The FINANCIAL — Arabian, Iranian, Turkish, Chinese and Japanese languages are becoming more and more popular and in demand in Georgia.
English is essential for entrepreneurs dealing with western partners, while Russian remains the main communication language for post-Soviet countries.
Knowledge of one or more foreign languages can be useful in a wide range of careers. For some jobs, such as translating, interpreting and language teaching, language skills are the main requirement.
“As almost everybody knows English it is difficult to find a job because the competition is high. But eastern languages give people additional advantages and opportunities to get a job. For example, there are Turkish-Georgian companies who offer jobs to people who know Turkish,” said Nana Kapanadze, Manager of the Eastern and Asian Languages Centre. “Out of these languages Turkish has the majority of students. We had 13 groups last year. Each group included at least 5 students,” she added.
For the first time in the history of Turkish TV, a satellite TV channel with programmes in Russian was launched in 2011. Just after the war with Russia, the Georgian Government decided to open the Russian language TV channel – PIK.
“In business, English is a very important language. But since Georgia has close links with Turkey, Iran and Ukraine, knowledge of Turkish, Farsi and Ukrainian languages give you special advantages. Companies from these countries want to hire such people, as they will ensure finding a desired partner more effectively, making business, negotiations, dispute resolution and so on that much easier,” said Levan Gogoladze, an expert.
The world’s language system is changing with new technologies and international communication’s changes. As specialists say, the language of the leader country in the economic market will be the leader in languages too.
“China is building homes and businesses faster than supply and demand can provide. China is now a major buyer of petroleum. China is the fastest growing economic power in the world according to many in the business field. So it’s not surprising that demand for the Chinese language is growing,” said an economic expert.
”I can say the same for the Turkish language. Imagine how close the business relations are between Georgia and Turkey. Of course knowing Turkish is helpful for Georgian businessmen. This market is close, experienced and trustful for Georgian businessmen. So if they want to do their business in such a market, they’d better learn the Turkish language,” explained the expert.
“Interest in China is growing in Georgia because China has strengthened politically, economically and culturally,” said Marina Jibladze, Director of the Confucius Institute in the Free University. “Nowadays all of our graduates are employed. They are the employees of private Chinese and state companies, international organizations and diplomatic structures as diplomats and interpreters. Some of them are teachers and some of them are businessmen in China and Georgia. Today several large Chinese companies are looking for Chinese-speaking people. They want 3rd and 4th grade students in high-paid employment,” she added.
Language and communication skills are in high demand by European employers. Moreover, citizens who speak more languages can reap the full benefits of free movement in the EU and can integrate more easily in another country for study or work.
The company Black Sea Group has close business relations with Turkey. Its manager explained that the company has vacancies for interpreters and jobs that involve arranging relations with Turkish partners. “Those who know the Turkish language have an advantage. But they don’t have special conditions such as a higher salary or position,” said the Manager.
Arabist Darejan Gardabadze thinks that the reason for the popularity of Eastern and Asian languages in Georgia is that this region is economically still free. “Eastern and Asian countries want to enter the Georgian economical market and to cover it. This is the best explanation for why oriental languages have become so in demand these days. Years ago, oriental languages were in demand because it was useful during the study of historical events. Now it is in demand because oriental language speakers are in demand as well,” said Darejan Gardabadze.
“After Georgia opened its embassies in Arabian countries, in Egypt, Lebanon, Beirut, new jobs appeared for Arabian language speakers. Also, Iraq has its embassy in Georgia which arranges our soldiers’ departure to Iraq for their peacekeeping mission. Many Arabian language speakers have got jobs there,” Gardabadze added. “Students from the Faculty of Political Sciences and Economic Faculty are very active to learn oriental languages. Turkish is the most highly demanded among them because Turkish capital has entered the economic sector,” she added.
“Most of my students say that the reason they decided to learn Japanese is their love for Japanese comics. Naruto is their favourite cartoon. That was what initially made Japanese so popular among my students,” said Tatia Memarnishvili, invited lecturer at Tbilisi State University. “If a student is studious, then 3 years is enough to learn Japanese. From an economic point of view the relations between Georgia and Japan have become more frequent, I advise everyone to learn Japanese. The Ministry of Education of Japan offers free bachelor and master degree courses and scholarships for Georgian students. This also helps them get better jobs,” she added.
Christian Tremblay, President of the Observatoire du Plurilinguisme: Emergence of multilingualism as a flagship value in the business world. The “all English” supremacy is over, from now on business management integrates linguistic diversity, an essential element of their identity, and of their employees’ wellbeing and cohesion.
As British language experts say, the idea that English will become the world language is outdated. They suppose that it is creating new generations of bilingual and multilingual speakers. They also suppose that by 2050 Chinese will continue its predominance, with Hindi-Urdu of India and Arabic.
There are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages in the world. Among them English is the first, as it is an international language. Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the USA after English, with around 28 million speakers. The third most spoken language is Chinese – mainly Cantonese, with over 2 million speakers. Other languages with over a million speakers are French, German, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Italian.
The languages with the most speakers are: Mandarin Chinese (720 million speakers), English (480 million), Spanish (320 million), Russian (285 million), French (265 million), Hindi/Urdu (250 million), Indonesian/Malay (230 million), Arabic (221 million), Portuguese (188 million), Bengali (185 million), Japanese (133 million), German (109 million). This list includes first and second language speakers. The totals are all estimates and each source gives a different figure. People who speak these languages as foreign languages aren’t included here. Otherwise the total for English would increase significantly.
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