this: Making money is essential, but not everything we learn is directly about making money. With the study of a language comes the study of a culture and increased understanding of humankind. This enriches the mind more than it enriches the bank account, and that is a great good. In past times, when education was the privilege of the rich, enriching the mind WAS what education was about. If we didn't have to make money, we'd learn things just because they were interesting. That would be marvelous. If we're lucky, we get to achieve both goals in college - learning because it's interesting and also learning what we need in order to make a decent living.
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When manufacturing companies look to cut costs, one of the options is sacking all their "highly" paid workers (of course it's "high" - but so is the cost of living so really it's still slave wages) and moving all their factories to countries that have a lower cost of living, and therefore cheaper workers. In order to do this, these companies need to be able to speak the language of the other country - be it Japan, Taiwan, Korea, India, Russia or China or anywhere else. So if you know the local lingo, customs and culture, and have a few important friends in those countries, then you can save some company millions of dollars per year in manufacturing costs (yes, by shafting your fellow countryman), then a fair few of those bucks saved will be available for you to stuff into your own pocket - providing you take the right pre-cautions. If the company is willing to sack thousands of workers, they won't be too worried about losing you / paying you stuff-all (if you let them get away with it). There are many other reasons for learning a foreign language - diplomacy, legitimate business deals, but you get the idea.
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The world is a very small place, believe it or not. I had the same questions back when I was in school. So much so, that I opted out of studying French and Spanish, to study Latin. Now, I find myself married and living in Belgium where French is one of the three official languages, and surrounded by people who can speak at a MINIMUM three to four languages. As more and more companies go global, multilingual skills will become a necessity, and not just an added bonus. It already is for me, and as I begin my quest for learning additional languages (Dutch is my first step), I am considering going a step further, and going for a degree in Modern Languages, concentrating in French and German. You'd better believe that the skills I've learned in the workplace and the addition of three other languages to my resume will make me more marketable in almost any sector of employment.
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The need for people who can understand and speak other languages branches off into a bunch of different jobs. It would be pretty helpful in my job if I could speak more Japanese, my sister in law has a hard time communicating with some of her Indian and Mexican students, etc.
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