What three languages would be great to be fluent in if living is the United States?

Question

I'm fluent in English and Spanish, but I want to learn another language.

BAH!!! My grammar sucks. Sorry :(

Answer 1

How about Latin? It's a language used still in the sciences, and modern Latin is spoken in the Vatican. It's a fascinating language to study, even more so if you have an active interest in the etymology of words, and the history and evolution of language.

Answer 2

French could be very useful as it is an official language of many former French colonial possession which could be useful from a international business standpoint. Also French and English have many cognates and many grammar similarities. French is also one of the languages spoken at the UN and one of the requirements for employment with that agency is knowledge of at least two preferably three of their official languages. I hope this helps, but in the end choose a language for which you have a passion otherwise you will just get bored and not put in the required time and effort to learn another language.

Answer 3

Seems to me you are hearing mostly 'gut-feelings' and personal preferences. Unfortunately, the fact that some of us LIKE a particular language, find it easy, etc., doesn't do you much good. A little hard data might help.

To start with I would suggest that, beyond English and Spanish, it is very difficult and probably not very helpful to determine the most useful language to learn to speak in the U.S. as a whole.

The most useful languages will vary greatly by where you live. In Louisiana, for example, French ranks very high. But in other parts of the country it barely registers. In Philadelphia (as in many major cities) you will find a large variety of language communities -- the largest (after English and Spanish) appear to be Italian, Russian and Chinese --each currently at around one per cent.

For an excellent set tools to determine WHERE various languages are concentrated, check out:
http://www.mla.org/map_main

Note especially the following two pages:
http://www.mla.org/map_single
http://www.mla.org/census_data

These allow you to drill down and look at the percentage of speakers of various languages (and compare them) by state, county, city and zip code. (That's how I checked out the numbers for Philadlphia County above.)

Of course, there are other factors beside looking at the current raw numbers, such as
- what do you think you might DO with the language?
- are these groups in which many are already quite competent in English? or are they perhaps much more recent immigrant communities (such as some of the Asian and Easterrn European -Polish, Russian) with far fewer 'second generation' speakers more likely to speak English well?
- do you live in an are -- or foresee living in an area -- where one of certain newer groups are growing rapidly(esp through the influx of recent immigrants) ? (This sort of growth is not likely, for instance, with older immigrant communities. In the case of Philadelphia, it is unlikely the Italian-speaking community, though currently the largest of the three listed above, will be growing.)

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Please notice that the question you are asking -- about useful languages to speak/converse is-- is very different from what languages may be useful for OTHER purposes.

For example, because of an established history of research and writing, German and French are still extremely useful as ACADEMIC languages, since there is much scholary writing in these languages. Thus Ph.D students frequently have to demonstrate a reading knowledge of these two languages (no one cares about your pronunciation... unless you end up traveling).

If you might have any involvement with diplomacy or international trade, major international languages like Chinese and Arabic might prove more useful. (In fact, the US government, esp. the intelligence community, has a desperate need for people who are fluent in Arabic.)

Answer 4

Its good to know that you already know Spanish and English which are the most common languages in the U.S. But French is also a great language to learn because sometimes if you ever go to Quebec (which is in Canada) you can communicate with those people and it is a great language.

Answer 5

English - The widest spoken language in the U.S., an obvious one

Spanish - A very largely spoken language in the U.S.

Chinese (Mandarin) - Not only widely spoken in places of the U.S., but in Asia, which as we all know will soon pwn the world

Answer 6

If you were to be living in the northeastern part, I'd say Brazilian Portuguese. There are a bunch of Brazilians around there. Of course, there are lots in other areas as well.

I'd also suggest one of the Asian languages such as Japanese or Korean.

There are loads of Indians in certain areas, so Hindi would probably be useful. There are also plenty of people who speak French in the US.

Answer 7

Mandarin Chinese would be good if you want to be in a business, as it's the most widely spoken language in the world. Or French, for communicating with those dang Quebecois.

Answer 8

I think that the Mandarin Chinese or french

Answer 9

For a third language Chineese would be best.

Answer 10

English
Spanish
Ebonics