The New Attractive Fad For Opportunities - Language

                                                Photo credit - Leonardo Toshiro Ukubo, Unsplash

 

Did you know that in the 70s & 80s, most people would learn how to type? My dad and mom both had to learn typing, right after finishing school because their parent thought it was needed to get satisfying and well-paying jobs in their respective fields. Luckily for them, they also learnt computers alongside. India in the 90s, was all about computers.

The addition of computers in the average Indian workplace also cost tens of thousands of jobs. One computer did the work of 10 accountants and they were let go. India had big foreign companies like Levi, Zara, McDonalds entering the marketplace in 1994 and they required educated people to hire. Computers were part of education. In fact, my dad still maintains that the reason he got a job is that he was educated and at the right place at the right time. Well, knowing computers was necessary at the time and age but the necessary skill fad is ever changing.

Many people say that the necessary skill now for the next few years is coding. But could there be another?

The global stage has changed so much over time. Not 70 years ago, South Korea was a small economy which depended hugely on foreign aid. It was in such a state that some people actually moved to the North! The South turned out to be a dark horse and now is one of the world's most technologically advanced countries of the world.

Along with computers we also learnt English. Mostly because it was a hangover of the British era. But it helped us do business with the rest of the world.  The world stage is said to change in the next decade. India, Brazil, Switzerland, etc. are said to be future superpowers. It could mean that Portuguese, Mandarin, Hindi, German, etc will become so necessary to be learnt!

I, myself, am learning Spanish, French, Hungarian, Latin, etc. to make sure that I am ready for such situations. And I strongly recommend learning languages.

Languages help us to communicate. People who predict the GDP of future superpower countries often learn their languages to stay ahead of the curve. That’s the reason why people learnt Russian, Chinese, etc.

I can't predict the future. To my knowledge, no one can. But, its always better to be over prepared than to be under.