What language is most useful to learn, as foreign language ?

Answer 1

It depends on your interests:

Business: Mandarin Chinese, English, Japanese, Hindi, Spanish

Politics: Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Korean, English

Africa: French, Arabic, Swahili

Latin America: Spanish, Portugese

People always say Spanish is useful, but it just depends on your interests. If you are interested in India and its culture, then learning Spanish is useless. If you want be involved in Latin American affairs, then it would be a very useful language.

Answer 2

What has been said so far is pretty much correct if your purpose is business or living in an area or absorbing a single specific culture, etc.
On the other hand, if you wish to travel and explore multiple cultures then Esperanto is the ultimate choice.

Its purpose is to enable communication between the various cultures of the world. Esperanto is the strongest contender as the primary international auxiliary language. In numerous studies conducted over the last century, it has been demonstrated that first mastering Esperanto can lessen significantly the amount of instruction required for a third or forth language, because it clearly demonstrated linguistic theory that is useful in understanding languages. The link below provides details on this phenomena.
The real benefit that Esperanto has over the other tongues is its ease of absorption, and its clear demonstration of linguistic principles. When you visit with other Esperantists, they quite frequently will show you around and let you indulge in their culture, be it German, Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Iranian, British, American, Canadian, Australian, etc. The next time you're out and about you get to visit a whole new culture. Or you might let them indulge in YOUR culture.

I frequently make this next statement, and I live by it.

"If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language."

It's not uncommon for a student of Esperanto to become fluent inside of a month, maybe less, if you've the desire.

The most depressing aspect of dealing with Esperanto is the constant unsupported claims that it has no value. As with anything else, it's use is dependant on how you decide to use it. With over 2,000,000 speakers in the world, there aren't too many places where you won't find it, you just need to look. The internet is the best place to start. The sites below are the best intitial places to investigate the language and it's history. (Yes, it has a history (119 years) and a culture.)

Where Esperanto stands to make its biggest success is in international communications, primarily at the UN and EU, where each respectively spends in excess of $500 million USD annually on translation services alone.

The World Esperanto Association (in Esperanto UEA: Universala Esperanto-Asocio) is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with members in 119 countries (as of 2000) and in official relations with the United Nations and UNESCO. In addition to individual members, 95 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated to UEA.

Research and make your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 3

Spanish Is widely spoken and relatively easy to learn. On the other hand, Spanish does not set you apart. If you want a foreign language to advance your career, try Chinese. Chinese industry and markets are growing very fast, and lot of big hitters want a piece. To some extent, you can make the same argument for Russian, Korean, or Japanese.

Answer 4

The most widely spoken languages are spanish, english, french, chinese, russian, and arabic. For that reason they are the main languages used at the United Nations. So if by useful you mean providing a variety of well payed job opportunities these six would be the best choices. Although if you are planning on living in a specific place or doing a specific job, than of course your best choices would vary. But your best bet in general is to learn a couple of these six. Russian seems to be quite interesting. Good luck!

Answer 5

I recently asked myself that question. I observed that the two countries growing the fastest right now are also the most populous countries in the world - China and India. So it is likely their languages will become very important in the future. Being Indian and familiar with most north Indian languages, I turned to Chinese. I then found out that there are multiple Chinese dialects, of which Mandarin and Cantonese are the most important. Mandarin is the standard dialect and the most widespread and popular.

Answer 6

French, it is used in many many places. Plus it is very similar to Spanish and Italian so you can pick up a lot on those languages too, enough to get by. I found most everyone I met in years of travelling either spoke English or French.

Answer 7

Spanish. Spanish in America today is almost every where and somewhat depending on where you live. This is the most learned language anywhere you go. French or Italin always work depending on where and what you do for work.

Answer 8

I personally think that Spanish is the best just because it's the second most spoken language in the world and English is the first. It really depends on where you're going or what kind of setting you'd like to use it in. If you're more interested in buisness, then Chinese would be a good one to know. It really just depends on where you live, and where you're going.

Answer 9

It's impossible to give a general answer to this question. It all depends on your geographic location as well as your professional/business situation.
As a general rule, for business as well as for courtesy pusposes, learn the language of the majority of the people you live and work with. If you do this, I promise you will achieve high goals and gain a lot of respect.
Good luck!!

Answer 10

Mandarin if you are considering working in Asia. Judging by economy growth alone is reason enough to pick up the language spoken by the Chinese.