Which are the best languages to learn?

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Learn Finnish - be able to read all the dirty secrets of ACS' finnish members!

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[Az]

I think that in order to get around in most parts of the world well the languages needed are:
English
Spanish
Chinese
Russian
Arabic

2 done. 3 more to go.

[Bereta_Eder]

I had started to learn chinese once.
Then I got bored.

[Bereta_Eder]

Which is very beautiful and fascinating BTW.
For example the ideogram for mother is made up of the ideograms for little child and shelter IIRC

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I think that in order to get around in most parts of the world well the languages needed are:
English
Spanish
Chinese
Russian
Arabic

I truly hope that you think that they're in no-particular order.

[Spiffor]

If you're in the US, Spanish is the way to go. I'd also recommand Chinese because it'll be a significant edge in the future (if it's about your kids, we'd better plan a generation ahead).
If your children are into foreign languages, German and French will be very interesting, because these countries have a rich literature and philosophy, and it's always better to read the original version. Also, when your kids will do sightseeing in Paris, they'll please the locals when talking with them (a French is immediately your friend if you ask for help in French )

[Bereta_Eder]

I concur about that last one.
Their self righteous facade melts right off once you talk to them in french and they become the sweetest puppies on earth

[Datajack Franit]

You definitely want your child to feel smart when he'll be an adult- my mother forced me to attend french and german teaching lessons since I was 6 yo, and it helped (although I have another reason to hate the french people ) I'd definitely go for german, french and russian because they'll kick asses within 30 years

[Az]

Their self righteous facade melts right off once you talk to them in french and they become the sweetest puppies on earth

I suck at french, But they apperciated the effort.

I truly hope that you think that they're in no-particular order.

I didn't understand this comment.

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I didn't understand this comment.

I hääv difikultiis in ingrish, ju nou?

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by paiktis22
I concur about that last one.
Their self righteous facade melts right off once you talk to them in french and they become the sweetest puppies on earth

Perhaps that is why I haven't had any bother from the French then, I do try to communicate to them in French, even if my attempts are somewhat, well, crap

[Giovanni Wine]

Originally posted by tandeetaylor The ones I'm mostly debating are Italian, Japanese and Korean.

Italian wouldn't be of any use for him, unless you want him to be a lyrical singer (there are many many lyrics in Italian).

Plus, once he knows Spanish, with a few trips to Italy he'll know Italian too, so no need to learn it at school (when I went to Barcelona, I was spaking Italian, and the people were answering me in either Spanish or Catalan, and we could prefectly understand each other).

This is what I think

English, Spanish (primary), Arabic (since he already knows it)

Than you could go for Chinese, French and Russian

Saluti

[Mercator]

Dutch (since I happen to know that already, ignore otherwise)
English and Spanish for the Americas,

English, French, German (the big 3 for Europe, so to speak), Spanish (well, we already learned that to get around in the Americas, so that's easy), Russian (any Slavic language will do I guess, but Russian is the biggest, Polish would be a good alternative) and Turkish (lots of Turkish immigrants across Europe, not really a necessity but it could be quite handy for Europe, especially when Turkey joins the EU) for Europe,

Arabic for the middle east,

and Japanese and Mandarin Chinese for the far east, since they're the two biggest economies.

And that's just a start to getting around the world today...

[Buck Birdseed]

French. If he's ever going to deal with the EU in a significant way, it's practically essential.

[Graag]

Yikes, difficult questions.

First of all my preferances
1. Japanese, because I find the culture fascinating and intend to live there for a while. I also love the word constructions. They're pictures! (Still haven't gotten over it).

2. Spanish (bearing in mind portugese), because I intend to travel south america widely at some point in my life, and its generally useful.

3. Something asian, some arabic dialect or hindi probably, firstly because I promised myself I would when I first saw Lawrence of Arabia as a kid, secondly because I know lots of asian people and live in a largely asian area and thirdly because I'm convinced of the much greater role the middle-east and pakistan/india will play in the 21st centuary.

4. Russian, another place I intend to spend some time in, and because a lot of my favourite authors are russian and I'd love to read them in their original form.

5. Hebrew, for historical reasons

Trying to decide the 'best' is very tricky though.

I'd use 2 major factors to consider:
1. Usefulness in the future (i.e. how much the people who speak that language will influence world events)

(examples Hindi, Mandarin etc.)

2. Usefulness in understanding the nature of language

i.e. languages that differ greatly from your native tounge (examples Japanese, Arabic etc.)

I don't think Spanish, French, German etc. are nearly as important as the above mentioned, as they are very simple to pick up if you speak english already, and will only be easier if you learn other, more different languages.
They will be slowly dying over this centuary anyway, as english takes over.