Most useful languages to learn

[RoyBatty]

English is fairly ubiquitous nowadays so for better or worse it has become a fairly common communication medium.

What other languages would, in your opinion, be the most practical or useful to know?

For European Languages my choices would be:

- German
- Spanish

Far East:

- Probably Cantonese

[Svanhild]

Languages which are in use in more than one country or are comprehensible in more than one country are greatly useful. With German you can communicate not only in Germany but in Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg and parts of the Netherlands and Belgium as well.

That is why learning one of the Scandinavian languages could be useful. If you speak Swedish, Danish or Norwegian you can understand the other Scandinavian languages at least in parts. Russian could make sense for the East European area.

[Groenewolf]

Considering modern languages. English is probably #1 because it is the most used language today for business. But other languages would depend on the context. For the Netherlands German would also be important since a lot of our export (http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/publication/?DM=SLNL&PA=37830&D1=0,2&D2=0&D3=0,3,22,24,29-35,37-38,45-47,49,53,55-59,62-64,67-68,70,73-76&D4=169-l&HDR=T,G3&STB=G1,G2&VW=T) goes to Germany, where the Southern Netherlands (2nd) is good for much less. And it always good to the know the language of your most important trading partner.

[Piparskeggr]

Here, unfortunately, the Mestizo dialect of Spanish...

[RoyBatty]

Languages which are in use in more than one country or are comprehensible in more than one country are greatly useful. With German you can communicate not only in Germany but in Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg and parts of the Netherlands and Belgium as well.

That is why learning one of the Scandinavian languages could be useful. If you speak Swedish, Danish or Norwegian you can understand the other Scandinavian languages at least in parts. Russian could make sense for the East European area.

German is also useful in Eastern Europe, even in Russia I encountered a number of Russians who could speak it.

[nisse]

Practically speaking (i.e. for business):

1. English
2. Spanish
3. Mandarin - canto is not as commonly spoken as mando, even HK is switching over to mando now that they are closer with the mainland.
4. German/French.


In most countries where German is spoken English is not uncommon, in Scandinavia everyoen speaks English, and of course in N.America, India and Austarlia/N.Zealand English is a safe bet.

Spanish is very widely spread all oevr the world, and mostly in low income countries where English is not spoken. It's also spoken in Europe, and will prob. let you understand Italian.

[Eldritch]

Practically speaking (i.e. for business):

1. English
2. Spanish
3. Mandarin - canto is not as commonly spoken as mando, even HK is switching over to mando now that they are closer with the mainland.
4. German/French.


In most countries where German is spoken English is not uncommon, in Scandinavia everyoen speaks English, and of course in N.America, India and Austarlia/N.Zealand English is a safe bet.

Spanish is very widely spread all oevr the world ... It's also spoken in Europe, and will prob. let you understand Italian.

Not in my case at least. I read Spanish fluently, but cannot really understand Italian text. I can maybe get the gist of it, but no more. As for understanding spoken Italian, forget it.

[Psychonaut]

Far East:

- Probably Cantonese

Mandarin will serve you far better for a few reasons:

In this day and age any educated Chinese person, regardless of their native dialect, will speak Mandarin additionally. In the past it was certainly true that most Cantonese speakers spoke poor, if any, Mandarin. However, since the 1997 transfer of sovereignty, the linguistic situation has changed dramatically in Hong Kong.
East Asian economic centers are shifting. We all know that the PRC is poised to eclipse the US as the dominant economic power, and as this has been happening, China's economic center has steadily shifted from Hong Kong to Beijing: the home of "proper" Mandarin.
Chinese businessmen in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia use Mandarin. While not as important on a global scale as Beijing, all three are serious economic nodes in East Asia.
Cantonese is a fucking ugly language and is much harder to learn than Mandarin. ;)

[blan]

depends on who you are and where you are,

for me its English, Haitian kreyol, French, Jamaican creole, spanish,

I only bother with english haitian kreyol and french on occasions i wish i spoke spanish better and i hope to learn german for those rare times i meet people from germany.
but its true that asian languages will be much more popular in the future

[Loddfafner]

For what makes a language useful, the key questions are:

1) Do the natives speak enough English? This rules out Scandinavian languages, but raises French, Russian, and to a surprising extent, German.

2) Is it related to enough other languages to help you figure things out in other countries? This rules out Basque. Svanhild (upthread) is very right on this point. With some knowledge of Spanish, I could get by in Portugal, Italy, and Romania in addition to Spain and Latin America. I have been warned that small differences can matter greatly and lead to unfortunate misunderstandings as when a normal term in Czech means something grossly obscene in Polish.

3) Aside from practical matters in traveling, is the literature in that language worth reading? Although Arabic is useful in a quite a few countries in North Africa, Southeast Asia, and increasingly, Europe, it comes up short on this principle.

[Sahson]

English. The language first used on the internet, and most people can speak English. I know an Occitan dialect, and on the train, I heard some people speaking castilian. I tried conversing with them, and in the end we switched to English.

Same goes for m Croatian friend, who conversed with a Bulgarian. instead of choosing polish, he spoke to him in English. For Asian countries, Mandarin will serve you better. Even the people who speak hokkien know mandarin. My friend who spoke a northen chinese dialect learned mandarin as well.

Other then that I think Castilian is another major lingua franca. If you know one of the romance languages you can generally understand any romance speaker.

[Comte Arnau]

Catalan, of course. :D

Even if this sounds ridiculous, it is not. If the question is 'Which is the most useful language to learn', the answer must be: depending on where you are going to live in. So if you're living where I do, it is certainly useful. Aside from that, it is also useful to learn French, Italian or Spanish fastly, due to the central position of Catalan among the Romance languages.

When it comes to generalize, I'd also go regional. English for the world, Spanish for the Americas, French for Africa, Arabic for the Middle East, Russia for northern Asia, Hindustani for southern Asia and Chinese for East Asia. Add if you like German for central Europe, Malay for South-East Asia, Swahili for East Africa, etc...

Of course none of those languages may be useful at all in certain countries. But if you know them, you'll certainly save your ass in a large portion of the planet.

[hajduk]

chinese

[Psychonaut]

For what makes a language useful, the key questions are...

3) Aside from practical matters in traveling, is the literature in that language worth reading?

This has actually been my biggest disappointment with Mandarin. After having learned it well enough to do the type of work I did, I was severely discouraged to realize that all of the Chinese literature worth reading (i.e. Dao De Jing, Yi Jing, Sunzi's Art of War, Journey to the West, etc.) were exclusively written in Classical Chinese, which is as different from contemporary Mandarin as Beowulf is from our English. :tsk:

[Loddfafner]

This has actually been my biggest disappointment with Mandarin. After having learned it well enough to do the type of work I did, I was severely discouraged to realize that all of the Chinese literature worth reading (i.e. Dao De Jing, Yi Jing, Sunzi's Art of War, Journey to the West, etc.) were exclusively written in Classical Chinese, which is as different from contemporary Mandarin as Beowulf is from our English. :tsk:

Damn. Well can you at least read Mao's little red book? When I studied Arabic I was disappointed to discover that the Koran makes even less sense in the original.

[Psychonaut]

Damn. Well can you at least read Mao's little red book?

Yep, although it's about as engaging as Marx's Manifesto.


When I studied Arabic I was disappointed to discover that the Koran makes even less sense in the original.

That's what I'd heard from my buddies that ended up being Arabic linguists. Now that I think about it, it seems that this would be the case learning the language of any culture who experienced their decline prior to the most recent linguistic shift and have yet to resurge.

[Comte Arnau]

Well, if one learns a language to read medieval or even former literature, obviously no modern standard will really be the best option. In Mandarin, Arabic or any European language for that case.

[poiuytrewq0987]

Definitely Serbocroatian for the Balkans because that language is very usable in all ex-Yugoslavian countries, and you can speak Serbocroatian in Bulgaria but don't expect perfect intelligibility.

[Loddfafner]

Yep, although it's about as engaging as Marx's Manifesto.


On Contradictions is supposed to be useful philosophy although I couldn't get my teeth into it. His Military Writings interested me, especially after reading about how Mao (and Giap) successfully applied principles from the game of go/weichi.

[Sahson]

Catalan, of course. :D

Even if this sounds ridiculous, it is not. If the question is 'Which is the most useful language to learn', the answer must be: depending on where you are going to live in. So if you're living where I do, it is certainly useful. Aside from that, it is also useful to learn French, Italian or Spanish fastly, due to the central position of Catalan among the Romance languages.


I agree catalan is a mix of Italian, and spanish to my knowledge. It's why me and my friend who spoke catalan could converse so easily.

[RoyBatty]

Thanks for the explanations on Cantonese. I had been under the impression that Cantonese was the more common "business" language and hadn't realised that Mandarin was making such inroads.

[Psychonaut]

On Contradictions is supposed to be useful philosophy although I couldn't get my teeth into it.

It looks like something that would definitely be interesting in a study of socialist dialectic, but I don't think my interest in that is near strong enough to merit struggling through Mao's text in Chinese.


His Military Writings interested me, especially after reading about how Mao (and Giap) successfully applied principles from the game of go/weichi.

This, however, might be worth reading. Weichi is, IMO, the greatest strategic game the human mind has ever conceived and Mao, no doubt, was a brilliant strategist. I'll have to dig around for a Chinese PDF of this. :thumb001:

[Comte Arnau]

I agree catalan is a mix of Italian, and spanish to my knowledge. It's why me and my friend who spoke catalan could converse so easily.

Catalan is not a mix of anything. Funny, though, that you say it's a mix of Spanish and Italian, when most people say it's a mix of Spanish and French. Anyway, saying Catalan is a mix of two is like saying that Spanish is a mix of Catalan and Portuguese, or that Occitan is a mix of Catalan and French. Wait, this last one may be right. :p

But one thing is true: we Catalans find it easier to learn French or Italian than other Iberians, whether Spaniards or Portuguese. Catalan is closer in its basic vocabulary to French and Italian than to Spanish and Portuguese.

As for basic words we exactly share with Italian, I can think of mai and finestra right now.

[Tingl Tangl]

Mordvin.

[Sahson]

Catalan is not a mix of anything. Funny, though, that you say it's a mix of Spanish and Italian, when most people say it's a mix of Spanish and French. Anyway, saying Catalan is a mix of two is like saying that Spanish is a mix of Catalan and Portuguese, or that Occitan is a mix of Catalan and French. Wait, this last one may be right. :p

But one thing is true: we Catalans find it easier to learn French or Italian than other Iberians, whether Spaniards or Portuguese. Catalan is closer in its basic vocabulary to French and Italian than to Spanish and Portuguese.

As for basic words we exactly share with Italian, I can think of mai and finestra right now.

forgive me. The language my grandmother taught me is a form of Lingurian. It has strong similarites with catalan, and Italian. I noticed that Catalan too has some similarities with italian. In the italian I know of we call house a cà, and chair Cadrega, Pom for apple, and dman for tomorrow.

notice some similarities? :)

[Lithium]

1) English
2) French
3) German/Russian

[The Lawspeaker]

European:

English (a world language)
German (our biggest trading partner and one of the more influential languages in Europe)
French (the latter because of the Southern Netherlands - it can also be used througout the world)
Portuguese (because of Brazil, an important emerging market, and various African countries might come in handy too) and of course Russian as Russia too will be an emerging market.

Far East:

Cantonese Chinese or Mandarin (China is already an important trading partner and will probably become one of the leading world powers over the course of this century.)

[Falkata]

First, English, the business language, you can go everywhere with it and it´s simple and easy to learn compared with other languages


The second one, spanish, used by hundreds of millions of people in the world and growing. It´s easy to understand portuguese if you know spanish, so you can have access to Brazil, one of the most powerful emerging economies.

The third one, french. Very useful in Africa and not very hard to learn for spaniards, imo.

[Osweo]

exclusively written in Classical Chinese, which is as different from contemporary Mandarin as Beowulf is from our English. :tsk:
HWAET?!? :eek:

Don't they publish modernised translations for the Workers?

[Óttar]

English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese.

Honourable mentions:
Hindi, Arabic, Persian

[Psychonaut]

HWAET?!? :eek:

Don't they publish modernised translations for the Workers?

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/X292Firefighter/NiggaPlease.png

[Svipdag]

OK, you aren't going to believe this, but, LATIN ! It is the key to all of the Romance languages. One who has a good background in Latin can read French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (with some difficulty), and even make a stab at Rumanian. I speak from experience.

English, of course, is nearly the Universal Language. Others widely spoken and useful in business would be Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. If you want to know what the enemies of all of the world's cultures and societies other than their own are up to, it might be a good idea to become familiar with Arabic.

[Comte Arnau]

OK, you aren't going to believe this, but, LATIN ! It is the key to all of the Romance languages. One who has a good background in Latin can read French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (with some difficulty), and even make a stab at Rumanian. I speak from experience.

If by Latin you mean it in all their varieties, maybe. If you mean Classical Latin -the one commonly studied, then I'd say it's rather hard. The grammar and a lot of vocabulary, even basic one, have changed way too much.

[Inese]

English, German and maybe Finnish or little Russian for the neighbours. And Latvian!! :D Joke!

[Curtis24]

Turkish would probably be the language it would be most advantageous to learn, as far as I see. The Turks are a rising power in the Mideast and the world, and will dominate the Mideast for the next few decades.

Russian will also be highly useful in the long-term future. The Russian state will most likely lose a great deal of power within the next few decades due to demographic problems(the Russians don't have enough soldiers to repress the various ethnicities they rule), and Western companies will take over business in many areas of Russia. There will be many business opportunities in Russia. Same scenario really goes with China, though China's demographic problems aren't based on ethnicity but rather class and regionalism.

You could also learn the language of whatever resident laborer group lives in your respective country, but I"m skeptical about the usefulness of doing so. In America many businesses are evidently able to communicate with illegals without hiring translators.

[Äike]

English for the world, German for Central-Europe, Swedish for Scandinavia, Russian for Eastern-Europe, Spanish for South-America, Chinese for Asia and Finnish for the Finnic areas.

[MagnaLaurentia]

French, English, German, Italian and Spanish.

If you speak these languages, congratulations, you are a polyglot! And you can go anywhere in western europe.

+ USA, Canada (Quebec also) and Latin America

[Tabiti]

Chinese;)

[Svipdag]

When I said Latin I meant classical Latin. Naturally, one must apply some imagination to the changes of orthography and pronunciation which occurred in the evolution of the other Romance languages from Latin. Nonetheless, I found that four years of high-school Latin enabled me to read French, Italian, and Spanish with about 60-80% comprehension. Portuguese was more difficult, and Rumanian was mostly guess-work.

I had to be able to read French for a language qualification in graduate school . After studying the Oxford Review book in French and browsing in Cassell's dictionary for a few weeks in summer vacation, I had no difficulty in passing the qualifying exam. Without the background in Latin, I could not have done that.

I picked up most of my Italian vocabulary from opera libretti which, for the most part, I could read without difficulty by assuming that they were written in strangely spelled Latin.

Naturally, this is not the first century BC and all modern Romance languages contain modern coinages. Sometimes, the meaning is obvious from context. Otherwise, a dictionary is needed. But, for example, haut parleur, literally "high speaker" is not so far from loudspeaker as to overstrain the imagination. And, of course, very many of the neologisms turn out to be borrowings from English.

[Comte Arnau]

When I said Latin I meant classical Latin. Naturally, one must apply some imagination to the changes of orthography and pronunciation which occurred in the evolution of the other Romance languages from Latin. Nonetheless, I found that four years of high-school Latin enabled me to read French, Italian, and Spanish with about 60-80% comprehension. Portuguese was more difficult, and Rumanian was mostly guess-work.

I had to be able to read French for a language qualification in graduate school . After studying the Oxford Review book in French and browsing in Cassell's dictionary for a few weeks in summer vacation, I had no difficulty in passing the qualifying exam. Without the background in Latin, I could not have done that.

I picked up most of my Italian vocabulary from opera libretti which, for the most part, I could read without difficulty by assuming that they were written in strangely spelled Latin.

Naturally, this is not the first century BC and all modern Romance languages contain modern coinages. Sometimes, the meaning is obvious from context. Otherwise, a dictionary is needed. But, for example, haut parleur, literally "high speaker" is not so far from loudspeaker as to overstrain the imagination. And, of course, very many of the neologisms turn out to be borrowings from English.

I can understand that, if you are totally foreign to Romance languages, a thorough knowledge of Latin automatically leads to a solid background of some pan-Romance core vocabulary, as well as of many late medieval and educated terms. (Although you can already have it if you speak English, given that more than half its vocabulary comes from a Latin/Romance source. :))

But the amount of basic pan-Romance vocabulary that particularly western Romance languages (all but Romanian) took from so-called Vulgar Latin is just too big. These words can't be understood from Classical Latin at all, or at most you must be really intuitive.

For instance, take the word for head, caput. You can perfectly infer that cap in Catalan and Romanian means head by this, ok. By making an effort, one could perhaps see that cabeza and cabeça are derivatives of the word in Spanish and Portuguese, cool. But in French and Italian, where chef and capo should be the words for head, they are used for different meanings, having been replaced with the Latin word for a pot or vase, testa. In order to infer that, you have to be too intuitive, to be frank. Sometimes the word doesn't even exist in Classical Latin with another meaning. This is what I meant: not only the grammar and syntax have changed too much by leaving declensions in favour of prepositions and other important variations, but also much of the core lexicon comes from spoken Latin forms that were completely different words in the Classical writing.

The other way round is just as evident. How many Romance speakers who haven't studied Latin can really understand the fragment in my signature? And it is a very simple one.

[Óttar]

The other way round is just as evident. How many Romance speakers who haven't studied Latin can really understand the fragment in my signature? And it is a very simple one.
We had to translate that in Latin class. :P

[NSFreja]

I've studied 3 different languages in school when i was younger (english, german and french) and yeah, almost forgot, i learned dutch at home.
With these languages i can manage quite well when travelling in Europe as almost everyone in Europe speaks or atleast understand english or german.
Soo, these languages have been good for me to learn.

But i would love to learn italian and/or spanish, "update" my french (haven't spoken french in 25+ years now) and also, learn more russian and estonian.

[Moonbird]

The most useful languages to know in the world right now I would say are English and Spanish.

[Wölfin]

Judging by my mother's library of languange dictionaries... French, English, Spanish, German and some Italian :D

More seriously though it depends on who you are, where you are and what you are doing/intend to do.

Myself the languages that would be the most useful for me to master on top of French and English would be German and Russian and a Scandinavian language (I'd pick Swedish). For my own pleasure I'd like to learn Italian, refine my Japanese and my Romanian. For the sake of the fact I might get in to translation I should also pick up my Spanish again.

As for utility of the World, my mother says I should pick up Arabic and Mandarin... I am reticent :P