The Language of Fashion: Which language is best to study?

[tctra]

It's mandarin. All major comps conduct business there now. China now is what Japan was back in the 80's. i'm kicking myself for not learning mandarin in high school

 

[BelleModèle]

Most definately English being the most practical, with French being a close second at the moment. Then i would say if for the near future, you'd be wise to learn Mandarin.

 

[seanutbutter]

It's mandarin. All major comps conduct business there now. China now is what Japan was back in the 80's. i'm kicking myself for not learning mandarin in high school

Definitely. I don't think people realize how frequently Mandarin is used in the business side of fashion. Sure, on the outside people speak English or French, but on the inside it's completely different.

 

[ire/ire/ire]

Definitely. I don't think people realize how frequently Mandarin is used in the business side of fashion. Sure, on the outside people speak English or French, but on the inside it's completely different.

Yes. Liasing with clients. They all expect you to be bilingual, at least.

 

[izzie stevens]

english, french, italian, and i have to agree on arabic. i can't say which fashion companies because it's not information that i'm allowed to dish out, but i do know of companies that are investing large sums of money in places such as morocco, and i have to say that if companies are investing there, it's because the money is there to invest with, logically. i think a lot of people would be shocked to know how openly fashion oriented many arabic speaking places are growing to be, (although i will say that of the fashion companies i have worked with and helped with setting up showrooms for investments in places such as morocco, the clothing did have to be altered in order to suit their religious beliefs and their cultural beliefs. i hope i am making sense with that. for examples, a shirt that might be sold in the u.s. without sleeves, would have added sleeves if it were shown in a showroom for an investment in morocco and etc., etc.)

and... i guess that means i only need to learn arabic. french and spanish are my first languages, english is my second.

 

[seanutbutter]

^ You've got a nice advantage by knowing three of the biggest languages! I've met someone from Morocco who speaks Arabic, French, English, and Spanish, and he says that there are plenty of high-fashion stores there. However, French (not Arabic) is the main language for economics/commerce in Morocco.

 

[izzie stevens]

^ You've got a nice advantage by knowing three of the biggest languages! I've met someone from Morocco who speaks Arabic, French, English, and Spanish, and he says that there are plenty of high-fashion stores there. However, French (not Arabic) is the main language for economics/commerce in Morocco.

thank goodness for my parents, i say. my mother is spanish, and my father was french, and i was born in the u.s., so that's why i know french, spanish, and english. i'd really love to learn arabic, though. i know bits of it. i can say hello, good morning, god bless, goodbye, and then a few curse words here and there. but only because one of my best friends is lebanese.

there are many high fashion stores in morocco, people here in the u.s. don't seem to realize that!

 

[~LovelyDay~]

^
if you now learned mandarin, wow you'll be unstoppable

I guess it depends on where you want to stand in the fashion world. but mandarin seems to be growing quite alot lately. Japanese isnt bad either if one wants to stand in the asian fashion field.

of course we can't miss out classic italian and french.
They are like the foundation of all.

If i had to pick, i have to go with French.

 

[izzie stevens]

i don't know italian, but i wish i did, although it's very similar to spanish, so i understand a lot of it and i'm sure if i say something in spanish, someone who only speaks italian would be able to understand me, too.

if only my career were in fashion, though. i work in the fashion industry, but i'm studying neonatal medicine. do you work in fashion?

 

[~LovelyDay~]

heh.. nope.
merely a student


medical stuff always scared me, i mean i don't think i can study and memorize so much stuff.

I'm prett sure soon or later your multi lingual ability will come very handy, i'm billingual but.. the 2nd language i know (korean) isn't very useful...

 

[izzie stevens]

i'm in my third year, going into my forth. i was studying poly-sci before and the bush administration has been such a turn off that i just couldn't see myself in poly-sci anymore, so i switched to my true love, medicine. (although i always wanted to be a midwife and just deliver babies, so neonatal suits me.) when i first began college, i was like, no way, i can't be in school that long, i'll fail. but i'm doing well so far, thank god.

i wish i had the courage to study fashion! for now, i just work in fashion and enjoy it.

but korean is a beautiful language! i have many korean friends from h.s.!

 

[Katie123]

i think english is essential but if you learn spanish you could probably understand a lot of french and italian as well. i know that because i speak portuguese (really similar to spanish) and i found it really easy to understand french and italian, lots of the words are almost the same in these 3 languages

 

[MUXU]

im gonna take up french lessons and if that goes well i will take up italian as well.
i already know english and chinese.

though i would like to learn russian as well and german for fun.

 

[angelizm]

i would say italian or french..
and yea, have heard alot about the growing market of China.. and much of my non-chinese friends wanted to take up chinese too..

and i would really love to learn french.. wish i got the time..

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

I speak English, French and Italian haha, it's great

 

[superbeautiful]

I think it also depends on what type of market you want to go into and where you are/will be working and studying fashion in.

If your going to be doing fashion in the U.S. English along with Spanish may be helpful to learn. The rate of spanish speaking people in the country is increasing and you may need to learn the basics if you are selling, or trying to get supplies locally.

If you want to go into international, then study what you think you will need. If you want to work in the European environment, French as well with Spanish (Madrid) I think will help.

If you don't know, then I would go with Spanish. That way it will help you out in the United States, as well with Europe, in terms of working in Spain (Madrid).

 

[MissAlexis]

The Language of Fashion: International Fashion

Hi all,

I am currently studying International Fashion Marketing and have just enough time in my study week to take on a language course. Having only enough time to study one language I wanted to consult TFS before I choose.

So! French or Italian? I love both languages but what would be more beneficial? Thanks.

 

[FashionJunkie]

French...DEFINATELY! French fashion week is THE fashion week...No matter what, Paris will always be the capital of fashion. The 2 biggest luxury companies which own the biggest houses are french (PPR and LVMH). IMHO french is your answer

 

[BetteT]

Merged with ongoing thread ... you will find a lot of ideas already here.

And I love your title ... so I'm going to incorporate part of it into this merged thread. I can tell it's from a marketing person .....

 

[Dkammern]

BIG EDIT... or just basically deleting everything i had written. silly me i found this thread and thought "new subject! how interesting!" and after writing a big post, i had this sudden déjà vu and realized i had written basically the same thing around page 5 ...

just to introduce s/ to the discussion that i think hasnt been mentioned:

how much should the english-speaking population rate of each country affect my decision [that is, learning a new language like japanese, russian, chinese...]? i know it sounds kind of lazy, but we all know there's certain cultures that are more open to making business in other languages than others.
for instance i would say learning spanish is really important to make business in my country... beyond more or less openness we must also take into consideration the fact that only about 1/2 of the population speak english here ( i know... not even our president speaks english )