What Countries Speak Your Language?

If you know a foreign language, consider working in a country where that language is used.
Keep in mind:

• Translating and interpreting positions demand the strongest language skills.
• Language requirements vary by country and position. In general, the stronger your second language skills, the better opportunities you will have for employment. .
• Continue taking language courses to improve your skills.
• It can be helpful to learn special terminology related to your desired field of employment.
• For example, if you're going into advertising, do you know the words for "layout" or "paste-up" or "marketing" in your second language?
• Make sure you at least acquire a "getting around" vocabulary, and are able to communicate with waiters, taxi drivers, etc.
• You can purchase language books which focus on business vocabulary.

The following languages are primary and/or secondary in many countries. Click on the language(s) you know to see where you might want to consider working and living:

• Arabic
• Chinese
• English
• French
• German
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Other languages not mentioned above

ARABIC

Countries where Arabic is the primary language:

• Algeria
• Bahrain
• Chad
• Dijbouti
• Egypt
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Oman
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• Republic of Yemen
• Western Sahara (Hassaniya Arabic; Moroccan Arabic)

Countries where Arabic is secondary language:

• Central African Republic
• Comoros
• Eritrea
• Iran
• Israel
• Maldives
• Somalia

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CHINESE

Countries where Chinese is the primary language:

• China
• Taiwan (Mandarin)

Countries where Chinese is the secondary language:

• Brunei Darussalam
• Malaysia
• Singapore (Mandarin)
• Thailand
• Vietnam

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FRENCH

Countries where French is the primary language:

• Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Congo
• Congo, Democratic Republic of
• Cote d'Ivoire
• France
• Gabon
• Guinea
• Mali
• Monaco
• Niger
• Senegal

Countries where French is the secondary language:

• Algeria
• Andorra
• Argentina
• Belgium
• Canada
• Cambodia
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Dominica
• Equatorial Guinea
• Haiti
• Italy
• Laos
• Lebanon
• Luxembourg
• Madagascar
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Morocco
• Rwanda
• St Vincent and the Grenadines
• Seychelles
• Switzerland
• Syria
• Togo
• Trinidad & Tobago
• Tunisia
• Vanuatu
• Vietnam

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GERMAN

Countries where German is the primary language:

• Austria
• Germany
• Liechtenstein
• Switzerland

Countries where German is the secondary language:

• Argentina
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Namibia
• Romania

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PORTUGUESE

Countries where Portuguese is the primary language:

• Brazil
• Cape Verde
• Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese Criolo)
• Mozambique
• Portugal
• Sao Tome & Principe

Countries where Portuguese is the secondary language:

• Angola

 

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SPANISH

Countries where Spanish is the primary language:

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Cuba
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Venezuela

Countries where Spanish in the secondary language:

• Andorra
• Belize
• Morocco
• Trinidad & Tobago
• United States

 

Listing of Additional Primary Languages and Country (Alphabetical)

LANGUAGE	COUNTRY
Afar	Eritrea
African languages	Benin
Albanian	Albania
Amharic	Ethiopia
Armenian	Armenia
Azerbaijani Turkic	Azerbaijan
Bahasa Indonesia	Indonesia
Bangla	Bangladesh
Bokmel	Norway
Bulgarian	Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)	Burmese
Khmer	Comoros
Shaafi Islam (Swahili dialect)	Cambodia
Catalan	Andorra
Creole	Haiti
Croatian	Croatia
Czech	Czech Republic
Danish	Denmark
Darussalam Malay	Brunei
Dutch	Surinam; The Netherlands; Belgium
Dzongkha	Bhutan
Estonian	Estonia
Farsi (Persian)	Iraq
Fijian	Fiji
Filipino	The Philippines
Finnish	Finland
Georgian	Georgia
Greek	Greece, Cyprus
Hebrew	Israel
Hindi	India
Icelandic	Iceland
Italian	Italy; Sicily; San Marino
Japanese	Japan
Kazak (Qazaq)	Kazakhstan
Kinyarwanda	Rwanda
Kirundi	Burundi
Korean	North & South Korea
Kyrgyz	Kyrgyzstan
Lao	Laos
Latin	Vatican City
Latvian	Latvia
Lithuanian	Lithuania
Luxermbourgish	Luxembourg
Macedonian	Macedonia
Magyar (Hungarian)	Hungary
Malagasy	Madagascar
Malay	Malaysia; Singapore
Malta	Maltese
Marshall Islands	Marshallese
Moldova	Moldovan
Mongolia	Mongolian,
Namibia	Afrikaans
Nepali	Nepal
Punjabi	Pakistan
Palauan	Palau
Polish	Poland
Pushtu	Afghanistan
Romanian	Romania
Serbian	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Serbo-Croatian	Serbia
Slovak	Slovakia
Slovenian	Slovenia
Somali	Somalia
Sinhalese	Sri Lanka
Swahili	Tanzania
Swedish	Sweden
Tajik	Tajikistan
Thai	Thailand
Tunisia	Arabic, French
Turkish	Turkey
Turkmen	Turkmenistan
Tuvaluan	Tuvalu
Ukrainian	Ukraine
Uzbek	Uzbekistan
Vietnamese	Vietnam
White Russian	Belarus

 

 
Content for this page provided by:
Dr. Kate Brooks, Director, Liberal Arts Career Services, University of Texas at Austin