The 7 Most Profitable Languages (Backed by Data)
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- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
- 💰 Want to earn more money at work? Differentiate yourself from other job applicants? Then you will want to learn one (or more!) of the 7 most profitable languages I detail in this video. And these languages don't just unlock higher salaries and better business opportunities... One of these languages can get you an EU passport, one can gain you access to the world's best private golf courses, and one will let you communicate with over a billion people!
Note: These are languages OTHER THAN ENGLISH.
📺 WATCH NEXT:
Top 5 Easiest Languages To Learn For English Speakers 👉🏼 • Top 5 Easiest Language...
⬇️ GET MY FREE STORYLEARNING® KIT:
Discover how to learn any foreign language faster through the power of story with my free StoryLearning® Kit 👉🏼 bit.ly/freeslkit_profitablela...
✍🏼 BLOG VERSION:
Prefer reading? Check out a blog post version of this video here: 👉🏼 bit.ly/slbbestlangforbiz
📖 LEARN A LANGUAGE THROUGH THE POWER OF STORY
Want to learn one of these profitable languages and change the trajectory of your life or career? Stories are the best way I have found to learn ANY language. Forget the boring textbooks and time-wasting apps and learn a language the natural, effective way with one of my story-based courses.
👉🏼 bit.ly/storylearningcourses
📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
My story-based language books
bit.ly/storylearningbooks
English StoryLearning Books
bit.ly/slbooksenglish
Short Stories in Brazilian Portuguese: Beginner
bit.ly/slbooksportuguese
🔎 SOURCES:
British Council: Languages for the Future
www.britishcouncil.org/sites/...
International Monetary Fund: Largest economies in the world by PPP GDP in 2021
www.imf.org/en/Publications/W...
Mitt: 5 Ways the Russian Outbound Tourism Market Differs from Others
mitt.ru/Articles/5-ways-the-r...
World Bank: Middle East and North Africa
thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/...
EdTechReview: What Are The Top Foreign Languages In Demand? And Opportunities They Bring
edtechreview.in/trends-insigh...
The Wall Street Journal: Brazil’s Economy Bounces Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels While Covid-19 Still Rages www.wsj.com/articles/brazils-...
Visual Capitalist: Visualizing the Most Used Languages on the Internet
www.visualcapitalist.com/the-...
Preply: Lucrative languages that can grow your career - Highest salaries per country / language
preply.com/en/d/lucrative-lan...
Lead with Languages: Portuguese
www.leadwithlanguages.org/lwl...
Alexika: Is Portuguese Useful for Business?
alexika.com/blog/2020/12/18/i...
United States Census Bureau: Top Trading Partners
www.census.gov/foreign-trade/...
⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Golf, Passports & Planes?
00:17 - #1
01:36 - #2
02:35 - #3
03:33 - #4
05:22 - #5
06:49 - #6
08:45 - #7
📜 ATTRIBUTIONS:
Largest economies by nominal GDP in 2021
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...)
"Aerial view of the Amazon Rainforest" by lubasi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
WIKITONGUES: Gereon speaking German
• WIKITONGUES: Gereon sp...
WIKITONGUES: María José Speaking Spanish
• WIKITONGUES: María Jos...
WIKITONGUES: Wanyu speaking Mandarin
• WIKITONGUES: Wanyu spe...
"Proportion of French speakers by country in 2014 (0-50% gradation)" by Underlying lk is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
ANY foreign language will give you an advantage. Why not start with one of these 5 easy languages for English speakers? 👉🏼 ua-cam.com/video/jXfj5BKdZCA/v-deo.html
I have got to appreciate how you make the seamless transition to other videos at the end of each video, encouraging people to watch those other videos too. (y)
Don't come to Brazil!
The economy situation here is chaotic now, so just forget about Brazil for the moment, at least until we change of government.
@@Oly876 People can still do business with Brazil from abroad, no need to actually live in the country to do so
@@LOKI77able I know, I just needed to alert those who were thinking of moving here or something.
@@Oly876 Você fez muito bem. Apesar de amar o Brasil onde já estive duas vezes, eu próprio nesta altura não faria questão de me mudar pra lá pra trabalhar ou fazer negócios, por enquanto tá arriscado demais. Quando viajei por aí em 2005 e 2008 o clima era bem diferente
1. German
2. Spanish
3. Russian
4. Arabic
5. Mandarin
6. Portuguese
7. French
thanks you
Thank you very much
Thanks
Danke schön!
Specifically which Spanish? Because Spain/European Spanish is different from Latin American Spanish.
It's not the language alone that makes you the money. It is a skill PLUS a language.
Very well said
That is Completely true, I work as a Construction projects coordinator. What made me the top candidate was the SKILL + Language, since most of the crews speak Spanish.
Some places will train you if you speak the language. Granted it might not be the case for very specialized or executive positions.
That is true of almost everything to do with language. If you pick a UA-cam video at random, it will most likely use a language, but it will also most likely not be ABOUT language, but some other topic.
True - I am good with B2 level equivalent German but I am based in India and I have been working with BPO industry for long. So this language hasnt helped me financially at all - coz 1) For translators here in India and many other countries they look for people with advanced levels, 2) I cant migrate to Germany on student visa as I dont meet their criterion with regards to age, educational qualification etc. So yea Skill + Language matters a lot.
Remember kids: the best motivation is a genuine interest in the culture and language itself! Business opportunities are just a bonus.
It's deceptive to say a language helps business opportunities without some context. A B1/B2 level takes hundreds of hours and is of almost no business use. Even C1 cannot compete a native bilingual speaker.
No, what extremely can boost your motivation is if your other half comes from a country in which your target language is spoken.
Fortunately all 7 have a lot to offer from cultural perspective 🤓
Yes. And if you're looking to learn something as a way to make a living, languages should be way low on your list, unless it's a computer language. I.e. you can get a valuable degree or certification way faster than you can learn a language.
YESSS
I advocate picking a language based on the places that interest you. If you're fascinated with Cambodia then learn Cambodian. The opportunities will follow.
J I agree, I literally believe one will find the opportunity if there is love of the language/culture; but some folks are motivated more by money in that case they should choose what they think will make them money + hopefully they at least care about the culture and language.
So, there's hope for me yet because I chose Italian? Boy I wish I'd get that lucky in addition to working hard.
Khmer not cambodian
You mean Khmer
Very well said! 👏
100% agree
As a german speaker, in Romania, I can attest that I have built my whole life on it. What a great, fun language to learn, and a nice money maker too. Plus, the Germans are a joy to work with, they are great people.
Glad to hear a positive comment!
That is so cool I'm Romanian. I speak English and know tons of Spanish. I'm pretty interested in Romanian and German for the places you could explore with them
As a Chinese speaker, I am learning Deutsch now, The motivation of me is get offer from TUM , can you recommend me some websites/film/Forum that Germans always browse?
I grew up with German. Time to brush up on it 🤗
@@jackinquisitor9645 Easy German on UA-cam is great, you can hear native speakers and get to know more about their habits and opinions
Nobody is going to argue with you and say that learning Chinese or Arabic or Russian is not important. However, certain languages are simply much harder. In the time it takes you to master Chinese, you could master three other languages on the list... German, Spanish, Portuguese. I have spent more than five years studying Chinese, but I can still read Spanish much more easily even though I spent only two years with it, and I can actually read Portuguese without having studied it formally because it's closely related to Spanish, which I have studied. If you're looking at language learning as a business case, Then it's not just a matter of choosing the language that's going to give you the most economic opportunity. You are actually investing your own time into learning the language and you need to think about which language is going to give you the most return on your investment. I'm not convinced that Chinese offers a good return on investment to be honest. I have met a lot of people that claim to know Chinese, and their tones, pronunciation, writing and reading is not great. You're talkin about 8 to 10 years to get to that level of fluency and language mastery. And unless you go for that level of language mastery, nobody's going to hire you to interpret Chinese for anyone, especially when the Chinese do a better job of learning English than other people do learning Chinese. I'm not trying to discourage anybody from learning Chinese, but it would be a disservice not to talk about commitment in terms of time required to reach mastery.
I think you're oversimplifying it and overgeneralizing your personal experience but I also think you make a good point
In general, it's probably true that learning Chinese for business opportunities is not a very efficient use of time. But the truthfulness of that statement, as well as which ones might be better, depends largely on your native language and a lot of other factors. I'm assuming you're a native English speaker (as am I) and I've also learned Spanish and I've found that I can read most conversational French (not way I would be able to read a Nuclear Physics paper but a lot of books I read have just a few lines of French when someone is interacting with a French speaker that can't remember the word they're tryna use in English so they revert to French and I can usually read those). I've also found that I can usually catch the general meaning of French songs but if it's Portuguese I have absolutely no chance - idk what it is. Even though it IS closely related to Spanish I just struggle to understand it.
Plus all of this is largely dependent on a lot of other factors too - I've found that I've been able to pick up Klingon (I've only just started learning it) much faster than I was able to pick up Spanish because I've had the experience of learning a new language already and learned how I work. People are also WAY more likely to reach conversational level in a language they have actual interest in rather than are just learning to reach fluency.
So basically
It all depends and I do agree with you but think it's also worth mentioning that this is a general rule and there is nuance involved
@@samstromberg5593 i know people always use this argument that it depends on what your native language is, and you're definitely not the first to make that argument, but chinese, in particular, is objectively harder. It is a logographic language unlike most languages of the world and characters are learned one at a time There are no other languages that use Chinese characters with the exception of japanese, and how characters are pronounced and used in the Japanese language is completely different. So if there's a group of people that would have some sort of advantage, it would be the Japanese. It is very fair to say that Chinese is objectively harder than most languages. Why? You can study the language for 5 or 6 years and still be illiterate. That is simply not the case for any language employing the use of the Roman alphabet or any script that is based on phonology rather than idea or concept. There is not going to be a PhD degree holder that forgets how to write the word for "knee" in a European language but that does happen with Chinese speakers. So, my point is that you should know what you are getting into if you decide to learn it and if you're comfortable living in China or a Chinese speaking country. If you are a native English speaker or a speaker of an Indo-European language that employs the use of the Roman alphabet, you are likely to spend four 4-5 times more time on chinese when compared to a romance or Germanic language. I actually think it's more because I don't think the foreign language institute which assesses language difficulty factors the complexity of the written language quite as much. Also, you're not just learning Chinese characters one by one, you're learning how to combine Chinese characters to create new words and there's no end to that.
My mom knew some Mandarin, but my dad didn’t. This meant that I wouldn’t really grow up hearing Mandarin. She decided to go with me to some classes to learn when I was four, but because I was four, I didn’t realize how important this could’ve been. I said I was bored and after a few classes my mom decided to stop taking me. I’m kicking myself over this decision because it would have been a great opportunity to start really young.
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is Now!"
It's never too late. Plus, it's a myth that children learn faster than adults. I've learned so much Spanish the last two years that it's the equivalent of my first 8 years of speaking English as a child. So if you want to learn Mandarin, just do it :-)
That was not your fault, was your mom's. She had the responsibility to instil that needed motivation.
At 33 I am already at middle level of German. Pick up the books and start your journey. It's never too late
make sure you learn a language because you like it and enjoy learning it. i'm learning mandarin and i love it, so i'm always motivated. when i was learning spanish, i didn't enjoy it, i didn't find it fun, it felt like a chore, and i eventually gave up and lost motivation. basically, don't just learn a language because you heard someone say it makes a lot of money. learn it because, you love the culture that the language comes from, learn it because you find the language beautiful.
I work in retirement planning in the US and I don’t have a degree. However, I make more money than colleagues with degrees in finance or economics simply because I speak Spanish.
yeah you hiring??
can relate to this 100% most of my job opportunities came through because Spanish is my second language
Nothing more, I've got the point :)
Really?
I'd be shocked if you actually looked like an Anglo. In my experience, the language helps but people want the person to look like and be a Latino as well. In other words, they'd take a second gen latino with worse spanish/stronger American accent over the non latino bc, well, "la raza" and what not. Is your last name Pérez by any chance? That also helps for the same reason as above. This comment is misleading.
German tourists might spend a lot of money in the UK , as a Portuguese that worked as a waiter I can tell you that the big spenders and best tippers in Portugal are the English , the Spaniards and the Portuguese themselves.
German tourists share a portion of French fries and a pint between four of them and think that they are entitled to take home the dish and 4 the glasses.
Perhaps waiters from Spain , Greece , Italy and other main tourist destinations in southern Europe have had a different experience.
Yes, almost surely. The kinds of tourists that flock to Spanish isles (like 'Malle' for Mallorca) and Portugal are usually those that just want to party in groups on a tight budget.
In Greece and most of Italy those people usually are few and far between, so you're probably biased against German tourists in general that way.
Well as it's said in Germany: Germans don't save on their holidays, they save during their holidays!
It's a cultural thing mostly, but I can confirm it: for most Germans a penny is a penny and they can be quite stingy...It is definitely not common to invite somebody in a restaurant or even a cafe (paying the bill) or to tip generously. On the other hand, Germans will be more willing to make donations than in many other countries. But it has to be "for a good cause":)
Same thing happens in Greece
My native language is English, and learned Spanish, French, and Portuguese. I tried starting Russian but was struggling! This vid is definitely motivation to pick it back up
boa escolha cara, português é a minha nativa, sei falar inglês e tô aprendendo Japonês (por animes e por que gosto da língua), e também tô aprendendo alemão (por que gosto muito da língua).
Glad to know that someone is learning portuguese!
@@notactivated5368 ¡Dios mío! Lo siento te entendí pero no hablo portugués........ todavía.
Как у тебя результат с русским языком ?
As a brazilian that speaks english and french, and that is learning chinese, arabic and german, this video surely made me realise i made some damn good choices.
That's amazing, Chinese can be tough but with time you'll get there! 加油 加油 !!!
Amazing! Just be patient with it, with those 6 languages you can basically talk with everybody lol
Same here , Brazilian living in Germany, learning Chinese
As a Hispanic that Speaks English and Spanish (Castellano) and that is learning Portuguese, so I know when my Brazilian wife is cursing at me >.
@@talachastu816 i'm brazilian, so clearly not much. I use apps and free resources until i learn the relevant grammar. From that point i just dive into the culture with books and shows. But yes, i do throw all my money in my education. Gotta leave this messy country
I'm a native Spanish speaker, English is my second one, and German my third. So overall it seems I selected good languages, the only one not on the list that I'm currently learning is Japanese.
And what about ? Are you a billioner ? 😉
to be honest i’m surprised Japanese isn’t on here
@@josephmessina4832 its a useless language
@@ZK-ff2ru it’s not. at all. but ok
@@josephmessina4832 Its literally only spoken in japan and the number of speakers is actually declining
A huge plus of Spanish, Portuguese and French is that they are really close to each other, specially Portuguese and Spanish, if you speak Portuguese you'll be proficient in Spanish by just studying a few months hardcore , or living in any Spanish language country for a bit, and with only Portuguese you can communicate with Spanish speaking people 90% of the time, if both parties are really trying to understand each other, French is a bit harder, but still miles easier for someone that speak Portuguese or Spanish, and there's the added bonus that Italian, which might not be on the list but would be if it was a top 10 list, is also quite close, the romantic languages (aside from Romanian) are really close related.
8:43 Your Portuguese is amazing bro, I didn't know you could speak my language, welcome to Brazil always 🇧🇷♥️
hauahauha que babacao de ovo dukralho soh pq o cara leu uma frase que qq zeh maneh pode fazer...
@@worldcitizen1960 tu nem português sabe falar kkkk
Great, I’ll learn Arabic to become a journalist in the Middle East! I can see no potential downsides to this!
What could go wrong expect literally everything, amirite? 🤔🤣
Good Idea! Just don't go near the tribes, the lands, the people, or near the Middle East!
Being a journalist in the Middle East is one of the best jobs you can have. You literally only have to say stuff that your employer/authoritarian tell you to say.
Study standard Arabic and not a dialect.
I am happy that in some way, languages are one thing I actually love. I speak Spanish, English, German and learn Italian.
Spanish and Italian are most beautiful languages good luck
I've been lagging behind learning Arabic these few months, this is giving me motivation to keep going! But now I'm questioning if Egyptian Arabic is the right choice.
It's better to learn fusha imo 😊
اذا بدك تتعلم لهجة عربية تكون نافعة لك، انا انصحك تتعلم اللهجة البيضاء. هي لهجة كثير قريبة من اللهجة الفلسطينية. بالمناسبة انا مش فلسطيني. انا تونسي. و ما انصحكش تتعلم اللهجة التونسية، و لا حتى اللهجة المصرية. اللهجة الفلسطينية هي الاقرب لكل اللهجات الاخرى و هي الاقرب للعربية الفصحى من الناحية النحوية، النطقية (الصوتية) و المعجمية. بالتالي اللهجة البيضاء، ثم الفلسطينية، الاردنية، الليبية، السعودية، العراقية.. لا المصرية و لا اللبنانية و لا المغاربية (الشمال-افريقية). انا ادرّس اللهجة البيضاء اذا تحب تتعلم. يومك سعيد.
ملحوظة: اللهجة المصرية ستخوّل لك انك تكون مفهوم من كل العرب لما تتكلم. لكن اذا تكلم اي عربي بلهجة اخرى مش ستفهم اش يحكي. بالتالي هي مفيدة لما تحب الناس يفهموك، و مش مفيدة لما تحب تفهم الناس.
A Lebanese friend once told me that Egyptian Arabic is better than no Arabic.
Learning German surely pays, especially here in the EU. I had a chance to learn it at school, and wish i had made more effort alas I can't speak it :( ahora estudio español pero sobre todo porque me encanta este idioma. Si me ayuda en el futuro - genial. Si nunca lo uso para cosas comerciales - no pasa nada. Me alegrará saberlo de todos modos, porque me encanta hablar español.
I’m Spanish and your Spanish is pretty good! Congratulations and keep going, your effort is paying off!
Dude that was native level Spanish speaking. Very good
Spanish is probably the second best language to learn, behind english. it opens up all of the americas so there’s definitely monetary value
Dude that Spanish was so good! Keep up my bro👍
Languages are more than just a useful tool to facilitate business operations. So sad that because of globalization many languages are dying. All it matters now is whether a language is profitable
Agreed. What motivates me to learn a language is definitely culture & communicating with people! If someone learns a language purely for business purposes, I'm not sure that'll be enough to help them overcome the challenging aspects of that tongue.
@@BrokenAlmonds with strong cognitive abilities, they will be able to. But it's a heartless, robotic way 🤖
Languages don't really die, at least not from old age or anything. They disappear because chauvinists push "bigger" languages. Probably the only way to overcome the "logic" of the market and save them is by having a main world-language that is not anybody's national/ethnic language. Until something even better comes along, Esperanto is the best candidate. It's also easier&faster to learn than any national/ethnic language. Most people don't have access to an endangered language or the time to learn it. Lots of people do have the time and (internet-)access to learn Esperanto
@@ronaldonmg Esperanto is the perfect example of why a language being easy to learn isn't good enough to make it popular. If a language has no culture, music, or other special quirks, then it's pretty much worthless as seen by the abject failure of the Esperanto project.
@@ronaldonmg but my whole point is that I am against utilitarian approach to languages. Yes, rationally speaking we would want to eliminate all languages but one. But...
I love learning Dutch, although it has virtually no monetary value for me in Canada. Even French wouldn't do much for me in British Columbia. Cantonese, Mandarin, or Korean would. But Dutch is spoken in so many diverse places, like Suriname and Curacao.
There are more reasons to learn a language than just the money it earns you! Learning any language will open doors for you, just not always the same ones :)
🇨🇼
Knowing Dutch will give you a leg up on Afrikaans.
Can you elaborate please on Chinese and Korean?
@@mearbye immigrants. The Chinese are buying up all the real estate in British Columbia. Whether it’s legit or from the fentanyl (or other illegal gains)-> casino --> real estate route
I came here to confirm what I've already known: that I should have learned german instead of italian. :) I dunno why but money was never a sufficient motivation for me to learn a language (that's the main reason why my english sucks). I find that I can get much better results when I'm paying no attention to the pragmatic aspect of learning (money, career oportunities and so on).
I personally wasn't able to force myself into learning german despite the fact that I had an extremely good career opportunity in Switzerland. I tried, but got fed up after three or four classes and cant imagine hearing it every day, lol.
Yeah you don't _have_ to learn the most profitable languages. Chances are, if you force yourself to learn them with no other love of the culture, land, people, or products then you'll probably fail.
Key word: _probably_ , sometimes, even though you didn't love the language when you started, you may find something that you like about it after you start learning! Maybe you've found a really good TV show/drama/serial, maybe you've read a really cool book or met a really good artist, or maybe you've found a friend who only speaks that other language! All of these may motivate you and become your _new_ reason to learn that language!
But it is only natural the fact that you get much better results if you are not interested in the pragmatic aspects. Learning can NEVER happen if you try to learn learn in order to have a profit other than the sheer joy of learning. Since italian was more interesting for you than german, it was the right thing to choose.
Pragmatic reasons are mainly for pragmatic people that prioritizes efficiency. If not, then the pragmatic reason, in this case, is more of an additional motivation rather than the main and/or only one.
I love your pfp and user; it’s someone very important from the French Revolution, eh?
Great video as always Olly!! Thanks a ton for such a helpful channel!! Oh, and by the way, If you guys may want to learn Portuguese, I'm Brazilian and I'd love to help you haha
Didn't know there was a channel like this. Thanks for sharing!
Now this is the information I was looking for!
I'm a heritage speaker of French and Spanish, picked up Portuguese easily when visiting Portugal and Brazil, and have taken German and Russian, which I can speak well enough to get around. I've been in Germany and Czechia; Czech is close enough to Russian that I wasn't totally lost. A few days ago I had an interview for a job testing computer programs with a Mexican. The interview was in English, but I spoke enough Spanish to show him that I speak it.
Who asked?
Cant find anyone who asked icl
Va
@@daybyday3840 It's a comment section. People can share whatever they want to regardless if someone asked
@@daybyday3840 Olly specifically encourages language stories in the comments, so you're a clown.
A curious fact: if you join the origin nations of 4 of the most important languages mentioned in the video + English, you will get a continuous area: Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, UK. Of them, only Germany was not a huge colonial power.
Oh thank God, you had Russian on here. I'm in the process of learning it. I also have my 7-year-old learning German and Russian. Double whammy for him.
He’s won the lottery!
I'm on the same boat as you comrade. Удачи!
how are you learning those languages? what are you using?
@Zane Goebel - Everyday Indonesian interesting. I’m hoping to get him into more than just those 3 languages overtime. I’ll check out indonesian
@@gabija2401 I’m using a book called “The New Penguin Russian course,” and app called HelloTalk, and also UA-cam videos.
Love your Short Stories in German. Extremely effective.
I have borrowed Emma's ordered language list (dated 4 weeks ago, ~30 October 2021) and matched it Olly's time stamps, below.
00:00 - Golf, EU Passports & Planes?
00:17 - #1 German
01:36 - #2 Spanish
02:35 - #3 Russian
03:33 - #4 Arabic
05:22 - #5 Mandarin
06:49 - #6 Portuguese
08:45 - #7 French
Subscribed and "belled" to Olly.
I think among them, Spanish and Arabic are the most remarkable potentials because the native speakers of these languages are increasing, and they are spoken in many countries. After them, it may be Portuguese and German, they depend on mainly the population of Brazil and Germany. As for Mandarin, I'm not sure, as the population of China is declining. Meanwhile, Russian and French depend on significantly those who speak them as the second language like Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kyrgyz (for Russian) and Africans (for French).
Arabic is overrated. It has many dialects and Arabic speakers often need another language to understand each other. For example, in North Africa, French is used as such a language.
Actually, birth rates in the Spanish speaking world are flat.
@@tailiu223 Well that's not true, the Egyptian dialect is known by all Arab countries because of the Egyptian movies and songs, so if you learn the Egyptian dialect you'll be able to communicate with anyone in the Arab world.
@@AhmedSamir-ex5jr That clearly is not true. If was the case, the existence of Modern Standard Arabic would be redundant. In North Africa, French is widespread, not Egyptian Arabic.
@@tailiu223 True. The number of Arabs that can speak Classical Arabic well enough is definitely well below the official 274 million referred to in the video
Bardzo podoba mi się ten film, oparty na danych, lubię takie podejścia naukowe.
I would definitely advocate for learning Arabic!!! It’s an amazing language that opens up so many opportunities, especially since there are not many people learning it compared to other major languages.
A couple of things to keep in mind when learning Arabic:
- there are MANY varieties of Arabic, some are similar to one another while others are drastically different, to the point where even native speakers cannot fully understand them. So make sure to do some research before you start your journey to figure out which variety of Arabic you’d like to learn! Also, make sure to check which Arabic your resources are teaching you :) if they just say “Arabic” and don’t specify which type, there is a good chance they might be teaching MSA
- the Arabic used for speaking and the Arabic used for writing are different. Many people will used the local dialect for everyday conversations, while MSA is reserved for more official topics, as well as writing, reading, and the news (from my understanding). Most people learn MSA in school, but rarely use it when communicating with friends (from my understanding). Depending on your goals, you can choose to learn both or one or the other.
But seriously, learning Egyptian Arabic has changed my life for the better and I definitely encourage others to learn more about Arabic :) you will learn so much about an extremely rich language, as well as be exposed to extremely rich and wonderful cultures :)
I totally agree with you Gina. Arabic language with its culture and history is really fascinating indeed.
I am currently learning brazilian Portuguese & swahili. I like learning the languages that are somewhat easier first,. I do have mandarin and arabic on the table in the future. Arabic is a difficult language, so is mandarin.
@@juliusjohnson5967 Swahili is not very close to English though and it has lots of Arabic words.
@@a.r.4707 Where did it say where I said Swahili was closer to English?
@@juliusjohnson5967 I think that you said that you like to study languages which are near to your native language before you edited your message, didn't you? And the swahili was mentioned there too.
So, I have 3 of those 7 languages. I just need to find the right opportunity to make them shine.
Happy to see at least one of my two foreign languages on this list!
Sim! Muito obrigado pela aceitar português como uma língua lucrativa. 🇵🇹
🇵🇹🇧🇷🇦🇴...🤝🏻🤝🏻
Agradeço A Deus depois os europeus por falar essa língua maginifica português.
@@Ficflix_ nossa língua é linda!
Só é por causa do Brasil. Desculpa.
Excellent video, Olly!
Really interesting video! Speaking German and a bit Spanish 😀Japanese planned for future😀regards from Poland 😀
Great list! Thanks Olly!
Owww your portugues is so goodddd!!!
Seu sotaque tá ótimo 🇧🇷😁👌
1. German
2. Spanish
3. Russian
4. Arabic
5. Chinese
6. Portugese
7. French
I'm studying español, but after that I'm planning to learn portugese and then french. After that I'm planning to learn chinese, japanese, Korean, arabic and russian. Yup this is my order for learning.
Man, don't take it tbe wrong way but you better go step by step
it's incredible bro I prefer focus on one or two language max
Me, a biracial idiot who’s teaching themselves two of the languages listed: **laughs in quadrilingual**
Okay but seriously, what he said about Brazilians not knowing English isn’t exactly true. It’s not far off, but it’s not right.
Most Brazilians *do* know English. Or, they think they do. You see, English classes in Brazilian schools are about as useful as a bag of rice is to start a car. But they *think* they know it, and that’s super important. You have to flatter them. We love flattery, and if you compliment us we sure as hell will like you.
(Just something to chew on from an idiot who doesn’t know anything.)
"as useful as a bag of rice is to start a car" is one of my new favourite phrases, I will be using that one
Only 5% of Brazilians speak any English aside from random words and frases, and about 2% actually can hold a proper conversation, of course the other 95% of people have different levels of not knowing English, but they can't even grasp the basics in an actual conversation, you probably live in a city at least reasonably big in Brasil, just like myself, probably at least middle class economically, so you are exposed to the population that has the most probability to speak the basics of English, by far, or you most likely wouldn't have this view, the reality outside of a small bubble is that there's zero English being spoken in Brasil, I've worked in huge corporations with thousands of people and nobody spoke shit (kind of an exaggeration, but not by much) , I also worked with traveling a lot and aside from big centers English is rarer than water in the desert, of course there are exceptions, since 5% of Brazilians is still over 10 million people, but people that come to Brasil thinking they can actually just speak English and get by, always get crushed by the harsh reality that mimic is their only chance to get anything, even a cup of coffee.
Yaaay! I'm currently learning Spanish and German. I also plan on learning French, Portuguese and Arabic some day😃
Lol Already know/learn 3 of the 5. Thanks for giving Ideas on how to put them to use.
But to be fair German also is my first language.
I think you should learn a language and country that you're passionate about. That will be the driving force and keep you motivated
In the Netherlands we are raised with languages, even in lower classes you have to know Dutch, English and French or German. if you go higher you also get Greek and Latin.
For me I know German, French, English and of course Dutch, here in Bulgaria my biggest chances and Income are with my native language and English, also learning Bulgarian now, but with cyrillic alphabet it can be really hard. But learning Russian will be a smaller step if I get used to it.
My gf knows English, German, Spanish, Bulgarian and is now slowly learning Dutch. For her the best is German at the moment.
The best incomes here are with rare European languages, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are here best paid.
Learning any language gives great opportunities, just some better as others.
I recommend you to learn Spanish it s very useful and rewarding and easy to learn.
Hi Olly, I've only recently discovered your channel and as an avid reader I found the concept of story learning to be fascinating and something I feel might actually interest me enough to stick with learning a language.
Anyways, I had a question; What do you think about reading a book I love and have read many times in English in another language. For instance, the Harry Potter series was the catalyst for my love of reading, as when the first movie was coming out, my step father said I couldn't see it until I read the book first. This was way back when I was only 8 years old, and I have reread the series easily over a dozen times since then. I was thinking knowing the book so well would help tremendously with comprehension. Perhaps I'm wrong though? What do you think?
I don't know what Olly would say but I did this in my target language and it helped hugely once I was at a certain point of comprehension because I could follow the story and could fill in the gaps with my knowledge of Harry potter, it definitely helps once you have a certain amount of vocab!
Many people around the world try learning language(s) by reading The Little Prince in the target language(s)
"Germans like being looked after by German speaking tour guides" A friend speaks German but she very often gets the "I want to practice my English" Germans. I've only had one (two if the parents weren't there translating) German speakers who really struggle with English where they could have used a German speaker. Working with tourism, I wonder if learning German is really necessary with this reality in the USA international tourism.
I gotta call B.S. on Spanish. I live in the U.S. and your statistics on the # of Spanish speakers is true. Nonetheless, I don't see a premium paid for people who are bilingual in both Spanish and English since SO many people speak these languages. For example, I know some car and furniture sales people who speak Spanish but they don't make any more than people who only speak English.
The real value of knowing Spanish is for being a medical or court interpreter or maybe even some other government jobs.
But that's in the US, because at least here in Latin America. If you know English, besides Spanish, you can have a very big increase in your salary. So yeah, being bilingual is very important.
Very unfortunate that the car & furniture folks you mention don't make more $$ despite being able to reach a larger pool of customers. On a different note, there are a lot of jobs that require people to be Spanish-English bilingual in nonprofit & advocacy roles
@@anthonygomez7957 100% true. Being fluent in English is very profitable in Latin America. During my time in Mexico, back in the 80s, I noticed how bilingual folks had much better jobs.
@@BrokenAlmonds Well, it is the truth. The unfortunate reality is that the Spanish speaking customers are working poor, so they don't have much purchasing power. Therefore, the market does not place a premium on being bilingual.
I
@@stevedavenport1202 I think he focused too much on the US, which doesn’t make much sense because it’s not a primarily English speaking country
The reality is that Spanish unlocks your access to the economic markets of Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, among other countries. Maybe they’re not the strongest economies, but the market is still MASSIVE.
Awesome vid. Russian and German have always interested me, Russian even more so because I love how it sounds and I like how pretty their alphabet is.
Russian language is way to hard to learn trust me it's my native language and even I sometimes can't understand why russian have to be that difficult, I just can't remember all the rules and exceptions there's too many of them
@@Nikita-jg5yo Тебе это скажет любой носитель своего родного языка. Чего стоят одни только французы, они те же песни постоянно поют, но язык же у них не настолько и сложный как им кажется, просто носители всегда с головой углубляются в грамматику, сложносочинённые предложения, продвинутую лексику и т.д. В любом языке мира это всегда непростая задача. Просто разговаривать с носителями и изучать язык как науку в школе это две совершенно разные вещи
I'm currently studying Tagalog (Filipino). It's really great fun to learn and as i hope to live in the Philippines one day it's useful
Just curious, how's ur studying been going?
@@chadspokeanimations3737 i have many friends in the Philippines so i can ask them for help. I can have a conversation and express mostly what I'm trying to say
I’m native russian, I know English, not bad french , and I learn Spanish and polish
O kurcze, Polski? Powodzenia!
Я родной американец и учу русский и испанский языки
you are similar to me i'm native spanish and i am learning russian and polish
I will be learning Russian in the future! for now I'm memorizing the Cyrillic alphabet
@@thinksie Dzięki!
I speak German (dominant language), Italian (family language), French (office language) English and I understand Spanish - But I live in a bilingual city in Switzerland. At my workplace all people speak at least those four languages...
Fascinating! Which one(s) of these languages in general is taught in school versus at home/with family verses self study or vua extra-curricular academics?
@@YouNeverKnowWhoIsWatchingThe main language taught at school / or the language in which everything is taught depends on the region you live in. It's either German, French or Italian. Then of course you have to learn another one very well and most people at least understand a the third one. Then over 60% of the people living in Switzerland are either first or second generation immigrants and they speak the language of their country aa well. And most speak English.
I was born to Italian speaking parents, grew up in the German part and now I work in a bilingual French-German city. Here you pick up the phone or go to a restaurant or a store and you don't know which language the other person speaks. As a child in your day care center you play with children speaking the other language. You speak both languages every day.
Switzerland is small, we have only 8.5 Million people living in a small country. Of course we speak the other languages with an accent and not perfectly. But we communicate and over the centuries we figured out how to live together.
Yeah just like in Luxembourg, if you speak many languages, nobody really cares. It is almost like a given that everybody is supposed to speak 4 languages or more and yet at the same time, because we have so many French people working here, everything is done in French...wich sucks.
My question is, do you have any tips how to teach young children, from level zero, two different foreign languages? I mean, I know techniques, like nursery rhymes and games to teach kids a foreign language. However, how would they tell apart which language for example the word gelb and yellow belong to, I'd they learn it from the same teacher, with the same method/game? I try to find different games and rhymes so they learn the same words differently... but I would appreciate it if you had some tips.
I made a lot with Arabic, then after 16 years earned a lot (a bit less) with French and German having "retired" to the Med at 42. Languages set you FREE 🆓🇪🇺. Escaped from 🇬🇧 in 1986. (Edit: 16 years in 🇸🇦 but nothing to do with oil).
Would you mind sharing with us what skills that you paired along with Arabic language that helped you be profitable?
@@YouNeverKnowWhoIsWatching I ended up writing guidebooks for the different regions of Saudi Arabia, taking photos for them (had to explain to the police more than once) and selling ads in the books by knocking on company doors, so they made a profit, of which I got a percentage. In 2003, with bombs going off and expats getting shot in their cars at traffic lights, I ditched Saudi Arabia and re-trained as an English teacher in Barcelona. Met my new employer at a PTA meeting and got Covid-redundancy in September 2020 after nearly 17 years. I explained the complicated English grammar in French, and also taught German, Arabic and beginners' Thai. The difficulty is in your 20s, the worst time. 😡
@@YouNeverKnowWhoIsWatching My first answer seems to have disappeared... which talked about the route from university to guidebooks... Sorry, but good luck 🤞🍀
@@andrewrobinson2565 As someone who knows Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, Italian, and now learning Arab, it was interesting to read your comment. I don't know where this will take me. But I love the Middle East, and your comment surely inspired me. I intend to find work where knowing Arab is required.
@@MedievalFantasyTV Good luck with the learning. The people are Arab. The language is Arabic. 👍
I am a fan of your channel Olly. My mother tongue is Hungarian and I speak, write and argue in 6 or 7 languages. Actually I am linig in Luxembourg and Germany. I think, what you said about the german language last year ( am writing this comment Sept 6th, 2022 ) became obsolete....
The place in America where speaking Spanish is most likely to get you a salary boost is Miami, Florida. All the wealthy people from Central and South America just love to come to Miami for their American vacations. The place where you are most likely to find people speaking Spanish 24/7 is Miami. There are many jobs in Miami where being totally bilingual is a job requirement.
Russian nation is currently the most divided nation in the world, so Russian will be native language appoximately for 190 millions, (Ukraine, Belorus, Asia, Israel, USA, EU et cetera)
Put in mind Israel is not a country, it’s a group of zionist people from all around the world that stole the land of Palestine
Just a reminder
¡Viva Israel! 🇮🇱
A must learn language to join Wagner group PMC.
I love how you lump Asia and EU like they're just some countries.
no one in the US speaks russian...israelis speak hebrew...and asia? what?
I've found that learning a language for the possibility that it might make you a bit extra money is not really the motivating force that some people think it would be. To really learn a language people have to feel a personal connection and goals related to it that's not so superficial.
I speak Spanish, and plan on moving to Colombia to work there after the pandemic. I want to learn French next. After that, I could see myself learning Portuguese, German, or Arabic. All of them are on this list. I'd be doing pretty well if I even got half way through this list!
Excellent video, Olly...as always. 👍
Am I the first to point out?...(this is just a goofy glitch thing....)
And the #1 language is?
#5 Mandarin!
(I hadda rewind to be sure i saw it...very nit-picky i know... apologies)
Cheers!
JerBear
Charlotte USA
@3:58 you said that Arabic is the second highest paid translation language. Please may I ask, what is the first?
I learned very basic spanish just from playing mmorpgs, lol.
Puedo Heal, sígame, aquí, allí, ahora.
Apart from German and Portuguese, I either am currently learning or plan to learn all of these languages already!
A little interested in Portuguese as well though as it may be easy for me to learn.
Completely random, but I am loving Olly's shirt today.
can we just appreciate the sound quality? Cuz it's perfect
i'm learning mandarin and russian, guess i made the right choice by accident 😂
好选择，加油!
Удачи!
I already know 2 of them and learn a third one.
I'm joking: I don't learn languages for a job or for business.
I started these and gave up. I’m mad at myself for not continuing it
Hope you can make a video of buddy system for non French speakers learn French in French Foreign Legion and language class for US Foreign Service Institute.
I live in Hungary and actually know people who got really good jobs because of their perfect german. So works in this part of the world as well. ( In medicine (private practice) the biggest bonus is speaking romanian or serbian as well as english )
Feelin' good by having learned Russian and being in the process of learning Arabic. Olly, would you consider doing more Arabic-related content on your channel?
I live in kurdistan and i speak 6 languages and my parents are still not impressed lol
All of them are already on my list 😂😂😢 At least the video confirmed that I have made a good choice when I decided to learn those languages. Latin, Italian, Cantonese and Japanese are on my list as well.
Omg you're Olly Richards, I just bought 2 of your books 📚
Lots of good opportunities here Olly. Learn and earn! $$$
@Zane Goebel - Everyday Indonesian thank you for this - I’ve been thinking about another language to learn
I disagree about French possibly surpassing english thanks to rise of Francophone African countries. In fact, many African countries are switching to English, notably Algeria this year changing their entire school foreign language curriculum from French to English, the next generation won't learn French (assuming they don't immigrate to france etc.). That's a huge change, especially since that country has more Francophone speakers than Mali or Chad (where only 12 percent speak french), and Algeria was also more recently a part of France. More 'Francophone' countries are likely to follow suit with Algeria, i'm sure, so I don't see how France can have more speakers than english by 2050?
I'll be sure to forward this to my boss, lol. I am sure he will get right on giving me the raise I deserve based on this scientific data.
Great video. Please make a video about Persianate languages
As a native German, i didnt know my Language is so famous.
Living in Canada, the obvious is learning French
full support and send love , I like your videos ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I've always had an interest in learning Russian. But, being a farmer, I just don't have the time to commit to the challenge of learning a rather difficult language. I plan to retire in a couple years and then I hope to devote a couple years to intensive study of Russian. Maybe I'll even try to get a job teaching English in Russia, who knows...
It's all relative of course. The number of speakers alone plays a big part in it, I think. You also have to see where in the world it's spoken. The problem with a language like German is that it's spoken in a very restricted area (Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland), so unless you live there or have strong ties to central and western Europe you're not going to have a very useful skill. With French or English at least you're covering more countries and more people.
You forgot some other mentionable places, i.a.: Luxemburg, South Tirol (Italy), and some minorities in Slesia (Poland), Siebenburgen (Romania), South of Denmark, German Oblast (Russia) / Russian German communties, Namibia and co-offical status in the South of Brazil...
Fair enough! Still though, unless you have strong ties to Central / Western Europe, German is not going to “profit” you much. If you do that’s a different story of course. I just think 7 was maybe too many languages to call profitable. But I enjoyed the content itself.
you can remove Belgium in the list. Sure there are people in Walonia and Flanders who know a bit of German but te only area where knowing it is usesfull is in a couple of small towns at the German order. I guess it's helpfull to read packeges in shops because they should be trilangual (Dutch/French/German) but you can as well learn Dutch or French in stead.
German, Russian and Arabic because I have to. It's a matter of pride. French and Spanish already in the bag.
Great selection of languages!
You mentioned that foreign students who know French can get scholarships, where are these? I’m starting uni next year and this would help me out so much 🙏🏻
Hi, Olly, is there a Short Stories in Cantonese ?
New video !!! 🎉💖
8:42 QUEEE?!!? NÃO ESPERAVA POR ISSO NÃO!
Né? 😂😂
A Russian teacher here! Knowing the language definitely allows me to earn money, haha :D
I believe you should learn a language when you have a specific goal in mind or if you're a linguist and generally interested in languages. Learning for the sake of learning ( or "why not?") often is a pointless act.
Unusual opinion, especially for a teacher
Arguments for learning the Russian language are great! Real estate, tourism, teaching, IT - in these areas the Russian language is in demand.
I'm originally from Lebanon I speak fluently 5 languages( English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French) besides my Arabic tongue language. I'm planning to start German next year.
ما شاء الله good for you 👍
French I have a hard time believing will be the dominant language by 20 50 because the last time I checked, French is not exactly loosing it's dominance in Canada per-say but that in 20 years their will be more people immigrating from Spanish speaking countries or be of Punjabi descent. Although, this might have been an estimated statistic.
I believe its because of the projected population growth of the former French colonies in Africa.
@@arishali9248 Yeah, that’s what I was thinking yesterday. Also, the most populous language isn’t always the most useful. It comes down to versatility.
"loosing" ? "per say" ?? Make you sure you at least improve your English before 2050 if nothing else lol.
@@loot6 This coming from someone with grammar mistakes as well.
This is for people who can't stomach your text:
(Btw I don't hate you for it)
I had a hard time believing [that] it will be the dominant language by 2050 because last time I checked, French is not exactly losing its dominance in Canada persé,¹ but more so that in 20 years there will be more people immigrating from Spanish-speaking countries or be² of Punjabi descent.
Although this whole fiasco³ might have been an estimated statistic
1:
I think, I've never looked up how to write persé
2:
I am not sure what you are trying to say.
3:
I wasn't completely sure what _this_ referred to, so I went with _this whole fiasco_
Omg I just asked Shane Hummus to do a video on this it’s like you read my mind Olly
He estado viendo tus videos y sinceramente me inspiraste a seguir echándole ganas al aprendizaje de idiomas. Qué padre proyecto en serio tu canal de YT es.
Thank you, Olly! While listening to CCM music, I've definitely noticed a lot of Portuguese speakers in the comment section -- even more than Spanish! It's even spoken in Angola!
Yes, public universities in Germany are free, but if you’re not a citizen, you’d have to pay fees, since you don’t pay taxes. That happened to an acquaintance of mine who wanted to study in Germany
@Zane Goebel - Everyday Indonesian thank you for pointing the scholarships out! I went through a list of scholarships offered in Germany to international students. This is what I found out:
1. The German scholarships are really hard to get. You must show outstanding academic achievements.
2. The student fees (underline) might not be covered by the scholarship (that’s exactly how they state it on the website)
Thank you for pointing out, I wasn’t completely right in my initial comment 😁
I'm native Spanish speaker and I can speak English fluently and I'm learning French and mandarin.
If you're in the BPO industry, it's a definite plus if you're bilingual/multilingual. The salary is significantly higher.
Always surprised when Japanese / Korean is left off of these lists
I'm a Russian native speaker. I have no idea how it is possible to learn this language. For me now, it is much easier to write something in English, for instance, than in my native language because of our spelling, grammar and, especially, punctuation. I really sometimes think that the best way to be correct at punctuation is to put commas literally everywhere))) Thank you for this video!
I'm learning English and Portuguese, I love both languages.
Heading towards my fourth language…. Although it’s not on this list I have always wanted to learn Japanese ….