If you want a high paying job in South Africa, learn Mandarin

New data from jobs portal Adzuna shows which additional language skills are most in-demand by employers in South Africa – and which language skills will net the highest average salary.

According to the group being bilingual or knowing a foreign language is a top skill in not only finding a job, but also obtaining work visa when moving to other countries.

Some countries also require a certain level of competence in their official language(s).

“Although many of these positions are for call-center or sales roles, it is interesting to note that South African languages, which were added into the mix researched, showed promising results.” the group said.

The top South African language required was Afrikaans – however it offered the lowest average salary. Chinese/Mandarin, Japanese, Xhosa and Zulu topped the rankings in terms of average salary.

English was not included in the research results as it was deemed ubiquitous. The least required language measured was Finnish.

These were the results, ordered by highest average salary to lowest:

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