inator wrote:
Mandarin seems to be the obvious choice, but it's one of the most difficult ones and everything has an opportunity cost.
This is true. You could probably pick up German from a Native English speaking position in less than half the time.
inator wrote:A non-native learner of Spanish will have a hard time competing with a fluent native bilingual for a job requiring both languages.
Assuming racism wasn't a factor, perhaps. But there are various levels to the notion of "requirement" too; most retail jobs with large Spanish speaking populations won't require perfect fluency, just basic ability to communicate and answer common questions.
Let's say you were working in a car dealership; you could brush up on the relevant vocabulary on horsepower and safety features in a single weekend pretty easily, plus basic small talk, it wouldn't be hard to fudge the rest and make a sale.
Not translator level jobs, but just basic sales pitch stuff where you just have to figure out that they're talking about their families and make some positive comments? Not too difficult.
And beyond the ability to grab a commission from sales, really you only need to convince the white non-Spanish speaker who is hiring you that you can speak enough Spanish to beat the other applicant.
inator wrote:If you're from the States and you're learning a second or third language, it's probably safe to assume that you won't be competing for the same jobs as some Hispanics living there who haven't picked up English.
Yes, but you still need to be able to sell them things.
And if you're working as a manager somewhere, likely it will benefit you to be able to understand the Spanish speaking staff when they're talking about you in the same room, or communicate more clearly to those with poor English (again, then fluency still really doesn't matter).
In any job where these may be likely scenarios, it's going to be a positive mark on your resume to speak another useful language, even if not very fluently.