Is it easy to find a job after graduation in Vietnamese, Lao and Burmese? Compared with Spanish, German, French and Russian, which one has better employment prospects?

First of all, in China, the concept of minority languages is relative to English, and majors other than English can be called minority languages (with the passage of time, this concept should change, and the gradual popularization of Japan, South Korea, Russia, Germany, France and the West has risen to the status of "Chinese", which is also the language that most universities offer foreign language courses). You classify Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Italian as "big languages", but it should be said that they are big languages among small languages.

As mentioned in the question, you basically divide the atmosphere of small languages into two categories: the East (mainly Southeast Asia) and the West, and this awareness is still good. The application scope of oriental languages is small, and most of them are underdeveloped in economic development, and even many of them are still very backward. Western languages are widely used and the economy is developed. When choosing a major, the factors to be considered are: the difficulty of language learning, the economic development of the target country, the application scope of the language, the learning resources and the approximate number of students, and the future employment direction.

The number of minority language learners in Southeast Asia is small, but the demand in the north is not high. Many universities in the south have set up similar majors, which have certain geographical advantages. Among Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam has the fastest development, recently suffered from crisis slowdown, and there are still many opportunities for cooperation with China, but the future development is hard to say; The situation in Myanmar is unstable, the economic situation is not ideal, and it suffers from natural disasters, so its future development is not optimistic. The situation in Laos is slightly better than that in Myanmar, but the demand for graduates in China is particularly short except for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thailand is ideal, but the demand for language professionals is not great. Many colleges and universities offering Thai majors in the country are concentrated in the south, where the main demand is. Indonesian is good, and it is of medium level among Southeast Asian languages. Personally, if you choose a small language in Southeast Asia, Indonesia (Malay)/Vietnam/Thai > Laos > Myanmar, Lao and Thai are still relatively close.

There are many people who learn western languages, which can be seen from asking questions in Baidu's small languages. Among them, after English, Spanish is becoming more and more popular. Russian is also widely used, but it is difficult to learn; The number of people studying French and German is the largest, and with many people returning from studying abroad, the employment competition will be fierce; Portuguese and Italian are becoming more and more popular, and there are more and more professionals and self-taught students. From the perspective of employment, domestic enterprises or institutions generally send Spanish graduates abroad, and most of them go to South America. Most Russian majors go to Russia and five Central Asian countries; The French are likely to go to Africa; With the exception of Brazil, most Portuguese speakers are Angolans. If it is a foreign company, the requirements for university background, language and comprehensive ability are higher (English should also reach a certain level). Learning western languages, I personally think that the employment situation is: Italian/Portuguese/Spanish >; French >; German/Russian. I'm not belittling a major, but considering it from a comprehensive perspective such as job hunting and salary.

The demand for small language learning in Southeast Asia is relatively large in the south, and the number of learners in the north is relatively small; The western minority languages are in great demand in the eastern capital cities, and there are more people learning them. Employment direction mainly includes foreign trade, overseas project contracting, energy and so on. Language is a tool, mainly from translation, to master professional skills.

The first floor may be a little too optimistic about small languages. Not all small languages have good jobs. Even some small language majors with low demand, more than 50% of graduates can't find professional-related jobs, even in universities like Beijing Foreign Studies University and Shanghai International Studies University. Whether employment is good or not is relative, and even if a certain field becomes a hot spot in a certain period and a large number of talents in small languages are needed, it does not necessarily mean that learning this language will give you the opportunity to participate. Of course, there are also many problems, such as salary, workplace and so on.

It may be faster to learn Cantonese in Vietnam, but the statement that you can speak Cantonese without learning the local language is unfounded. Learning Vietnamese in schools in the south may have a good development opportunity, but it is only possible. Practice depends on individuals.