After Spanish, French and English, do you think there is any other language worth learning?

Question

I mean, one could argue Arabic or Mandarin, but mostly people from Arab nations and from China (businessmen or politicians) who need to communicate will most likely speak one of the main three. Then there is Portoguese, specially for South America because of Brazil... but most brazilians that you will need will speak English. So after these three is it really worth going fo a 4th language?

Particularly I believe German is useless as most german speaking people speak either French or English.

Answer 1

I'd've said Mandarin; in my experience a lot of Chinese don't speak English and rely on someone being able to interpret!

I think it's a good idea - and polite - to learn a few phrases in the language of a country you visit on holiday or on business, but more than that, a lot of wonderful literature is not translated from the original language and on that basis alone I think Italian and Russian are well worth learning.

Answer 2

No language is useless. Some might claim that Pahsto, Twi, Urdu, and Turkish are useless languages as anyone from the nations where those are spoken (Afghanistan, Ghana, Pakistan, and Turkey, respectively) would speak English. The same could be said of Swedish and Finnish to use your logic, as most people in the Scandinavian countries speak English. Note that most French people also speak English.

Learn a language if you are interested in the culture. German is not a useless language, if you are interested in German culture history, and literature as I am. If you have any intention of visiting Germany or Austria, it would behoove you to know the language, even though most Germans do speak English.

Arabic and Mandarin Chinese are useful if you are interested in the respective cultures and histories of the nations in which those languages are spoken.

If you base your choice of languages to study off whether the denizens of the nation(s) speak English or not, then I would say that you have wasted your time learning French, and perhaps only Spanish may prove useful to you for that use. Note however, that people do appreciate it if you can speak to them in their native tongue, and will be impressed if you can do so well.

Learn a language because it interests you and you find it enjoyable, not because you plan on using it solely to communicate with non-English speakers.

Answer 3

Definately German as it is the language spoken after French

Answer 4

You should go or Russian! Russian is one of those Languages that many people speak yet they dont know English or French or Spanish!

Answer 5

???only observed your question. that's in no way too late to learn a foreign places language. i think of chinese language is a greater effective decision.you recognize now China is the worldwide's best turning out to be marketplace, and China is crammed with opportunities. And chinese language is plenty greater standard than jap, Singapore,Malaysia,Indonesiaand Thailand use chinese language plenty. by ways,i'm a community chinese language. i visit offer a hand if u prefer. stable success, and in no way supply up!

Answer 6

Haha, yeah...I see your point. I take German, but that's only because I enjoy/LOVE the language, there's not exactly any point in learning it though beyond the exchange program I'm about to take part in. I've tried both French and Spanish, and even though they're more useful, I just didn't enjoy them. So I dunno, basically it depends on what your purpose for learning the languages is (business, fun, travelling, etc...).

Answer 7

how about italian?

if you can speak spanish and french, it should be fairly simple to pick it up. Also, from personal experience, the italians don't speak as much english as many other countries, so they do appreciate it if you can speak their own language.

Answer 8

ASL(American Sign Language). German, well does come in handy, just can be a bit hard to grasp. Russian would be a close 4th.
Peace

Answer 9

If you are going to do a lot of traveling then it wouldn't hurt to dabble in a few other languages like German, Portuguese, or Tagalog.

Answer 10

Latin, it is the basis for learning romantic languages, helps with vocabulary, is important in reading the classics and studying roman history. IT ROCKS!