What second language is most of use in UK

[sincerestwonders]

In our house me and my kids are bilingual. We speak English and French, one of them speaks Spanish. Does any one know in the current UK job market what languages are needed for work or like teaching foreigners English?

Mandarin.

Arabic

Urdu

I live in an area with a large polish population so I would say Polish.

It probably varies by area.

You don’t need to speak the (not English) language to teach English as a foreign language

Polish is the next most common language after English in the UK.

True. I did a TEFL course.

As per the first two posts, Mandarin and Arabic. I think the OP is asking which languages people would consider the most useful, rather than the most widely spoken in the UK.

It depends on the area. Where I live, definitely Urdu. Where I work, probably Polish.

For jobs in, say, GCHQ, they want Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin and Russian.

Russian or polish?

Where i live i would say Somali and Polish. Also given our proximity to the border i would say Welsh.

According to the Office for National Statistics Polish is the top main language spoken by residents after English.

Very few Russian speakers in the UK. Especially who then don’t speak English. Little trade between UK and Russia either.

Top business need languages would be Mandarin, Arabic and Spanish.

Urdu I would have thought

That’s why Russian is wanted by the government - for spying purposes. Yes, you need to be British too for all those jobs, so bilingual.

@sincerestwonders you can't teach English as a foreign language if you haven't passed English language GCSE as per your other threads.

In my part of the UK, being a fluent Welsh speaker opens lots of doors and closes none.

In my experience the value of those speaking a European language dropped dramatically post Brexit, as all the banks had to open/expand their European branches. So if you were say covering French clients from London, you’d have to move to Paris.
My only knowledge is from the banking sector, not sure what it’s like elsewhere.
Where I live the most common second languages are Polish, Urdu and Arabic.

In Scotland, being fluent in Gaelic is a real plus these days

Where I live the ability to talk out of your arse has been very helpful for most of the politicians. Sorry not what you asked for.

Arabic