which important language should you learn after english, spanish, and french?

Question

I am assuming that it is german. But why isnt portuguese the 4th most common language taught in school? There are more portuguese speakers in world then German speakers(like twice as much due to Brazil and Portugal). Why is German important to learn as a 4th language?

Answer 1

Chinese or Hindustani. They are first and third respectively in amount of speakers worldwide (with English between them).

Personally, I would say go for Chinese, as they're more of an economic powerhouse than Indians at the moment.

Answer 2

At one time, any well educated person was expected to know those three languages plus a smattering of Latin and Greek. In the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica quotes from books in those languages are not translated because readers were expected to know them.
However, at that time French was the language of diplomacy and was spoken in all the courts (royal not legal) of Europe, including Russa. And German was the language of science - a scientist who did not speak German or read papers in the original was simply out of it. Spanish and Portuguese never had a role in either of those and currently, unless one intends to work in Central and South America, picking them up with a knowledge of French or Italian should be less of a problem.
It is fair to say that English has taken over both of those roles. Depending on ones interests, after English, ones time might be best spent with Chinese or selected languages of India. In actual fact, rather than learning the language, intense study of the culture of the countries might be more rewarding (occupationally) than being adept at the language, since so many upper-middle class (engineering, science and management) people in both countries speak English.

Answer 3

I would choose German as well for the following reasons why you would learn German next:

If you are interested in doing business with German speakers - there are 200 million of them around the world - also many countries in Europe use German including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

If you are interested in technology and scientific research, many past and current papers and documents are authored in German. Not to mention some of the largest engineering and manufacturing companies are German: BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, Siemens, Lufthansa, SAP, Bosch, Infineon, BASF.

If you are interested in literature and philosophy, some of the original works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, and Hermann Hesse are in German. Even today, 1/10 of the world's books are published in German.

If you're an English speaker, learning German is not difficult and in fact, many English words came or were derived from German roots.

Answer 4

Number one outside of Europe and small sections of North America and Africa, French isn't that important anymore. Spanish, English are all more widely spoken more than French. German is on par with French in that it is spoken frequently but not to the same level as English or Spanish.


I hear the Chinese language Mandarin has more speakers than all those languages combined and is a official language of the UN.

Answer 5

German is in schools becuase it is a HUGE business language....the US is a large trading partner with Germany and there are a lot of German-American companies
german is actually the most widely spoken language in western europe and the 2nd in all of europe
it is the second most widely spoken language on the internet next to english

Many people all over the world speak german and its a fun culture....lean german then you can pretty much blend into every culture in europe

Answer 6

It's probably because Germany is the largest country and the largest economy in Europe. But I think you're right, I think Portuguese will become more important as Brazil's economy grows.

In my opinion, the smartest language to learn right now is Mandarin Chinese. It's not as widely taught because there aren't enough trained teachers and because it's harder for Americans to learn due to the very different writing system and tones.

Answer 7

the importance is not in the number of speakers. it's about the level of development of the country. the better developed a country is, the more economic and cultural contacts with other countries it has and the more demanded the knowledge of its language is. you need a foreign language in order to be able to speak to the people in business, not in everyday life. well, unless you want to move to brazil

Answer 8

When you have learnt Spanish and French, then Arabic would be much easier for you to learn next.

Answer 9

you should try and learn scandinavian as this language can be applied to 4 countries- it also involves aspects of french and german. however do not learn dutch as it is one of the hardest languages ever to learn- you could also learn italian!

Answer 10

i think ARABC is more useful than Germany and purtiges
1; english
2; spanish
3; french
4; Arabic