- 25 Apr 2020
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Second most useful foreign language after English
In our age, many people are able to speak and understand English like their mother tongue. Whilst some owe this ability to their perfect English teachers at school, others are fortunate enough to be enthusiastic about foreign languages and, through this strong interest, never lose their motivation to learn.
Anyone who is one of these fortunate people and has no laborious English homework or exams in their memories should definitely learn a second foreign language. The question now arises as to which foreign languages would make sense.
Linguists today distinguish between roughly 6,500 different languages. However, the overwhelming majority of these languages are spoken by minorities. Around 80 percent of people speak the 50 most common languages, and anyone wanting to learn an additional foreign language is usually interested in one of these.
Switzerland's official languages can be very useful
When choosing another foreign language, there are various factors. Many decide on the second foreign language that they learned at school. These are mostly languages like French or Italian, which are among the official languages of Switzerland.
A second important factor is the ease of learning. For Swiss people, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are languages that can be learned most easily. They are followed by Romance languages like French, Italian, Spanish and Romanian.
Chinese, Russian and Arabic for better career prospects
A very important motivation is definitely the career opportunities that learning a second foreign language can offer. These languages include French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Italian and Spanish. Frequently spoken languages such as Russian or Arabic can also mean excellent career prospects.
French and Italian are very useful for Swiss people
These three motivations show that a good knowledge of French and Italian can be very useful for the Swiss. Most importantly, however, is that one learns a language with enjoyment. For enjoyment we often have other reasons, such as an interest in a particular culture or an intercultural marriage.
Furthermore, one must not forget that sometimes precisely those languages that are among the less commonly spoken languages in the world offer better career prospects than all others. For instance, those who know German and English may have higher prospects in Turkey, Iran or Hungary than in the USA or England.
SLA Basel: English and other languages with expert language teachers
At SLA Basel we offer you language courses for several languages such as, in addition to English French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Turkish. Alongside these language courses with expert language teachers, you also have available travel language courses available with flexible course days and times.