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Unit 2: Using a Foreign Language

! notes
Caution The problem is that you need to speak it well, since the Germans like precision
and exactness.
German is a language of immense economic use in the German-speaking countries. However, it
does not enjoy the lingua franca status of English, French or even Spanish.

Again, like French, German is not very difficult to learn and with dedicated practice, one can
learn to speak German in 12-14months.

spanish

Spanish is one of the most popular languages of the world. You can speak Spanish in more than
25 countries. Approximately there are 423,085,806 people who speak Spanish. The language is
spoken in a very similar way all over the world.
The combined GDP of all Spanish-speaking countries is one of the highest for any language,
surpassed only by English and Japanese. If you do business with Spain or the Americas, Spanish
is a must, since many businessmen do not speak other languages very well.

Note Spain is the world’s second most visited country and knowledge of Spanish can
come in handy while travelling to Spain but also other exciting countries such as Mexico,
Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica.

Spanish is not very difficult to learn and with around 300 hours of devoted study, you should be
able to speak it with some fluency.

other languages

Portuguese: spoken mainly in Portugal and Brazil, it is fairly easy to learn and speak. Since, Brazil
is emerging as an important destination for business and travelling, learning the language can
be helpful.
Arabic: though it is spoken widely in rich economies like Saudi Arabia and UAE, this language is
very confusing and not easy to learn. The problem is that if you wish to converse on the street, you
will have to learn one of the many colloquial dialects, which are only spoken in a few countries.
Japanese: Japan is the world’s second largest economy and ships millions of high quality products
all over the world, such as cars and electronics. The Japanese roam the world as investors and
tourists. They are generally pleasant people to deal with and speaking their language is definitely
a big asset if you deal with them in your job.
Italian: Italy, again, is one of the largest economies in the world and Many Italian businessmen,
even those who deal with clients outside Italy, do not speak anything but Italian. If you speak
Italian you can normally directly deal with the owner or his children and get better terms. Also,
Italian vacation is probably on every individual’s wish list, so there also the language can be
helpful.

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