Are there any JOURNALISTS here?

soon to be journalist   Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:19 am GMT
I want to be a journalist covering international affairs. Is there anyone here who has similar aspirations or has already become one? What languages did you learn? Which have you found useful and in what areas? I already have English down, an I'm in the process of learning French (I really like it!). What other useful languages are there?
blanc   Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:46 am GMT
UN security council languages
A more original name   Fri Sep 11, 2009 7:39 am GMT
Useful languages:

The most useful languages other than English for world travellers are those that are:

1.used by at least a significant subset of people
2.throughout a large area
3.where English isn't widely used.

Depending on the region of the world in which you are most interested (and leaving aside the varying difficulty of learning different languages),
that would include:

•Spanish (useful throughout Latin America -- even in Brazil spoken Spanish is widely understood, and knowledge of written Spanish is adequate for understanding much written Portuguese)

•Mandarin (useful throughout East Asia, and to a lesser degree in mnay other places)

•Russian (English is not widely spoken in the former USSR, and some people speak Russian in surprisingly many other places)

•Arabic (used as a second language by the literate classes throughout the Islamic world, even where Arabic isn't the primary language).


So, there are five World languages, according to all experts: English, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian and Arabic.


http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/000145.html
J57   Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:44 pm GMT
Isn't Damian (in Edinburg, E14, SW196, etc., etc.) a Journalist? I'm not sure he covers international affairs, though. Perhaps you could ask in the English Forum.