Last week, we did an article on how to become a translator. However, many people might ask what languages are the most in demand for linguists today?
The most in demand languages will depend on where you are located. However, generally speaking: Spanish, French, Russian, German and Portuguese are often in high demand. In Britain languages such as Romanian, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Arabic, Hindi and Bengali are often in high demand as well.
The languages that are most in demand are those where there are large minority communities. In Britain there are large Polish, and Eastern European minority communities, as well as large Indian, Bengali, and Pakistani minorities. Due to this job agencies (who often find employment for people of these minorities) require translators with knowledge of those languages- and as such translators for those languages are in high demand.
Many of translation agencies are often looking to hire translators for those languages, and as such are willing to pay top money for it.
What can I do to become a better linguist?
So you’ve spent considerable time learning a language, and you want to become a better linguist in general. There are many ways you can do this but practice is the best way- find someone who can do this with you (whether a friend, family member or someone online).
Get to know more about the culture. Read books in that language (or even online newspapers are good if you want to get a 21st century approach). Alternatively, if you have Netflix, you can change the language of a lot of their shows, if your language is spoken by a lot of people (eg. Polish, Spanish, French, Portuguese etc.) many of the TV shows will be in both languages, so get watching!
Can I ever learn too many languages?
Whilst as a linguist personally I would say absolutely never. It is generally agreed that speaking too many languages is a thing. Many people disagree about the number of languages, however most linguists says anything more than 15 and you may begin to get languages mixed up (but I wouldn’t listen to them- if languages is your thing, GO FOR IT!)
As always Raptor Translations is always looking to grow its base of translators, if you speak any of the aforementioned languages (or any others for that matter- whether it’s Italian or Guarani) we would be interested in talking with you, so don’t hesitate to contact us and work with us!