Learning This One Language Will Help You Make More Money

Learning a second language has traditionally always been popular with the hobbyist and travel community. But what about the business community?

According to Euro London, a recruitment agency, learning a language has shown to add between 10-15{54c12dad2cc2b53ae830e39915b1a3e70288dbcbbeb8bbf8395437c5dc3c512c} to your income. This only goes to show that learning a foreign language is a wise investment for business professionals and CEO’s.

Let’s take the average salary of someone in New York City, ~$85,000, a 2{54c12dad2cc2b53ae830e39915b1a3e70288dbcbbeb8bbf8395437c5dc3c512c} “language bonus” average over 40 years, and also a 1{54c12dad2cc2b53ae830e39915b1a3e70288dbcbbeb8bbf8395437c5dc3c512c} raise annually, you’d have an extra ~$110,000 by the time you retire.

As long as you choose the right method, it’s a pretty good return on your time, whether you are trying to learn Spanish, French, German, or any other language.

Which language offers the most money?

A report from The Economist, shows that not all foreign languages offer the same returns. Albert Saiz, an economist from MIT found the following:

• Spanish — 1.5 percent bonus
• French — 2.3 percent bonus
• German — 3.8 percent bonus

Why is this the case? It’s not that knowing how to speak Spanish and French aren’t as useful languages to learn as German. It just comes down to supply and demand.

For example, Spanish-speaking countries will account for a larger GDP than German speaking countries. However, given the amount of people that can already speak both Spanish and English, it may not offer the best returns, financially speaking.

You’re better off taking Mandarin, Arabic, or German lessons with high demand and less supply of bilingual speakers. Even if they’re not the easiest languages to learn.

And if you’re still not convinced of the opportunity costs of not knowing a foreign language, estimates show that a lack of language proficiency in Britain alone, costs the economy $80 billion a year.

In conclusion, if you’ve been putting off learning a language because you didn’t have any plans to ‘travel’ this year, how about your plans to ‘make more money?’