Perhaps not surprisingly you should expect to see most of the Nordic countries represented on this list. What did we tell you? We weren’t lying. Although its economy isn’t doing too great right now, compared to the languages and countries that didn’t make this list, it’s definitely worth learning. For a country as small as Israel, its economy and society are remarkably efficient and high performing. Furthermore, plenty of large, international companies have set up shop in Tel-Aviv. Although it’s only spoken by 6 million people, Denmark has a powerhouse economy that provides plenty of business opportunities. Spoken mostly in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, Persian has over 100 million speakers worldwide. Although the combined GDP of these 100 million people is less than the 4 million people of Norway, there are still reasons to learn Persian/Farsi. Just ask the CIA. With only about 4 million people, Norway has one of the world’s highest per capita GDPs. It’s a very wealthy country. The 6th largest economy in the EU, Poland was the only member state to not have a decline in its GDP in recent years. In fact, its economy has been expanding rapidly ever since gaining its independence in the 90s, Spoken in Thailand, there are definitely business opportunities in the region considering its large tourist industry. Although it is only really spoken in Turkey, the country has made great strides in recent years, especially with reforms intended to make it a candidate for the European Union. Spoken in Bangladesh as well as several Indian states, Bengali has about 300 million speakers. Although there are only about 22 million native speakers in the Netherlands and Belgium, those speakers account for more than 1% of what the entire world will earn this year. With over 200 million people, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world. Although North Korea doesn’t really contribute much to that 2%, South Korea has a powerhouse economy and it will most likely remain that way. Although most significant international business in India is conducted in English, Hindi plays an important role as well. Although it has a number of mutually unintelligible dialects, knowing standard Arabic can be useful if you’re ever on a business trip in northern Africa or the Middle East. Used in many of the former Soviet republics, Russian can be useful if you’re planning on doing business in eastern Europe or northern Asia. Spoken in Italy and Switzerland, Italy is the 8th largest economy in the world. Primarily spoken in Portugal and Brazil, with Brazil’s economy picking up speed this language could gain international significance in the future. Spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Switzerland and elsewhere, many prosperous nations use this language at home. Although it is spoken by significantly less people than many other languages on this list, and in only 3 countries, those countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) account for roughly 7% of the entire world’s GDP. That means that learning German definitely opens the door to some potentially high paying jobs. Spoken in more countries than any other language, Spanish also has the second highest number of native speakers after Mandarin. With the third largest economy on Earth, Japan plays a significant role in international affairs. Although it is for the most part only spoken in China, the population of China is so big that Chinese social media platforms like Weibo make Twitter and Facebook look like they don’t have any users (remember, Facebook is banned there). English has become the lingua france of modern society. From the streets of New York to the back alleys of Mumbai, if you can’t speak English, well, you wouldn’t even be able to read this to find out what your missing!
