Most useful foreign language in the shipping industry?

[follow40]

Having plenty of spare time whist at sea and on leave I was thinking of learning a foreign language, but I cannot make up my mind which one to learn.

What do people think will be the most useful language to learn in terms of future career development, which will help get better jobs in the future?

[cappy208]

I would think that would depend upon where you intend to work. For instance working in the emerging South American market, it would be Spanish/Portuguese. But working in the Transatlantic trade would probably be German or Russian. To be taken as an authentic Frenchman all you need to learn is: "Je me rends."
If you want to trade in the middle east Farsi would be helpful. But..... do you want to work there in a close business climate? I don't even want to be a tourist anywhere near that.

But the BIG one would be to conquer Chinese. I believe there will soon be more English speaking Chinese than there will be English speaking Americans!

As hard as it is to quantify, I found a wikipedia article that states there are 10 million fluent english speakers in China. and there are 300 million english language 'learners' (??) That is more than the entire US population!!!! and they have a few more spare million to boot too! Sort of scary!

[c.captain]

Brazilian Portuguese!

[Fraqrat]

Don't forget Swahili there Cap!

[Capt. Lee]

I would say Spanish and Portuguese will be the most useful.

[thetruth]

Like they said before it depends on where you are working. If you are in the offshore industry definitely learn Brazilian Portuguese. Of course Tagalog wouldn't hurt you either.

[skycowboy]

Nobody speaks Chinese. Chinese is a written language only, it is Mandarin that is the spoken language.

[cappy208]

Don't forget Swahili there Cap!

I wouldn't recommend ANYONE go to Nigeria though!

[injunear]

I wouldn't recommend ANYONE go to Nigeria though!

They speak English there.

[CoastalDPO]

Fluent Coonass would be good for the Gulf of Mexico, I am not sure Rosetta Stone has that software yet.

[valvanuz]

For most of the world, English is the most useful foreign language!

[anchorman]

Famous words from my retired Army CSM father................that has lived in Germany for the last 20 years..... and does not speak German. When you ask him why he don't speak German...

"If they want my money, they can speak to me in f@%king English"

[Deuce]

Fluent Coonass would be good for the Gulf of Mexico, I am not sure Rosetta Stone has that software yet.

Haha..This reminds me of when I was an OS/AB on supply boats years ago. One time that really stands out was when a guy on the radio kept saying "turdy tree". I asked my captain what the hell he was talking about and my captain was like: "he's just saying 33".

[KennyW1983]

Fluent Coonass would be good for the Gulf of Mexico, I am not sure Rosetta Stone has that software yet.

How true, how true!

[cappy208]

How true, how true!

IIRC, that is translated in coonass to: Dattru dattru.

[KPEngineer]

If you are going to be around the mid-Atlantic I suggest learning Tangier. Good luck with that

[c.captain]

Fluent Coonass would be good for the Gulf of Mexico, I am not sure Rosetta Stone has that software yet.

okey dare cap'n...I sees ya on da wun...I's jus toppin aroun hear infrona c port...you cum on bye dare...okey?'


.

[CoastalDPO]

If you are going to be around the mid-Atlantic I suggest learning Tangier. Good luck with that

KP Engineer, I've mastered that one, I live about a 20 min. boat ride across the bay from the island.

C. Captain, you could beat Rosetta Stone to the punch and develop your own language learning software and market it right at the store in Fourchon!

[cmakin]

KP Engineer, I've mastered that one, I live about a 20 min. boat ride across the bay from the island.

C. Captain, you could beat Rosetta Stone to the punch and develop your own language learning software and market it right at the store in Fourchon!

Just make sure the lessons are recorded. . .

[NAUTICART]

I'm not sure about sign language being the most useful in the shipping/maritime industry, but the culture of it is sure interesting.

I took a few courses way back, when it was college credited as a "foreign language"

The up side to it is when your in noisy areas, you can still communicate effectively. Or when your diving.

Down side, not everybody signs.

So handy in deaf community yeah, maritime not so much.

Just thought I would suggest though. I've been thankful many times I did.

I would seek opinion from richard8000milesaway also.