The Road to International Success
The study of languages other than our own helps us to understand and appreciate our neighbors throughout the world. Today, as travel becomes easier and business becomes international, countries are more dependent on one another. This makes the knowledge of international languages and cultures more important than ever before.
Language skills open doors to a wide variety of occupations. Students of language often obtain jobs in business and education, but may also find employment in the following areas:
- Social Work
- Customs
- Tourist Industry
- International law
- International journalism/communication
- Foreign Service
- Writers/scholars/researchers/scientists
- Translators
- Interpreters
- Librarians
Fast Facts
- There are more than 2,700 languages and 7,000 dialects in the world.
- A dialect is a regional variety of a language that has a different pronunciation, vocabulary, or meaning.
- The most difficult language to learn is Basque, which is spoken in northwestern Spain and southwestern France. It is not related to any other language in the world. It has an extremely complicated word structure and vocabulary.
- All pilots on international flights identify themselves in English.
- Somalia is the only African country in which the entire population speaks the same language, Somali.
- The language in which a government conducts business is the official language of that country.
- More than 1,000 different languages are spoken on the continent of Africa.
- Many languages in Africa include a “click” sound that is pronounced at the same time as other sounds. You must learn these languages in childhood to do it properly.
(Sources: BBC; MSN Encarta)