Languages Work*

Environmental and land-based

 

This sector is undergoing a period of rapid change in the UK and worldwide. Its seventeen industries all require a highly skilled workforce and the international context can be vitally important in all of them. Language skills can help land-based businesses stay one step ahead of the competition in the global market place and access new approaches and innovative ideas from overseas. This is a sector without geographical boundaries and a little language ability can make a lot of difference.

 

1. Where in the world would you be likely to find specialist expertise in:

• New varieties of tropical fruit
• Sheep farming for cheese
• Desertification
• Biofuels

Which languages might be useful to help you research each of these areas?

• Answer

  New varieties of tropical fruit
  The major producing region is Asia (in particular, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan and Vietnam), accounting for more than 70 percent of tropical fruit production, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (15 percent). So some languages that might be useful in addition to English might be Hindi, Urdu, and other Indian subcontinent languages, Indonesian, Tagalog, and Spanish.
  Sheep farming for cheese
  Greece, Italy, France and Spain are the major producers of sheep’s cheese. There is expertise also in Asia and in Argentina. Useful languages might be Greek, Italian, French and Spanish.
  Desertification
  The UN has a Convention to Combat Desertification whose secretariat is based in Bonn, Germany. Its official languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Desertification has its greatest impact in Africa, affecting two thirds of the continent, so African languages play an important role too.
  Biofuels
  In Europe, Germany is the biggest consumer of biofuels, and Spain and Germany are the biggest producers. The leading company for biodiesel is a French company, Diester Industrie. Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland, are leaders in developing forest industry residues for fuel. So German, Spanish and French are all useful but also Swedish, Dutch, Finnish and other languages.
  

2. Where is the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation located? What are its official languages? 


• Answer

  The FAO has its HQ in Rome, Italy. It has five official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. Being based in Italy, it also uses Italian.

3. A friend wants to set up a land-based business in a non-English speaking country and has asked for your help because you speak the language (though perhaps only a little). What advice would you be able to give him/her? Where would you go to look for further information?

• Answer

  The internet is a good place to start, but your friend would probably need to search pages in the language of the country they were going to. They might also need the language to get advice from organisations and companies that could help them, and they would certainly want to research the area where they were going to live, and the market for their business, before making any commitment. They will be able to do this best if they can speak the language. So the best advice you could give them would be to start learning the language now!