Should I learn (another) foreign language?
In the podcast, Freakonomics tried to calculate the return on investment from learning a second language. In the initial conditions of the problem solved in the podcast, there were some jambs. Trying to quantify the benefits of knowing a second language from a strictly economic point of view is like trying to determine how tasty a sandwich is by measuring the number of calories it contains.
Freakonomics , says that learning another language will increase your earnings by 2%. If you earn $ 30,000 per year, you will receive only 600 bucks! And why do you say these sleepless nights?
In fact, the conclusion of Freakonomics falls apart with a more thorough analysis, which shows that even from a purely economic point of view, the return on investment is somewhat larger, even taking into account only a two-percent increase in wages.
In the episode of the podcast, you can hear Albert Sayza, an economist at MIT , who just considered this rather speculative at first glance, for many languages ​​in relation to English, in his study (“Listening to What the World Says: Bilingualism and Income in the United States”) .
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For a more complete justification of the benefits of the knowledge of other languages, let's talk with an imaginary friend John, whose career has gone uphill thanks to the knowledge of several languages. Dutch is not a very popular language. At the moment there are only 23 million speakers of the Dutch language and almost all of them speak good English. Why learn Dutch when you can unlock your world for a couple of billions of Chinese, 405 million native Spanish speakers or 295 million people for whom the Arabic is native?
Very simple. Then that, although the Dutch speakers make up only a measly 0.32% of the world's population, they account for 1.3% of world GDP . Therefore Dutch has made John an extremely valuable employee for Dutch companies that usually conduct their business in English. Even when his colleagues spoke 99% perfect English, there always remained 1% "translation difficulties", which became his work, which could only be done by a native English speaker.
PS
Written based on the language school article .
Freakonomics , says that learning another language will increase your earnings by 2%. If you earn $ 30,000 per year, you will receive only 600 bucks! And why do you say these sleepless nights?
In fact, the conclusion of Freakonomics falls apart with a more thorough analysis, which shows that even from a purely economic point of view, the return on investment is somewhat larger, even taking into account only a two-percent increase in wages.
In the episode of the podcast, you can hear Albert Sayza, an economist at MIT , who just considered this rather speculative at first glance, for many languages ​​in relation to English, in his study (“Listening to What the World Says: Bilingualism and Income in the United States”) .
')
High demand, supply shortage
For a more complete justification of the benefits of the knowledge of other languages, let's talk with an imaginary friend John, whose career has gone uphill thanks to the knowledge of several languages. Dutch is not a very popular language. At the moment there are only 23 million speakers of the Dutch language and almost all of them speak good English. Why learn Dutch when you can unlock your world for a couple of billions of Chinese, 405 million native Spanish speakers or 295 million people for whom the Arabic is native?
Very simple. Then that, although the Dutch speakers make up only a measly 0.32% of the world's population, they account for 1.3% of world GDP . Therefore Dutch has made John an extremely valuable employee for Dutch companies that usually conduct their business in English. Even when his colleagues spoke 99% perfect English, there always remained 1% "translation difficulties", which became his work, which could only be done by a native English speaker.
PS
Written based on the language school article .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/283924/
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