$1trn in assets just so happens to be the worth of state-owned funds managed in the Middle East and North Africa, which of course translates to numerous business opportunities if the candidate has the right credentials. Speaking languages such as Arabic and Chinese Mandarin is emerging as a vital qualification requirement in a future employee.
Progressively more countries are trying to establish global business opportunities. South Korea recently agreed to join forces with one of the globe’s largest sovereign wealth funds, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. This union could make way for South Korea’s state-run funds including the National Pension Service, which has won around $270bn and Korea Investment Corp. South Korea is hoping to boost oversees investments and develop its presence in the global financial market.
Communication is key, and the success of sovereign funds or any other business will depend on the correct form of communication. Not only will it help a company to reach its target audience and meet the requirements and demands of its clients it will also garner respect for the business partner who made an effort to learn the other party’s language.
Arab speaking countries including UAE, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar and Oman are countries whose pockets of wealth have during the credit crunch kept the world afloat. These countries will always be using Arabic as it’s the key language of Islam and the dominant religion practiced in those regions. However, it is a common misconception that Islamic believers comprise of Arabs only, especially as most Islamic believers live outside the Middle East.
This shows that Arabic is used by followers of Islam even beyond those regions. Literary Arabic is the official language of 22 countries with around 1.3bn Islamic believers who have been in contact with Arabic due to the Koran having been written in Arabic.
In February a report researched by the University of California at Riverside, which analysed federal data tracking degree programmes over 35 years, found that French, German and Italian have been declining for decades. The traditional language decline was attributed to the increase of Arabic and Asian languages which can serve a more practical purpose post graduation, the report indicated.
A large proportion of US language schools have found the language with the greatest increase in enrolment as of 2009 is Arabic, which increased in enrolment by 46.3 percent from 2006 to 2010 alone.
This was confirmed by a recent article published in the Los Angeles Times, which indicates a heavy move away from Russian studies towards Arabic studies. Geopolitics and a shift in interest, from cold war issues to the Middle East, may well be the trigger for the change.
The increase in language enrolment was followed closely by Asian languages like Mandarin and Korean, the report stated. China is now home to one of the world’s most significant economies and more people speak Mandarin than any other language in the world.
China has also just overtaken Japan as the world’s second largest economy, and with new business possibilities emerging the wish to learn Chinese Mandarin has seen an increase internationally.
It has become much easier to tap into foreign commercial markets; yet corporate communication is frequently hindered by the usage of language barriers. Corporations are therefore progressively attempting to hire graduates with creative language skills such as Arabic and Mandarin to improve their reach and market presence in those markets.
Understanding the culture and language of your business partner is indispensable for the business to be able to grasp the client’s needs and continuous market trends.
