What are the best 3 languages for my son?

Question

I will be having a son in 2 months, and I want him to learn several languages. I am willing to pay people to teach him while he's young. What 3 languages aside from English would you recommend and why?

Answer 1

How about a language that can help you learn other languages?
Although this tends to be true of most languages, it is more so in Esperanto because it breaks down the sentence structure as you speak. Nouns end in 'O', adjectives end in 'A', etc.
I frequently make this statement and I live by it.
'If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language.'

Believe it or not, Esperanto represents the best chance for the survival of the multitude of dying languages since it's purpose is to provide an alternative to any one National tongue to the disadvantage of others.
Consider if you will, Esperanto is an easily learnt AUXILIARY language. This means that myself and that German, Japanese or Korean fellow over there needn't sink a lot of time and effort into learning each others mother tongues if they don't wish, where whose ever tongue we settle to communicate in will hold the advantage in any discussions; since the likelihood of having a mastery of the second language will be remote at best. Each partner has exerted a similar effort in order to communicate; a linguisticly neutral hand shake if you will. Yet we are still free to talk in our mother tongues when and where we choose.
Further, I am now in a position to visit just about every country in the world and with the help of my new found Esperanto speaking friend (2 million plus) learn of his / her culture and language.

This second facet is possible because in learning Esperanto I now have a firmer grip on linguistic principles. I will provide a link below on the benefits of learning tertiary languages after Esperanto.

However, if it is Culture you desire, then you've no need to look much further than the Internet. In music there are Folk, Jazz, Opera, Rock, Hip Hop, Rap, childrens' songs, etc. In literature there is multinational translations plus original works. The yearly Esperanto Congresses are a play ground for young and old alike for interaction.
It's use is expanding exponentially. The last educated guess puts the number of functionally fluent speakers at 2 million plus and another 2,000 native speakers (those that were born to an Esperanto household; yes they exist).
Yet many feel threatened by it because they feel it is atempting to be the ONLY language spoken, which is NOT the case. It is simply a tool to allow those that might otherwise struggle to learn a new language, the option of expanding their horizons.
Finally, there is currently $600 million plus a year being spent on translation services at the UN, and a similar amount in the EU, because no one nationality wants to loose the prestige of owning one of the 'working' languages in each of those institutions. This a huge waste of resources that might otherwise go to feeding and housing those less fortunate. A single working language, easily learnt (less than a year to become fluent) would certainly go along way towards that goal. The Universal Esperanto Asociation (UEA) currently holds observer status (class B) at the UN and UNESCO. So there is some movement towards this goal.
Research and draw your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 2

First of all, congratulations on your new born. The languages that I reccomend are Spanish, French, and Italian. I speak all of these languages, plus Portuguese, and some Dutch, and obviously English.
Anyway, I reccomend Spanish, French, and Italian. The reason why is because once you know one romance language, learning another is very easy. Also, there are a lot of words that come from the French and Italian languages, that are in the English language. Taking a standarized test will be a lot easier with the knowledge of these three languages, especially French and Italian.

Answer 3

Chinese, Spanish and Arabic.

Spanish because it's the main language in South and Central America and its worldwide use is increasing. Also, it is not a very difficult language.

Chinese because China is a giant economy and many Chinese are not competent enough in English. Knowing Chinese is certainly an advantage. China has a rich culture and Chinese (Mandarine) is the language with most native speakers in the world.

Arabic because it has a great potential for future. Although some Arab economies such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia may have seen decline over the last 2 decades, there are many Arab economies on the rise, like UAE and Oman. Nevertheless, Arab world has young and dynamic population unlike aging China. Due to numerous cultural misunderstandings between Western and Arab civilisation, knowing Arabic language might help him improve his views on Arabs what would smoothen possible dealings with Arab business partners or employers.

Answer 4

3 languages other than english

1) Spanish - a large proportion of people in the US speaks spanish as well as the whole central and south america except for brazil which speaks portugese but very similar.

2) Chinese - mandarin, second most widely spoken language after english and deemed a business language of the future.

3) French, German or Japanese (either one). These are also great destinations to goto and are large trading partners with the US. Japanese is important if you want to go to Japan .. with french / german .. you can probably get around most of europe.

Answer 5

I would recommend Spanish, Mandarin, and ASL (assuming you are living in the U.S., you didn't say). Spanish is quickly becoming the second defacto language in the U.S. and will be important for domestic business. ASL is the other U.S. language, and knowing it will only help. Mandarin will be important over the next 20 years for international business.

I would also recommend a language course for children, published by the BBC called "Muzzy in Gandoland". It is an enjoyable, cartoon based immersion language course for children. My daughter is using it to teach my grandson Spanish. It comes in several languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, Gaelic, Mandarin, and Esperanto).

I would also throw in (as Jagg said above) Esperanto. It's not an important language for business, but I have received more benefit from knowing Esperanto than any other language I've studied.

Answer 6

The languages I know are Bahasa Indonesia, English, Arabic, Italian, and Spanish [acquired in that order].
English is a no-brainer. I only knew Indonesian and Arabic because it is part of my mother's heritage.
Italian would be a great language to immerse your child in because of the rich culture associated with the language.
I would say Chinese, but it is a very difficult language to learn, even for adults.
I guess it all depends on why you want him to learn the languages.

English, Italian, Russian, German or Latin
If you want something easy- Bahasa Indonesia.

Answer 7

I would do Spanish and English because they are both very important and the international languages, most of the world would be covered.

Why 3? i guess is a lot of pressure for a newborn but if you have to have 3, i would do Mandarin for obvious reasons.

Answer 8

Most people study the Latin languages (Italian, Spanish or French).

I would suggest: German, Japanese and Russian, then later on Spanish or French or Italian. Knowledge of these languages will make prospective employers scramble to offer him a job!

I speak 4 myself, but I wish I had learned the other three as well.

Answer 9

According to statistic, a child until the age of seven, would grasp no less than 7 specific languages in case you uncovered him/her to it always. My son is 7 and I am instructing him four specific languages. You will ought to plan it out appropriately in order that he does not get confuse. For me, I allocate two days for every language and placed it up on his every day agenda in order that he is aware of what language mommy might be talking with him on what day. He turns out to take it truly good until now. It will advantage him in the longer term so long as you maintain the ball rolling.

Answer 10

Congratulations on the expectancy of your son. English, spanish and french. He can somewhat recognize several languages if he knows spanish.