Which are the best languages to learn?

[Bereta_Eder]

i remember i had such a thrist to learn foreign languages

after english and french it was quenched though, i guess

[St Leo]

Latin, German, or Ancient Greek would be great. Latin helps you understand English grammar, German sounds cool, and Ancient Greek is, well, Ancient Greek.

French and Spanish are dead.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

When I think of it French or Spanish would be useful... in my case German or Italian would be useful too (and I can speak a bit of German even... had it for 8 years before... ) perhaps Chineze or Japanese would be nice but after learning English me thinks I will rather wait for others to learn English too

[Wraith]

Japanese.

Why? For anime of course ^_^

More seriously, yes Spanish would be a good choice. After that is kind of up in the air depending on a lot of things.

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

This is true (and if you're going to go for a lot of the romance languages, latin would probably be a big help). However, I wouldn't pick Japanese on that basis. It's kind of off in it's own branch, not particularly closely related to anything else. Cantonese or Mandarin might be better choices if that's your goal, but again "best" is such a vague term here.

Wraith
"Ecchi nano wa ikenai to omoimasu."
-- Mahoro ("Mahoromatic")

[Caesar the Great]

Latin, German, Italian (but i'm a little biased)

for something more challenging Russian, Japanese

[Ramo]

Spanish of course is an excellent choice. I'd recommend that over anything else, easily.

There also is a large amount of Chinese and Indian immigration to the US, which is likely not to stop any time soon, so Mandarin or Hindi might not be bad secondary choices.

[Urban Ranger]

If you want your son to learn a language that is difficult yet widely used, learn Chinese (Cantonese). The written form is the same as Mandarin, the spoken form is quite different.

Greek and Hebrew are too specialised, and Latin is useless unless he's into languages. Russian is pretty much a toss-up now, so I say either French or German.

[Zkribbler]

Japanese. Because someday they're going to pull out of that recession, and they'll be a lot of job opportunities for anyone who speaks Japanese.

[Jon Shafer]

Spanish because you just might use it.

Latin because it helps you understand English better.

German for the same reason as Latin and also because it's cool.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Japanese. Because someday they're going to pull out of that recession, and they'll be a lot of job opportunities for anyone who speaks Japanese.

Not for Westerners, they don't need to speak Japanese.

[LDiCesare]

Not for Westerners, they don't need to speak Japanese.

I know some Westerners speaking Japanese, and it does help when they have to deal with Toyota, because Japanese aren't really good at foreign languages (like English) in general.

I voted Spanish and French in that order. I included French only because you spoke of Lebanon and French is spoken a bit over there. Not as useful as Arabic of course, but it would definitely help.

[DRoseDARs]

English - Well, already have that, so in no particular order...

Spanish - I live in Nevada = large Spanish-speaking populations in the western United States; took classes, may take again = limited comprehension

French - Like English, French is a lingua franca of sorts; took a class, may take again = limited comprehension

Chinese - Mandarin, 1+ Billion Chinese

Hindi - 1+ Billion Indians

Farsi - Islam is fastest growing religion, so arabic languages likewise grow in influence

Hebrew - Israel major influence in Middle East political arena; Took a class, may take again = limited comprehension

Other: Swahili or other African language - They've largely been neglected by the Northern Hemisphere historically; importance may grow over coming century

[Stefu]

Finnish.

Wouldn't you like to be able to read ENTIRE Apolyton?

[Skanky Burns]

German - sounds nice.
French - for those times you need to be romantic.
Finnish - See above

[LDiCesare]

Finnish.

Wouldn't you like to be able to read ENTIRE Apolyton?

When do we have a "Learn Finnish in 5 threads" thread?