I've been working on my French for a while now and I'm getting toward fluency. I'm thinking of taking Spanish next year at university, but another language probably wouldn't hurt. What other languages do you suppose are common and useful to have when traveling the world?

With English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, you'll be able to speak with 99% of the western hemisphere. Portuguese won't be too hard to pick up after French and Spanish, and it's a beautiful, elegant language.

Any you happen to want to learn and think you'll use?

Some would say Chinese or Japanese, as they're such a large influence on the world these days. Others would say English or American as they're very common languages. Others would say spanish, or french..

So it really does depend on you.

My secondary school decided that it was vital for us to learn French. And I've never fucking used the language, and dont ever plan to.

I figure it's all about what's most relevant to you. An eastern european language may come in handy though, russian,czech, german..

For business: German, Chinese, Japanese...

For politics: Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish...

For travel: French, Spanish, Portuguese...

Etc.

Depends what you plan on doing.

eastern european language .. german..

pardon WHAT? guess why all ee countries call the germans something like nemetskij, which means mute ..

Once you have mastered English then you can move on to what we used to call 'American' but which is now more correctly known as 'Microsoft Standard Verbal Interface(non text)®'.

Or as my kids call it 'Msn-lish.'

U no wat I mean Liek, M8?

For business: German, Chinese, Japanese...

For politics: Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish...

For travel: French, Spanish, Portuguese...

Etc.

Depends what you plan on doing.

Interesting... yeah I've thought of Chinese or Japanese, but considering the sounds are quite different from English and French I'd probably have a brutal accent. I suppose the accent problem would be there with Arabic too, but aren't there also like a million dialects of it so it's pretty much impossible to learn such as thing as "Arabic"?

I've always thought German to be cool, but my dad tells me that any place that speaks German will speak English too, so he thinks it's not a good idea.

I'm not totally sure what I plan on using it for. I'm Canadian, and could see myself in a government job so that's why I'm doing the French. I suppose I could see myself being a diplomat or something. I also just really like to travel.

Conclusion: I think Chinese would make sense. The country is a rising power, and I could probably get pronunciation reasonably good.

It really depends on what you're going to do.
But speaking in general terms, Spanish and Chinese are the 2 most common languages in the world, with (Mandarin) Chinese currently in the top spot, and I could see them being very useful if you're planning to learn languages for business purposes.

This century is being driven by commerce more than any other time before. Russia gained a lot of influence by capturing satellite nations, portuguese, spanish, French, and english spread through colonial imperialism. Well, it's 2008 people. Certain languages are gaining influence and others are in decline. It's no longer all about the pretty list of european languages. Portuguese is stagnant. French declined a lot after france lost its overseas colonies(algeria, vietnam, etc.) Arabic isn't really influential. There's a lot of buzz in the media about the language of terrorists, but they're not leading the world anywhere. English is growing STRONG, however with no signs of slowing down(guess where the largest growth of english speakers is happening?)

Leading languages are business languages. Mandarin and Hindi are great bets. Most people have no idea just how deeply woven the economic ties between america and these two countries is. Nevermind that within the next 20 years India is predicted to be the country with the most english speakers, the latest trend in the business world is to learn a bit of hindi because Indian firms are quickly becoming business partners. Also, while both of these countries are doing the grunt work for us now, a vast amount of research is being in collaboration with scientists over there. All the big companies have research firms over there and universities are outsourcing certain lab work there too. Eventually they'll change from being cheap labor pools to mutual consumers of our products.

In short while classic western european languages may seem like they are the most important just because they always have been. France got kicked out of its colonies in the last half of the 20th century(vietnam, algeria) and germany isn't growing either. English is the only one whose influence continues to grow globally. Russia is set to grow as well with them opening up to capitalism too. Spanish seems to be stagnant, but not declining the way other european languages because of all the countries it's spoken in. The funny thing about Spanish is that I read in a newspaper that Chinese is becoming mandatory in a lot of south american schools since they are such an important business influence. The spanish countries are buying chinese manufactured goods and the Chinese are buying Spanish resources and raw materials.

For business: German, Chinese, Japanese...

For politics: Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish...

For travel: French, Spanish, Portuguese...

Etc.

Depends what you plan on doing.


Where does Russian come in!

I would say German & Chinese. Both are powerhouse economies that will inevitably have a large influence on our lives.

I would say German & Chinese. Both are powerhouse economies that will inevitably have a large influence on our lives.

Germany sort of, undoubtably it is still a powerful economy but nothing on China or India. If we're talking about future economic powers, portuguese for Brazil might be an option.

I've always thought German to be cool, but my dad tells me that any place that speaks German will speak English too, so he thinks it's not a good idea.
in south america? in alsace? in austria? in switzerland? in luxemburg? in russia? in east europe where you still can legally pay with deutschmarks and some currencies still relate to?

Leading languages are business languages. Mandarin and Hindi are great bets.
you´re talking about countries with more than 120 official languages and more than 500 "dialects", I doubt your abstract way to describe this comes close to reality. and btw, india is a country where 99% take a bath in the same river they shit in, and china is a country where 99% have a bigger hole in their shower to take a shit although the rivers run dry after each big city. sry to say this, but it´s very naive if you think these countries will grow in the next 20 years without revolution, (civil) war or corrupting structures that make these countries collapse within the next 10 years. if you rely on these as business partners you will soon be doomed if you have invested too much ..

it´s like with these arab countries dubai etc which have so much money because of oil and want to show their wealth by building up big cities and centers for businesses. when there is no more oil all the rich people will live somewhere else on this planet and the poor can have some fun with kalashnikovs ..

I suppose the accent problem would be there with Arabic too, but aren't there also like a million dialects of it so it's pretty much impossible to learn such as thing as "Arabic"?

Well, sort of. The most commonly spoken Arabic dialect, and certainly the most widely comprehended, is what is known as "Egyptian Arabic". Just as there are different accents of English all over the world, the most widely accepted and comprehended English dialect would be "Hollywood English", as it is easy on the ears. Egyptian Arabic is to Arabic what Hollywood English is to English.

Well, it depends entirely on where you plan on going in the world.

English is a must. If you know no other languages, you can usually find an anglophone anywhere in the world.

French is fairly common in Europe and Africa. Perhaps next to English as a lingua franca in Europe.

Spanish will give you access to much of America (North, Central, and South), though it won't be of much use anywhere else. Still, two large continents is a pretty good reason to learn a language. Of course, Portuguese is spoken in Brazil, but if you already know Spanish, learning Portuguese is extremely easy.

Russian gives you access to much of Eastern Europe. You'll have the language of the biggest country in the world, and once you know Russian, learning other Slavic languages is relatively easy. Not to mention, the Slavic languages arguably have the most complex grammar system in the world. After you've learned to communicate effectively with Russian's declension system, the grammar of other languages will be laughably simple.

Arabic. If you know Standard Arabic then you have access to all of the Arab/Muslim countries. I would go with Syrian for the dialect (you have to choose a dialect, as Standard Arabic is only literary and on news reports). It sounds beautiful and apparently can be understood by most Arab speakers.

If you want access to "Africa" (ie. in general), then French and English are your best bets. I don't believe there are any native African languages that you can find used throughout the entire continent.

Likewise, there isn't a particular language that would come in handy for Asian countries. All of the languages are distinct, so...knowing Mandarin and Japanese won't help you at all if you're in Vietnam or Korea.

So, to sum it up, I'd go with:
English
French
Spanish (well, I went with Portuguese; just a personal choice. I did study Spanish in grade school though)
Russian
Arabic
and my personal choice of Japanese (since I'm interested in the culture and people).

As of now I've got about 3 of those and am making progress in the fourth. I've also got reasonable skills in German. When I was going to hostels in Europe, I could basically communicate with everyone...so, I'd say those choices are pretty good.

Zay: Leading languages are business languages. Mandarin and Hindi are great bets.

Bullshit. English is as common in India as it is in the US. I actually know quite a few native, recent immigrants from India (and Pakistan) that aren't even fluent in Hindi. You gotta be kidding if you think it's a major language. As far as Mandarin? I read a great article about how learning Chinese languages for business was becoming essentially pointless. I'll try to find the link, but the gist of it was that if Chinese companies want bilingual employees, they usually just go with Chinese people. When they are doing international business, they conduct it in English as well.

in south america? in alsace? in austria? in switzerland? in luxemburg? in russia? in east europe where you still can legally pay with deutschmarks and some currencies still relate to?


you´re talking about countries with more than 120 official languages and more than 500 "dialects", I doubt your abstract way to describe this comes close to reality. and btw, india is a country where 99% take a bath in the same river they shit in, and china is a country where 99% have a bigger hole in their shower to take a shit although the rivers run dry after each big city. sry to say this, but it´s very naive if you think these countries will grow in the next 20 years without revolution, (civil) war or corrupting structures that make these countries collapse within the next 10 years. if you rely on these as business partners you will soon be doomed if you have invested too much ..

it´s like with these arab countries dubai etc which have so much money because of oil and want to show their wealth by building up big cities and centers for businesses. when there is no more oil all the rich people will live somewhere else on this planet and the poor can have some fun with kalashnikovs ..

No capitalization, poor punctuation, bad grammar, incorrect word usage, and tons of run-on sentences...

Did you use an online translator?

pardon WHAT? guess why all ee countries call the germans something like nemetskij, which means mute ..

The "mute"/"dumb" label is apparently a metaphor for Germans not speaking a Slavic language. You guys are right at that border, so it makes sense. Though yes, I definitely wouldn't call German an eastern European language.

I read a great article about how learning Chinese languages for business was becoming essentially pointless. I'll try to find the link, but the gist of it was that if Chinese companies want bilingual employees, they usually just go with Chinese people. When they are doing international business, they conduct it in English as well.

this is what i came here to say, especially in response to zay. learning mandarin is hard for westerners also, so unless you're really determined and can take classes and get real practice with native speakers...it's not going to be of much use in a serious business setting, where you need to know how to say more than "where's the bathroom" and "how are you?" my dad makes frequent trips to shanghai for work, and he's spent the last 3 or 4 years studying mandarin. he doesn't need to, all the chinese guys they meet with speak english.

oh and OP, don't assume just because you take a language in university, you'll get even close to fluent. you may just blow through the classes and forget it all as soon as it's learned.

in south america? in alsace? in austria? in switzerland? in luxemburg? in russia? in east europe where you still can legally pay with deutschmarks and some currencies still relate to?..

DM doesn't exist anymore.

And German isn't a eastern-european langauage, but it's widely spoken in eastern europe. Maybe yoyobek meant that.

DM doesn't exist anymore.

15 billion german cash still exists according to the german central bank, assumed to be in east europe because of the dual currencies system. and they surely speak german and no english ..

15 billion german cash still exists according to the german central bank, assumed to be in east europe because of the dual currencies system. and they surely speak german and no english ..

eastern europe surely speaks german and no english? huh? really?

gah, those in east europe which have german as mother tongue and those who still have deutschmarks - duh ..

those who still have deutschmarks - duh ..

Lucky bastards! was soll ich bloss mit 'cent' anfangen? Seh Ich so aus wie ein Ami??!

15 billion german cash still exists according to the german central bank, assumed to be in east europe because of the dual currencies system. and they surely speak german and no english ..

It still exists and is completely worthless, like how I still have "guldens" (old dutch currency), that I can't pay with anymore. The only thing you can do with it is exchange it for euros at a branch of the centralbank.

People hold onto it for sentimental reasons or because it was earned illegally. Because if you exhange big amounts of money you have to proof how you earned it.

It still exists and is completely worthless, like how I still have "guldens" (old dutch currency), that I can't pay with anymore. The only thing you can do with it is exchange it for euros at a branch of the centralbank.

People hold onto it for sentimental reasons or because it was earned illegally. Because if you exhange big amounts of money you have to proof how you earned it.

This.

"OMG SOME MARKS ARE STILL AROUND IN OBSCURE BANKS!!1" /bsk

or because it was earned illegally.

hint hint hint, we´re talking of an area with illegal weapon trading because of chechnya, former yugoslavia and some other countries, an area with a huge market for stolen cars in west europe, cigarettes without revenue stamp, or any copied western software, clothing etc. where some villages have heard of the outer world by radio ..


and yes jack, I would have liked the word european thaler much more ..

hint hint hint, we´re talking of an area with illegal weapon trading because of chechnya, former yugoslavia and some other countries, an area with a huge market for stolen cars in west europe, cigarettes without revenue stamp, or any copied western software, clothing etc. where some villages have heard of the outer world by radio ..


and yes jack, I would have liked the word european thaler much more ..

That's nice some backwards retards in the middle of nowhere still use it. It has nothing to do with this thread now does it.

That's nice some backwards retards in the middle of nowhere still use it. It has nothing to do with this thread now does it.

/Thread

c++ and blitz basic

I'm in the process of downloading Rosetta Stone - Russian... I'm not expecting it to be great or anything, but enough to get a basic grasp of how Russian works.

Learn the basics, spend a metric fuck-ton of time in some russian forums and whatnot, maybe whenever I get the time/money together, go to college for all the shit I couldn't figure out on my own...

It was either learn Spanish or learn Russian.... and I hate spics, so it seemed natural to learn Russian.

zay, i know derdrache mentioned it, but hindi is actually kind of a second language for educated indians. even in primary school the language used to teach is english.

in terms of usefulness, it seems like a good idea to learn a language where the people don't speak much english. spanish and russian come to mind.

I'm in the process of downloading Rosetta Stone - Russian... I'm not expecting it to be great or anything, but enough to get a basic grasp of how Russian works.

Learn the basics, spend a metric fuck-ton of time in some russian forums and whatnot, maybe whenever I get the time/money together, go to college for all the shit I couldn't figure out on my own...

It was either learn Spanish or learn Russian.... and I hate spics, so it seemed natural to learn Russian.

IMO, you should learn some grammar before tackling Rosetta Stone Russian. It's great with languages that are grammatically similar to English, but with Russian...well, unless you can literally make yourself memorize things without thinking about the logic behind it, it'll become frustrating.

By that I mean...you'll learn individual words for the first lesson or two, and it'll be simple. Ie, "шляпа" (hat). Then a little later you'll start seeing shit like "две шляпы", "пять шляп", or "У этого мужчины есть шляпа", and you won't really know what the fuck is going on. Once you have a decent understanding of declensions and the language's syntax, it's great, but...I tried it when I was a complete beginner, and I got confused/bored quickly. I'm trying it again now and having a lot more success.