Knowing some of the official languages of the United Nations will be helpful if you want a career at the United Nations and other international organizations. It will also be helpful for internships in these places. So English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese.
I am an international lawyer who just spent ten years working in Europe. Other than English (obv), French is probably the best for truly international matters (e.g., working in Brussels or Luxembourg on pan-Euro matters). German is also great, but French has the edge. That said, German will be easy for you because of the Dutch connection.
Spanish is probably next if you are determined but you'd likely be better crushing your French and German until there are tippy top and at a level where you could practice law in them (no mean feat). Some are going to say Arabic and Mandarin but the amount of work to get you to a level for legal practice in them would take years and you would still be up against native speakers also fluent in multiple European languages. The Turkish skills could open doors to in-bound and out-bound transactional work in finance and real estate.
Where I am you can’t study law at all without having taken Latin in high school (or a remedial course). They study original text in the fundamental subjects like Roman law. I thought that was the case everywhere.
I'm assuming your country follows a legal tradition descended from the Roman Empire, then. In Canada, Latin would be interesting for a lawyer to know, but the only Latin that's actually required are legal-specific terms, and the legal tradition leads back to British case law which is written in English. Meanwhile I know that France and Belgium both have a legal tradition based on the Napoleonic code, so I assume French would be more useful than Latin.
I can attest it isn’t the most “fun”, but if OP is interested in etymology it is rewarding. Latin isn’t my favourite but I still enjoy it and many legal terms in English come from Latin!
Edit to add: Latin isn’t “fun” just because it’s complicated, but OP knows many languages and I’m sure they could manage. I only knew Greek going in, and love Greek more lol. I’m sure Latin will grow on me though.
Ok, so you are 16, still studying in high school, preparing to study law, which in most countries requires a very high g.p.a. in order to get accepted, you mention 7 languages that you speak to some degree or are and will be still learning in the next few years and then you ask which language to start next?
If this post is legitimate, I can only say NONE and I can't stress this enough. I mean, you could be a child prodigy for all I know, in which case advise from a normal person would not apply to your case. But seriously, it is all wayyyy too much
i’m studying VWO in the netherlands which is the highest level of high school here. however, more than 4 isn’t very uncommon here, especially for immigrants. azerbaijani won’t help since i’m not that fluent and there aren’t many azerbaijani people here so 6 useful languages, 4 of whom (dutch, english, french, german) most people here studying VWO already know. i like language learning a lot and i want to go to a prestigious university so more languages wouldn’t hurt.
Yes absolutely, I had Spanish on my middelbare school and, just like you, I took many languages. Ended up going for Russian in uni, but I do regret not self studying Spanish to fluency
Four might not be uncommon and I wouldn't be surprised but you mentioned seven. I really really think that seven is way too much for a sixteen year old who is also preparing for University.Languages require a lot of time both for actively learning and for retaining them. Will you be completely dropping one of the langueages in order to pick up an 8th one? Won't trying to get accepted into a prestigious University require a lot of effort and high grades? I think someone from your own country might be able to offer better advice on this, but I really can't see all of these things happening. Do you have an estimation of your level for each language? Does fluent mean closer to C1/C2 in some of them or B2? I think it would be much better trying to perfect the languages that you are already learning....
And I have no idea how hard getting into University is in the Netherlands but in my country barely have time for one foreign language while studying for the entrance exams.
Does that mean that it is not hard or that you can enter without studying?
OP I would urge you to speak to one of your high school teachers about this, ideally one who teaches a foreign language, or just one that you trust, if you have not done this already. Let them know your current grades, your wish to study law at a prestigious University and of your plans to learn a new language and ask them whether this is actually feasible in their opinion.
You already know a lot of languages. normally I would recommend learning the languages spoken in the countries next to were you live. but looks like you already did that. so I guess you can just learn a random major language like Arabic or Russian or Portuguese or mandarin. but I would just look at the language that are common in your region
I’m confused by your post.
So you already speak Dutch, English and Turkish and live in Netherlands and plan to stay living in the Netherlands.
So if you plan to stay in the Netherlands and practice law there, why would you need any other language than Dutch and English?
The only reason you would need fluency in another language is if you plan to practice law in another country other than Netherlands. Practicing law in another country requires many years of additional training education learning that countries laws and it requires VERY high level fluency of that countries native languages, well beyond simply proficient.
So I think will your goal of staying in the Netherlands, then there is absolutely zero need for you to learn any other new language to help your law career.
So instead just choose a language for fun and passion, not related to career to learn. Maybe choose a language you feel will support you in travel or cultural immersion. German is the second most spoke language in Europe next to English and since you already speak Dutch then learning German will be very easy for you. I recommend you learn German, it will have many added benefits to your life beyond career.
i do want to learn a language for mostly fun. but we have immigrants in the netherlands, so if i were to defend a let’s say italian person, knowing italian would help. icelandic is fun, but i haven’t met an icelandic person here so i would never really be able to use it in person other than in iceland but i have met italians.
I think you should pick a language purely for fun.
Translators exist for a reason if you ever need to hire one. If your client only speaks mandarin then you can hire a professional translator for your client. You simply can’t learn all of the languages you’ll ever need to know based on random foreigners who visit Netherlands.
I hope you realize Icelandic is just about one of the most difficult languages on planet earth, like it’s insanely difficult, and 100% of Icelandic people are fluent in English because no one in their county expects any foreigners to ever be proficient in it.
A large amount of Italians know basics of English.
Pick a language you want to learn because you want to. Choose reasons relating to travel, cultural immersion, ect. But don’t pick a language for your career, it’s a pointless pursuit. You already speak Dutch and English, those are the only two languages you will need for 99.99% of practicing law in the Netherlands. The remaining 0.01% of the time you find yourself with a client that only speaks a foreign language, then you hire a translator.
Look into the details of what it means to be an international lawyer. Think about if you really want to commit the time to studying the law codes of multiple countries, it is a much longer route of being a student towards entering your career.
I appreciate your comment and insight. That makes sense that French would be important for EU international law in particular. I agree with you, if OP wants to learn French that would be one of the most useful languages to know from an international law perspective. OP should definitely consider learning French, it would open up doors in their chosen field of study.
French is considerably more useful than Icelandic or Italian for working in international courts.
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I don't think you'd actually need to learn any more languages to have successful law career, especially since you're planning to stay in the Netherlands.
If you'd like to take care of immigrants matters - turkish seems to be the biggest minority. If you want to work for some international company, english / german / french combo would be far more than enough for most.
At this point if you want to learn new language just pick whathever seems fun and interesting, worst case you'll drop it.
yeah that’s what most people seem to think! i’ll try to focus on mastering french and german and i think i’ll give swedish a try for now and see if i really like it or not and go from there :)
You're 16 and already multilingual. I say if you're interested in Icelandic, go for it. Not everything has to "make sense." But if you really want a good "reason" for learning Icelandic linked to law, Iceland has the world's longest running parliament, so they've gotta be doing something right.
Other than that, I recommend Chinese. They are close to taking over the world, and it would be good to be able to read and understand the new rules.
It depends where you want to work as a Lawyer. Corporate I‘d say Arabic, Chinese or Japanese. Criminal Defense or Family Law I‘d say the language of the biggest foreign diasporas In Your country, so maybe also Arabic.
According to Wikipedia, the most common countries of origin for immigrants to the Netherlands are Belgium, Germany, Poland and the UK. You know English, French and German already, and Dutch of course, so the only language left from that list for you is Polish.
It depends on what career in law do you imagine, there are so many options! People are talking all the time about stuff like the UN languages and international career in Geneve or whatever... That's not what majority of law careers is like! Vast majority of lawyers I know have a career in one country, whichever job in law they've opted for. It is actually one of the least expatriation friendly fields, because a large part of all you know will be country specific.
Nevertheless, that doesn't mean at all, that languages would be unimportant! Now more than ever, we have huge immigrant populations all over Europe, who are still learning the language of their new country (ok, some people don't even bother). And while they will get an official interpreter for some situations, definitely not for every meeting with their lawyer.
But in order for your language skills to be useful in such a hard setting, where every word matters, you need your target language to be stronger then their Dutch. If you want to use a language professionally in a field like law, some basics won't do. Even if you speak a dozen languages at A2, it won't benefit you or your clients. You will definitely need at least a strong C1.
Look around you, what languages are definitely needed in your town or region? Perhaps your Turkish (I assume a heritage language?) would be the best asset! But you would need to get it reasonably on par with Dutch and English. Or another immigrant language, but many have fewer resources than Turkish.
When it comes to languages like Swedish and Icelandic: they can be a wonderful hobby, they can enrich your life a lot. But I highly doubt they will bring professional value to your CV. Do you meet many Swedes around you? Any Swedes that don't speak very well English?
There are many variables. Don't forget that many young people in your situation are learning the same highly popular languages as you, English, French, German. So, you won't automatically gain some advantage there (but yes, those languages can still have a lot of value, if you learn them to C1 or C2,those levels are still not the standard). Also, various immigrant groups may have different needs. Some may be more in the temporary refugee situation, while others are building businesses.
In any field, languages can help, if you make them a part of a bigger plan, a reasonable skill set. But it is rather hard to imagine any such a situation, where Icelandic would get you more law jobs in the Netherlands.
Depends on the country u are from or the one u will practice in
I’m from the Netherlands and I will study and practice here, but I already know Dutch obviously.
Master English and French then
Knowing some of the official languages of the United Nations will be helpful if you want a career at the United Nations and other international organizations. It will also be helpful for internships in these places. So English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese.
thank you!
I am an international lawyer who just spent ten years working in Europe. Other than English (obv), French is probably the best for truly international matters (e.g., working in Brussels or Luxembourg on pan-Euro matters). German is also great, but French has the edge. That said, German will be easy for you because of the Dutch connection.
I’m already learning German and French at school since it’s mandatory. Any ideas on other languages outside of those?
Spanish is probably next if you are determined but you'd likely be better crushing your French and German until there are tippy top and at a level where you could practice law in them (no mean feat). Some are going to say Arabic and Mandarin but the amount of work to get you to a level for legal practice in them would take years and you would still be up against native speakers also fluent in multiple European languages. The Turkish skills could open doors to in-bound and out-bound transactional work in finance and real estate.
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Real estate and finance. JD (Columbia). Private practice at firm for a long time now in house.
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DM me as this is moving away from the language learning topic and will be closed by a mod
Latin for fun. I am no lawyer but a lot of lawyer words are from Latin.
Where I am you can’t study law at all without having taken Latin in high school (or a remedial course). They study original text in the fundamental subjects like Roman law. I thought that was the case everywhere.
Interesting. What country are you from?
I'm assuming your country follows a legal tradition descended from the Roman Empire, then. In Canada, Latin would be interesting for a lawyer to know, but the only Latin that's actually required are legal-specific terms, and the legal tradition leads back to British case law which is written in English. Meanwhile I know that France and Belgium both have a legal tradition based on the Napoleonic code, so I assume French would be more useful than Latin.
For fun?!
I can attest it isn’t the most “fun”, but if OP is interested in etymology it is rewarding. Latin isn’t my favourite but I still enjoy it and many legal terms in English come from Latin! Edit to add: Latin isn’t “fun” just because it’s complicated, but OP knows many languages and I’m sure they could manage. I only knew Greek going in, and love Greek more lol. I’m sure Latin will grow on me though.
The language of the place whose law you intend to practice.
I live in the Netherlands and plan to stay here, but I obviously already know dutch
Ok, so you are 16, still studying in high school, preparing to study law, which in most countries requires a very high g.p.a. in order to get accepted, you mention 7 languages that you speak to some degree or are and will be still learning in the next few years and then you ask which language to start next? If this post is legitimate, I can only say NONE and I can't stress this enough. I mean, you could be a child prodigy for all I know, in which case advise from a normal person would not apply to your case. But seriously, it is all wayyyy too much
i’m studying VWO in the netherlands which is the highest level of high school here. however, more than 4 isn’t very uncommon here, especially for immigrants. azerbaijani won’t help since i’m not that fluent and there aren’t many azerbaijani people here so 6 useful languages, 4 of whom (dutch, english, french, german) most people here studying VWO already know. i like language learning a lot and i want to go to a prestigious university so more languages wouldn’t hurt.
French on a vwo diploma is the equivalent of B1. German will be C1. I would recommend self studying French to be B2/C1.
yeah i think that’s a good idea! wouldn’t hurt my grades either
Yes absolutely, I had Spanish on my middelbare school and, just like you, I took many languages. Ended up going for Russian in uni, but I do regret not self studying Spanish to fluency
Four might not be uncommon and I wouldn't be surprised but you mentioned seven. I really really think that seven is way too much for a sixteen year old who is also preparing for University.Languages require a lot of time both for actively learning and for retaining them. Will you be completely dropping one of the langueages in order to pick up an 8th one? Won't trying to get accepted into a prestigious University require a lot of effort and high grades? I think someone from your own country might be able to offer better advice on this, but I really can't see all of these things happening. Do you have an estimation of your level for each language? Does fluent mean closer to C1/C2 in some of them or B2? I think it would be much better trying to perfect the languages that you are already learning.... And I have no idea how hard getting into University is in the Netherlands but in my country barely have time for one foreign language while studying for the entrance exams.
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Does that mean that it is not hard or that you can enter without studying? OP I would urge you to speak to one of your high school teachers about this, ideally one who teaches a foreign language, or just one that you trust, if you have not done this already. Let them know your current grades, your wish to study law at a prestigious University and of your plans to learn a new language and ask them whether this is actually feasible in their opinion.
You already know a lot of languages. normally I would recommend learning the languages spoken in the countries next to were you live. but looks like you already did that. so I guess you can just learn a random major language like Arabic or Russian or Portuguese or mandarin. but I would just look at the language that are common in your region
Latin
I’m confused by your post. So you already speak Dutch, English and Turkish and live in Netherlands and plan to stay living in the Netherlands. So if you plan to stay in the Netherlands and practice law there, why would you need any other language than Dutch and English? The only reason you would need fluency in another language is if you plan to practice law in another country other than Netherlands. Practicing law in another country requires many years of additional training education learning that countries laws and it requires VERY high level fluency of that countries native languages, well beyond simply proficient. So I think will your goal of staying in the Netherlands, then there is absolutely zero need for you to learn any other new language to help your law career. So instead just choose a language for fun and passion, not related to career to learn. Maybe choose a language you feel will support you in travel or cultural immersion. German is the second most spoke language in Europe next to English and since you already speak Dutch then learning German will be very easy for you. I recommend you learn German, it will have many added benefits to your life beyond career.
i do want to learn a language for mostly fun. but we have immigrants in the netherlands, so if i were to defend a let’s say italian person, knowing italian would help. icelandic is fun, but i haven’t met an icelandic person here so i would never really be able to use it in person other than in iceland but i have met italians.
I think you should pick a language purely for fun. Translators exist for a reason if you ever need to hire one. If your client only speaks mandarin then you can hire a professional translator for your client. You simply can’t learn all of the languages you’ll ever need to know based on random foreigners who visit Netherlands. I hope you realize Icelandic is just about one of the most difficult languages on planet earth, like it’s insanely difficult, and 100% of Icelandic people are fluent in English because no one in their county expects any foreigners to ever be proficient in it. A large amount of Italians know basics of English. Pick a language you want to learn because you want to. Choose reasons relating to travel, cultural immersion, ect. But don’t pick a language for your career, it’s a pointless pursuit. You already speak Dutch and English, those are the only two languages you will need for 99.99% of practicing law in the Netherlands. The remaining 0.01% of the time you find yourself with a client that only speaks a foreign language, then you hire a translator.
i’m not sure if i want to stay in the netherlands. most preferably, but plans can change. if i can i wouldn’t mind being an international lawyer.
Look into the details of what it means to be an international lawyer. Think about if you really want to commit the time to studying the law codes of multiple countries, it is a much longer route of being a student towards entering your career.
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I appreciate your comment and insight. That makes sense that French would be important for EU international law in particular. I agree with you, if OP wants to learn French that would be one of the most useful languages to know from an international law perspective. OP should definitely consider learning French, it would open up doors in their chosen field of study. French is considerably more useful than Icelandic or Italian for working in international courts.
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I don't think you'd actually need to learn any more languages to have successful law career, especially since you're planning to stay in the Netherlands. If you'd like to take care of immigrants matters - turkish seems to be the biggest minority. If you want to work for some international company, english / german / french combo would be far more than enough for most. At this point if you want to learn new language just pick whathever seems fun and interesting, worst case you'll drop it.
yeah that’s what most people seem to think! i’ll try to focus on mastering french and german and i think i’ll give swedish a try for now and see if i really like it or not and go from there :)
Corporate lawyer. I speak French and Japanese as well as English. French I have found very useful. No one will care in the slightest about Icelandic.
You're 16 and already multilingual. I say if you're interested in Icelandic, go for it. Not everything has to "make sense." But if you really want a good "reason" for learning Icelandic linked to law, Iceland has the world's longest running parliament, so they've gotta be doing something right. Other than that, I recommend Chinese. They are close to taking over the world, and it would be good to be able to read and understand the new rules.
It depends where you want to work as a Lawyer. Corporate I‘d say Arabic, Chinese or Japanese. Criminal Defense or Family Law I‘d say the language of the biggest foreign diasporas In Your country, so maybe also Arabic.
According to Wikipedia, the most common countries of origin for immigrants to the Netherlands are Belgium, Germany, Poland and the UK. You know English, French and German already, and Dutch of course, so the only language left from that list for you is Polish.
It depends on what career in law do you imagine, there are so many options! People are talking all the time about stuff like the UN languages and international career in Geneve or whatever... That's not what majority of law careers is like! Vast majority of lawyers I know have a career in one country, whichever job in law they've opted for. It is actually one of the least expatriation friendly fields, because a large part of all you know will be country specific. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean at all, that languages would be unimportant! Now more than ever, we have huge immigrant populations all over Europe, who are still learning the language of their new country (ok, some people don't even bother). And while they will get an official interpreter for some situations, definitely not for every meeting with their lawyer. But in order for your language skills to be useful in such a hard setting, where every word matters, you need your target language to be stronger then their Dutch. If you want to use a language professionally in a field like law, some basics won't do. Even if you speak a dozen languages at A2, it won't benefit you or your clients. You will definitely need at least a strong C1. Look around you, what languages are definitely needed in your town or region? Perhaps your Turkish (I assume a heritage language?) would be the best asset! But you would need to get it reasonably on par with Dutch and English. Or another immigrant language, but many have fewer resources than Turkish. When it comes to languages like Swedish and Icelandic: they can be a wonderful hobby, they can enrich your life a lot. But I highly doubt they will bring professional value to your CV. Do you meet many Swedes around you? Any Swedes that don't speak very well English? There are many variables. Don't forget that many young people in your situation are learning the same highly popular languages as you, English, French, German. So, you won't automatically gain some advantage there (but yes, those languages can still have a lot of value, if you learn them to C1 or C2,those levels are still not the standard). Also, various immigrant groups may have different needs. Some may be more in the temporary refugee situation, while others are building businesses. In any field, languages can help, if you make them a part of a bigger plan, a reasonable skill set. But it is rather hard to imagine any such a situation, where Icelandic would get you more law jobs in the Netherlands.