Language to entry

[Nevah Lucky]

I'm still new to the forum so I'd like to try testing some different posts. As I'm headed off to college, I now have to decide on one language to focus on while I'm there. What I do know is I'm not that interested in continuing Spanish classes because I've got two I'd rather learn. But, I'm stuck between these two languages that I will use in the future. Japanese and Italian. My question for you all as entrepreneurs is what language besides English has been most beneficial in your journey to wealth on a global scale? (couldn't fit more than 10) And in the comments if you could, please give your take on Japanese or Italian. They've made me indecisive but I still have time.

 

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[Nevah Lucky]

Accidentally posted 2x whoops

 

[Kevin88660]

I'm still new to the forum so I'd like to try testing some different posts. As I'm headed off to college, I now have to decide on one language to focus on while I'm there. What I do know is I'm not that interested in continuing Spanish classes because I've got two I'd rather learn. But, I'm stuck between these two languages that I will use in the future. Japanese and Italian. My question for you all as entrepreneurs is what language besides English has been most beneficial in your journey to wealth on a global scale? (couldn't fit more than 10) And in the comments if you could, please give your take on Japanese or Italian. They've made me indecisive but I still have time.

Usually you should study the language that’s most relevant to your geographical area. It would puzzle me why you wouldn’t want to study Spanish if you are in North America.

On a global scale, no doubt it is Mandatory Chinese. No language comes close to second being importance.

 

[Nevah Lucky]

Usually you should study the language that’s most relevant to your geographical area. It would puzzle me why you wouldn’t want to study Spanish if you are in North America.

On a global scale, no doubt it is Mandatory Chinese. No language comes close to second being importance.

Thanks for your reply. I am still studying spanish but I've grasped enough understanding of the grammer to study on my own. For Japanese and Italian I would appreciate having a teacher who can help me understand the same thing but for those languages instead through college.

 

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[Kevin88660]

Thanks for your reply. I am still studying spanish but I've grasped enough understanding of the grammer to study on my own. For Japanese and Italian I would appreciate having a teacher who can help me understand the same thing but for those languages instead through college.

Why Japanese and Italian?

 

[Nevah Lucky]

Why Japanese and Italian?

During a rough patch of my middle school days I found a lot of inspiration in Japanese anime's like Black Clover and One Piece with their main characters being badass freedom seekers, incredibly kind to those who needed it most, and filled with unlimited perseverance. Since then I've wanted to learn Japanese and I've even drafted preliminary ideas for animes to produce.

For Italian, pizzas my main comfort food and currently holds the top spot of my favorites. I generally enjoy all foods Italian and I want to visit that gorgeous country one day. I hear the garden of Ninfa is the most beautiful in the world two. Plus, that's where many great pieces of culture are housed and I think it would be eye opening.

 

[Kevin88660]

During a rough patch of my middle school days I found a lot of inspiration in Japanese anime's like Black Clover and One Piece with their main characters being badass freedom seekers, incredibly kind to those who needed it most, and filled with unlimited perseverance. Since then I've wanted to learn Japanese and I've even drafted preliminary ideas for animes to produce.

For Italian, pizzas my main comfort food and currently holds the top spot of my favorites. I generally enjoy all foods Italian and I want to visit that gorgeous country one day. I hear the garden of Ninfa is the most beautiful in the world two. Plus, that's where many great pieces of culture are housed and I think it would be eye opening.

Learning based on passion is not a good investment of your time to be honest.

You need to evaluate global users, global gdp size and rising economics/industry trends.

European languages worth learning would be French/German/Russian.

 

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[Nevah Lucky]

Learning based on passion is not a good investment of your time to be honest.

You need to evaluate global users, global gdp size and rising economics/industry trends.

I understand your concern but considering I'm not even sure which markets I want to tap into yet or what business I will run, for now I'll focus on these two. Which language would you choose to learn though right now out of any?

 

[MTF]

Spanish, French and German are the most useful languages after English due to their geographic distribution (German less but still, it's widespread in Europe and is behind very strong economies).

Other than that, it depends where you live and what you want to do.

Italian isn't very useful compared to Spanish. If you're learning as a passion then that's fine. Otherwise I'd continue with Spanish.

 

[StrikingViper69]

During a rough patch of my middle school days I found a lot of inspiration in Japanese anime's like Black Clover and One Piece with their main characters being badass freedom seekers, incredibly kind to those who needed it most, and filled with unlimited perseverance. Since then I've wanted to learn Japanese and I've even drafted preliminary ideas for animes to produce.

For Italian, pizzas my main comfort food and currently holds the top spot of my favorites. I generally enjoy all foods Italian and I want to visit that gorgeous country one day. I hear the garden of Ninfa is the most beautiful in the world two. Plus, that's where many great pieces of culture are housed and I think it would be eye opening.

Pizza and anime should not be the basis for a business decision.

But this the cart before the horse.

What business/field do you want to go into? What language does that require? Unless languages is the field you want to go into, this is totally back to front thinking.

 

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[Kevin88660]

I understand your concern but considering I'm not even sure which markets I want to tap into yet or what business I will run, for now I'll focus on these two. Which language would you choose to learn though right now out of any?

If I have to choose I will chose Japanese over Italian because English proficiency in western Europe is decent.

In Japan most people do not speak English.

But for practical purposes that’s like asking me which sinking boat is my preferred mode of travel.

Additional Language is not essential for your business success. The best roi on your time is market size and the population of the language.

Spanish and Portuguese are widely used in Latin America.

France is still the political leader of Europe, has high tech defence industry and many African nations use French due to colonial history.

Russian language has a wide former soviet union market.

Japan has shrinking demographic and currency is collapsing. Japanese is not used outside Japan.

Like I said earlier Mandarin Chinese is the 2nd useful language globally after English. Nothing else comes even close.

We could have an interesting conversation on what is the third most useful language. Italian and Japanese definitely are not the potential candidates.

 

[Consolation]

Should have put Mandarin. It's the official language in China, of which soon going to beat U.S in economic power.

I don't speak Mandarin but I'm from Malaysia. Most Malaysians of Chinese ethnicities speak Mandarin. These Malaysian-Chinese are stereotyped as high-income earners and business-minded people. I did work with one and currently I have one client who speaks Mandarin.

That one client switched to Mandarin (due to habit) whenever he's talking to his business partner. I think it's funny because I feel like I'm speaking to an interpreter when the 3 of us are having a conversation.

If my business are going international, I'll learn Mandarin. There's no added benefits learning Mandarin, in terms of running a business locally when most people in my country are natural born polyglots.

Trivia: If you know Indonesian, you can have a big pool of demographic data in 4 countries: Indonesia (obviously), Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.

 

[Nevah Lucky]

Ok. So from a business perspective
1. Mandarin
2. Spanish
3. French
4. Indonesian
Are the best languages to cover all 5 continents besides North America. My first product I’m making is a deodorizer targeted towards trash cans. I think breaking through the European market first would be most efficient to sell them, but then I do believe it has the potential to scale to everyone who has a trash can (so the world). From this understanding, should I continue Spanish then?

 

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[Consolation]

Ok. So from a business perspective
1. Mandarin
2. Spanish
3. French
4. Indonesian
Are the best languages to cover all 5 continents besides North America. My first product I’m making is a deodorizer targeted towards trash cans. I think breaking through the European market first would be most efficient to sell them, but then I do believe it has the potential to scale to everyone who has a trash can (so the world). From this understanding, should I continue Spanish then?

No. For first product, just the city or neighborhood you are living should be enough. Breakthrough local market first. Then only you could go global.

I don't understand the product that you are planning to sell. But, I assumed you already have clear confirmation that people are willing to take out their wallet and say "How much?"

Again, it's only my assumption. My wild guess.

I rarely heard or read that language is a barrier to selling something. If I'm thirsty in a foreign country and I have money, I can just open my mouth and using hand gestures of drinking from a cup, do you think anyone selling Coca Cola will have trouble understanding me?

 

[Nevah Lucky]

I can just open my mouth and using hand gestures of drinking from a cup, do you think anyone selling Coca Cola will have trouble understanding me?

That got a laugh out of me. Honestly I might have over thought the whole language barrier especially with Ai language models advancing at the rate they are. I’m not near making sales overseas yet just curious on what value people placed different languages at.

 

[Consolation]

what value people placed different languages at.

Yes. There are values in that. Let's continue with my Coca Cola example. I did the gestures then 2 men came selling Coca Cola. One of them have no idea how to speak my language. And the other knows a bit how to speak my language.

No brainer right? I'll pick the guy who speaks my language. However upon holding the can, he tried to upsell me with chips. And then the Coca Cola can looks dented, dusty, and worst it's dirty.

I'm not buying.

Language barrier is a marketing problem. Not a product/service problem. Solve the product/service problem first. One of the forum member @snowbank wrote a blog post about this: How to Create a Business that Prints Money

 

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[Nevah Lucky]

Yes. There are values in that. Let's continue with my Coca Cola example. I did the gestures then 2 men came selling Coca Cola. One of them have no idea how to speak my language. And the other knows a bit how to speak my language.

No brainer right? I'll pick the guy who speaks my language. However upon holding the can, he tried to upsell me with chips. And then the Coca Cola can looks dented, dusty, and worst it's dirty.

I'm not buying.

Language barrier is a marketing problem. Not a product/service problem. Solve the product/service problem first. One of the forum member @snowbank wrote a blog post about this: How to Create a Business that Prints Money

That post by snowbank actually helped a lot, thanks. I’ve got more due diligence to do.