Spanish, for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...el=WallStreetJournal

Can a pocket translator suffice?? Above clip from WSJ> Funny and entertaining.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

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Originally posted by corsair:

With Spanish you cover just about the entire Western Hemisphere , its also a Latin-based language so, with a basic understanding of it, you can easily pick-up or, at the very least function in areas that also speak Italian and French.

I would question that, based on a sample size of one. While living and working in Spain, I tried to help a young woman from France, who was asking for directions. Her only language was French, so we did not have English in common. My Spanish did not help at all. Kind of frustrating.

Most of the Spanish dudes (and dudettes) I worked with were fluent in French, and most of them were very comfortable reading, writing, and speaking at least three or four languages.

Language relations have their similarities however, an interaction will be chock full of holes, perhaps she was from Northern France: Alsatian or, Frankish.
In general, I know French is the odd-duck when it comes to the Latin languages as Italians, Spanish and Portuguese speakers are closer in alignment; Catalan and Southern French (Ocitane-area) are also closely aligned. Romanian I also understand is Latin-based...not sure how dissimilar they are from the other Latin languages given their remote location to the others.

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Originally posted by ridewv:
Chinese for the business, trade, and job potential, but probably the most difficult. Next Spanish which is much easier.

This. Germans speak English very well.

English without the "Like" "Right" Growl and upspeak. Please.

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Originally posted by sigfreund:
Latin is also touted as being useful for certain fields like medicine, but that’s something else I’ve never understood. The days when doctors learned Latin as much to discuss their patients among themselves without being understood by the lay people are long past. As for the vocabulary, that’s something that can be learned just like any other words without going through the process of learning a completely new language with its grammar and countless words that doctors would never use or need to understand. Besides, I found that by really learning English well, it’s possible to understand many Latin terms. I didn’t have to study Latin to learn that the prefix “bi” means two whether it’s part of the word bicycle or bicuspid.

I agree with you. Many of our first and second year dental school courses were taught by medical school professors and in some cases side by side with med students. While gross anatomy is filled with Latin terminology, prior knowledge of the language would be of very little help in dissection lab. You pick up the words you need to know very quickly and never need to use them as you would when actually speaking the language.

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Originally posted by RGRacing:
English without the "Like" "Right" Growl and upspeak. Please.

Like, how many, like, words, does, it like, take to make, like a sentence?

Right??

My Daughter took Spanish and became proficient in. She later got a job as night manager in a hotel. The Housekeeping staff were all Hispanic. First day she needed a room cleaned and want into the break area. She heard one say to a friend “Here's the new one. Watch me not speak English.” My daughter replied in Spanish that that wasn’t a problem and there was a room that needed cleaning.

Your son should learn Swedish. And then send him to Sweden as an exchange student. Trust me, he will thank you for the rest of your life.

Meine Tochter studiert schon Deutch, naturlich!

Meiner Sohn learnt Latin - 'Semper Ubi Sub Ubi', und so weiter!

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Originally posted by Icabod:
My Daughter took Spanish and became proficient in. She later got a job as night manager in a hotel. . . .

My nephew spent two years in Mexico, quite fluent in the language and in the culture. He is now in construction management, his Spanish is very useful on the job.

Unless he's looking to get into a job where a certain language would be beneficial I would go with Spanish.

Finance

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Originally posted by Sailor1911:
Finance

Another sidenote. If you are in business management, and you don't understand the numbers (lots of finance involved), you will likely make some very poor decisions.

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Originally posted by tacfoley:

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Originally posted by 92fstech:
Spanish is going to be by far the most practical if they plan to live in the US. I grew up in Europe and once upon a time was fluent in Czech, but it's been almost 20 years since I've lived there and there aren't many opportunities to use it in the rural midwest, nor is it practical. I speak a little Spanish...I wish I spoke more. I actually need it very frequently at work, and not knowing it well enough ofen makes things harder than they need to be. Sometimes I blend it together with my Czech, too, which doesn't help.

And how many places do you need Czech outside of the two Czech-speaking nations?

Nowhere, in fact I'm not even sure where the second "Czech speaking nation" is. If you're referring to Slovakia, that's a completely separate language. I can understand some of it...same goes for Polish...but I'd have trouble communicating clearly with someone from either country. I definitely wouldn't recommend that someone learn Czech, unless they are planning to live there.

I live about 2 hours from Chicago, and I guess there's a large Czech speaking population there, but I've never run into any of them. A number of years back they had a drunk guy at work...he was going the wrong way down our divided 4-lane highway and got pulled over. He spoke Czech, and he was hammered (a proud tradition coming from the country known for having the highest beer consumption per-capita in the world...at least that was a commonly quoted statistic when I lived there). Sadly, I wasn't working that night, so I missed out on probably the only opportunity I've had in 20 years to make practical use of my Czech .

I think the most important thing with any foreign language is to make sure that you have ongoing opportunities to practice it. Like shooting, it's a perishable skill, and if you don't use it you'll lose it over time. That has definitely been the case for me. Spanish is definitely going to present the most opportunity to do that in this country, but ones's needs might change if they plan to live in a specific area abroad, or work with a specific people group.

In Minnesota Swedish, Norwegian, or Somalian might be helpful.

flashguy

Chinese

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Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
French. But I'm biased.

Japanese, but I'm biased

Seriously, German is a good place to start and so is French.

I think the grammar is more of a challenge with French, but that's not a bad thing.

The good thing is that once you start learning another language it becomes easier to learn others.

So, perhaps not just which one to study, rather which one to start with.

I've wanted to add Italian for a long while and was actually enrolled in a class that was very unfortunately cancelled the first day.

Another of interest is Portuguese. I'm fortunate enough to work for a great guy and he is located in Germany. We have members in our group from Bulgaria and Belgium and Portugal, amongst other places.

Apparently, when little children see me, they often think i am Santa Claus, for some reason...

So far, I've done a video in Japanese and a video call to Portugal, because one of my coworker's kids were screaming "it's Santa!" over and over during our weekly group meeting, so i quickly looked up some Portuguese and we had a great time talking after the meeting.

One thing a few people with whom i work have mentioned is that they are surprised to know an American who speaks more than only English, let alone several languages.

So, maybe it's okay to break out of the stereotype?

There are opportunities to actually use the languages you've studied, it just might take a bit of time to find them. That or you might just go to some other countries and make some friends

One of the most encouraging experiences I've had was in France, where because i always began by speaking French, folks were more than willing to help and were very supportive saying they would never laugh at someone trying to speak their language. Truly, the French will more than meet you halfway if you just try.