Quinn
How beneficial is it to learn a second language if I want to be an economics major?
Interested in Mandarin and other Asian languages #economics
3 answers
Omar El Affani
Omar’s Answer
Hi Quinn, I think it is absolutely critical. In a global world as the one we live in today, being able to understand and communicate with different people in their own language is a priceless asset. Throughout my career, the different languages I am fluent in have really been a key differentiator. And in Economics fields, it is clearly a must and many books have been written about understanding the cultural diversity while doing busiiness. No to mention that in your daily life too, while on vacation or just socializing, it makes life so easy to be able to understand the people around you. Same for news on tv or internet... Wouldn't you like to understand what the rest of the world (non English speaking) says, thinks...
So yes I would strongly advise you to learn as many languages a possible. Thanks. Omar
Garrett Gollehon
Garrett’s Answer
Contrary to what Omar brought up it is NOT necessary. Depending on what you want to do, or where life takes you, you may not even have to know a different language. If you are all about having as many skills as possible then take the courses. I will admit that it does make a strong statement on your resume to have language skills but the beauty of economics is that it is a global language, everyone understands that price goes down as supply shifts away from the origin (all else equal); firms already know the basic economic principles so a basic understanding will be there. More likely than not, either the client knows English or will provide someone who knows English.
Hope this helps.
Garrett
Anand Shukla, Ph.D.
Anand’s Answer
Hi Quinn,
There's truth to both Omar and Garrett's answers. On the one hand, learning a new language is definitely a great additional skill to have, but it is not necessary.
I have worked at a development research firm in India and having knowledge of a local language definitely helped. If you see yourself one day going to a different country for maybe some research work (such as Innovations for Poverty Action), then perhaps it's good to have a language skill.
It really depends what you want to do in the future. For example, if your goal is to work one day for a company or government as an economist, then perhaps taking a few statistics courses might be more useful than another language.