Which are the best languages to learn?

[tandeetaylor]

As you may know, this has to do with my son, which is why Arabic and English are not included. Pick as many as you want, but stick to those you think are important for some reason (economics, classical education, world culture, etc...), and please post why below. Sorry if I forgot your language, I just put as many as I could think of.

[Bereta_Eder]

i didnt vote
but since you're american and you live there, id say definitely spanish

if want to travel to europe and want an alternative to english, it is french


for classical education latin


these are the most useful IMO and i have traveled quite a bit.

[Berzerker]

Spanish, most common language in the western hemisphere except for possibly english. Kinda depends on where you live and your career choice.

[tandeetaylor]

OK. America, region unknown, with possibility of travelling to Lebanon once every one or two years, and undetermined career, but optimal choices.

[Jon Miller]

Russian

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

oh to the why question

for reasons of physics and mathematics and history

and I didn't mark Japanese down, but it is probably getting more important

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

to make it easier

Russian, English, French, German - Math and Physics
Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Latin - History

Jon Miller

[Pekka]

Definitely NOT finnish. It's tough to learn and you won't get any use for it. Though it sounds like the elves language in LOTR though.. where Arwen and Aragon talk, well they speak finnish. But that's it. If you don't know any elves, don't bother learning it.

In the real world though, Spanish is pretty widely spoken, so that would be a good choice, and it sounds cool too, and not too tough to learn. Lots of hot spanish chicas out there!

Also french is spoken by many, so that could be one too, language of love.

But I'd go with spanish

[Pekka]

I agree 100% with Jon Miller.

[orange]

for your son - definitely Spanish.

I'd like to know French, Ancient Greek, Latin, and some form of Chinese (probably Mandarin)

[Evil Knevil]

I learnt Greek. Hasn't done me any good. I mean, I turned down bloody arabic for it.

[tandeetaylor]

Originally posted by Evil Knevil
I mean, I turned down bloody arabic for it.

I agree with Jon Miller too. I almost didn't include Spanish because it's pretty much a given. The ones I'm mostly debating are Italian, Japanese and Korean.

[General Ludd]

French, German, and Russian. In that order.


Mostly because those are the languages, cultures, and countries that I find most interesting. (well, that's not really the case for germany - it's just an all around good language for central Europe, I think)

[Evil Knevil]

Japanese or Korean. It's good to learn a language thats from a completely different group than English.

[General Ludd]

An African language would be nice too, now that I think of it.