What are the most useful languages for translators to know?

Hi Sarah, 

this is unanswerable question because of many reasons in my point of view. 

first: mastering two languages, any two, is way better than knowing 3, 4 or 5. 

second: any two languages can do the job, obviously.

third:  it is always preferable in the market to have language-pairs which include mother tongue (i.e. if I am Arabic speaker, it is better for me to translate to and from Arabic)

fourth:  money-wise, it is almost the same because less money-more demand (as English) more-money-less demand (as Deutsche)

finally, your place of work plays a vital role in this, i.e. the most needed languages are the most fruitful ones to learn. 

follow this link to have a look at the most common languages around the world:

Languages Around the World

Regards, 

The UN spoken languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Wish Arabic you cover the business-growing Middle East, with Chinese - every 6th person in the world, with English - the most spoken language in the world, with Russian - the language of Slavonic-speaking countries, and with Spanish - 99% of all Central and Latin America

For me it's English and Russian, since these two languages offer a hefty volume of resources to dig up and ensure adequate translation.

English, Arabic, Spanish, Frech

French, English, Arabic, Spanish.

English, German and spanish

Arabic , English ,Russian.

Hi Sarah,

From my humble point of view, I see English is an international language. So being fluent in English beside your mother tongue will be more than enough.

In-depth knowledge of the source language and the target language

i think it's Arabic,English,French,spanish