Foreign Languages That May Help You In Business

These rankings are based on a survey carried out for the CBI Education & skills survey 2012, in
which 542 UK firm managers were asked which languages are useful to their business.

10. Portuguese
Brazil recently overtook the United Kingdom as the
world's sixth-largest economy, and with the
football World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics
just around the corner, all eyes will be on this
Portuguese-speaking "Bric" nation.
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9. Japanese
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's love of the
lambada may have earned him more ridicule than
respect, but his proficiency in Japanese – he spent
two years teaching English in Japan – is held in
high esteem among his parliamentary colleagues,
and came in useful on a recent trade mission to
Japan.

8. Russian
Relations with Russia haven't exactly been warm
since the end of the Cold War – from the
Litvinenko poisoning to the infamous Moscow "spy
rock" – but according to the Government's Trade
& Investment website, Russia is the UK's fastest-
growing major export market.

7. Cantonese
The majority of the UK's Cantonese speakers have
ties to Hong Kong, where it is the official language.
But Cantonese is spoken much more widely
around the world, with nearly 70 million native
speakers.

6. Arabic
Any who doubts the importance of Arabic-speaking
business to the United Kingdom's economy should
take a look at The Shard – the tallest building in
Western Europe was largely made possible by
Qatari investment. Or they could just ask a
Manchester City fan.

5. Polish
Polish makes the top five, with 19 per cent of UK
managers rating it as useful for their organisations.
Large-scale Polish migration to the UK after the
country's admission to the European Union made
the headlines, but as the largest consumer market
of the new EU member states and the only EU
country to avoid recession since the downturn
began, business ties with Poland extend
considerably further.

4. Mandarin
The official language of China – the world's most
populous and economically dynamic nation –
features highly in managers' preferences. In 2006
Brighton College became the first school in the
United Kingdom to made studying Mandarin
compulsory for all 13 year-olds.

3. Spanish
Valued as a major European language but also as
the leading language of fast-growing Latin
American economies – as well as its continued
rise to prominence in the United States – Spanish
is rated as useful by 37 per cent of the employers
surveyed.

2. French
It may be in seemingly terminal decline as a
subject of study in our secondary education
system, but proficiency in French remains a highly
sought-after skill among UK employers, with 49
per cent rating it as useful for their organisations.

1. German
Germany remains the largest single export market
for British goods outside of the USA, and Europe's
largest economy – with a GDP of more than €2.4
trillion – continues to defy the eurozone downturn .
So it's no surprise that UK companies want to hire
employees who know their umlauts from their
eszetts.