Guys,As mentioned previously Im an analyst with 18 months exp.I want to learn a language to bolster my career options and to be able to get work overseas.Which language should I go for and which is most beneficial. I would like to start with a european language first as mandarin may be too difficult!I generally want to learn Spanish, but not sure this is beneficial 'business' language. As compared with your french and germans?Cheers!

Speaking about languages you can feasibly get business fluency in:German, for it is spoken in strong economies such as Germany and of course holy Switzerland.Brazilian would be good too, fast growing country with olympics and a footie world cup coming...

Brazilian also has the added advantageous of being spoken in Portugal.

I'm fortunate enough to speak a couple of European languages to some degree (from very basic in one up to near-native fluency in another) and have found virtually zero tangible benefit from being able to do so beyond impressing clients and being able to listen in on conversations. This is probably because most of the client organisations who are able to afford my employer's fees are also international in nature, use English as their first language and have managers who travel widely enough that they speak it well.Learn to speak Mandarin, Arabic, Russian and/or Portuguese fluently and this may be different.EC

As an native English speaker you should of course be travelling the world with the sole intention of looking down on people who simply make incoherent noises in a misguided attempt at communication (and in some parts of the world this also involves spitting on you, clearing their throat constantly or invading your personal and sacrosant space which is the right of every Englishman abroad). Simply point to a map and tell them, in no uncertain terms, that the Empire may be gone but the Empire of the mind, nay the cultural Empire, remains strong, the fire burns bright, and the spirit of Queen Victoria, Brunel, Stephen Fry and Big Brother Contestant No 3 from the second series still hold their own as institutional - even moral - pillars on which the ethical compass of the future of western (and eastern, and southern, and northern and middle bit) civilisation rests like the foundations of a great house built on recovered flood plains somewhere near the Lowestoft coastline.Or learn Portugese or Mandarin. Portugese would be my choice.

Mr Cool and co, tut TUT!"Brazilian" is not a language, it means a person who is from Brazil. Same as "Australian", it simply means "person of Australia" rather than a language in itself. The language spoken in Brazil is Portuguese, same as in Portugal but no doubt with different accents and words. My god, I didn't realise that having to teach history would be part of my MC role!That'll be £50 please

It's also a degree of waxing and depending on your gender will arguably get you further in your career than speaking Braz..Portugese

I have to agree with Portuguese. It's not just Brazil (where I'm currently miserable at), but also places like Angola, Mozambique and such. A lot of Portuguese people are leaving Portugal for Angola - I kid you not! Spent time there last year.Asia will come up. Apart from Mandarin, you might want to think about Malay (Bahasa) and Hindi.With languages that don't use ABC, it's best to just learn the spoken bit first. Here's an example. In China, they use simplified Chinese. Compare this to HK. I can't read or write (apart from the first character), but can speak both Mandarin and Cantonese.Malay (Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Indonesia) uses ABC. Fairly easy to learn. It's a good way to get into these other languages, in terms of how to pronounce things in a way that's different from what we're used to in English. Plus, because it borrows from other languages, you also learn words in, say Hindi. For example, "dunia" means world. It's a Malay word. It's also a Hindi word. This is a fast-growing region.I would then say..... Italian. I feel that it's the closest to Latin. And many similar words to Spanish/Portuguese. It may differ a bit (e.g. mondo and mundo) or pronunciation (e.g. certamente and ciertamente, cento and centos). But I concur with the Evil Consultant. It won't make much of a difference in Europe. But it will outside of Europe.

Thanks Anon MC, I'd never have thought if that on my own. Hint: first post was ironic, this was is simply sarcastic.Both drier than empty bottle of krug brut on the Sahara.

Brazilian Portuguese CAN be considered a "different enough" version of Portuguesehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_PortugueseSometimes localised products have a Brazilian Portuguese and a Portuguese version. Chances are that European Portuguese will be understood by Brazilians more easily than the other way round so yes, studying "regular" Portuguese is probably the best option.

Brazilian....... interesting!

Hmmm.... I guess you could say that.But to say "different enough", I'd expect it to be different like, say, how Kristang is different.When I speak to my Portugal Portuguese mates, they can understand me well, but I sometimes can't get some words.But they understand me well here. Especially when I ask about the Lent Carnival :)

Mr Coolio - ok I'll go with you that it was a "sarcastic" comment.As to what language to speak - I would focus on BRIC countries as we have to face the fact they are a big part of our future. A lot of Europe and US will be on recovery long term while BRIC will continue to grow. Plus if you learn Spanish or Portuguese, it makes it far easier to learn the other (ie by learning one of them, you will then find it v easy to learn the other, hence this would be my choices apart from Mandarin)However, I speak 4 (2 fluent, 1 advanced, 1 basic up to A Levels) and can confirm that these are useful assets with the growth of BRIC.

Thanks all I think i will go for;spanishmandarinand then adapt to portuguese if thats done!