Need help selecting a 2nd language to learn.

[Mooks]

After many discussions with europeans calling me a average ignorant american, and my own personell thoughts of actually wanting too; I'v decided to learn a 2nd language. Only problem is that I cant decide which one. I live at east coast, USA. I plan to travel when I get out of high school, and possibly even move permanently out of the country (though that may be hopeful optimism).

....... deleted by SF

The obvios choice is spanish, but I really really dont like the sound of the language. It sounds horrible. This probably comes from being yelled at by spanish/mexican/puerto ricans women during my childhood. It really is a traumatizing experiance for a young kid. Still dont know why it happened so much.

2nd/3rd choice is french or dutch. Iv heard dutch is pretty hard but I wouldnt mind moving there sometime in the future. Everything iv read about the country (well mostly everything) is great. Plus they wont throw me in jail for years just for practicing one of my favorite hobbies. French because it sounds sexy.

If its revelent I plan to be a computer networker (high school right now) and they tend to travel around alot. I really want to do this just to prove to myself that I have discipline and im not the average ignorant american.

[InsaneApache]

Italian.

[Mooks]

Italian.

Makes sense, joining the mafia is my 2nd career choice.

[Andres]

Allthough a native dutch speaker myself, I wouldn't recommend studying it for career purposes, unless you really want to work/live for a long period in the Netherlands/Flanders.

Most people around here understand and speak English anyway and alot of Flemings have French as their second language.

If you don't want to go for Spanish, then French seems to be the best option.

[Lemur]

I would seriously re-consider Spanish. Take it from a guy who speaks both English and Spanish, there aren't many places in the world where somebody doesn't speak one of them.

[CountArach]

Latin.

[InsaneApache]

Latin.

That's just Italian without the pasta.

[CountArach]

That's just Italian without the pasta.
Yeah, but its also Italian with actual military victories thrown in.

[InsaneApache]

Good point, well made. :thumbsup:

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

If its possible you could try them all for a month or so and then drop what you don't like. If you find you have a flare for more than one then you could keep this selection and gain a really rich vocabulary.

Regardless of all this however, it is advisable to get a qualification in them if you can rather than just learning it by yourself. If you don't go to a country which speaks your new language, but instead English, they're going to ask you to prove it with a piece of paper.

~:)

[KukriKhan]

I plan to be a computer networker (high school right now) and they tend to travel around alot.

A lot. Two words. (sorry)

You have English; that covers about half the planet. For 48% of the rest, you'll want Spanish and/or Chinese. If you think you'll ever do government work, Arabic will be valuable for the next 10-15 years.

[Hooahguy]

hebrew.
(jk)

id say spanish

[drone]

Chinese. Being able to talk to the nation's creditors would be a nice skill to have.

[Don Corleone]

If you intend to get into software, I'd recommend Mandarin Chinese over Spanish, though I find Spanish to be invaluable, even here in the US.

I think Andres said Dutch was only useful in the Netherlands & Flanders, but isn't it spoken widely in Indonesia as well?

Another language to consider... French. It's still the language of diplomacy, and if you ever need help from a consulate of a non-English speaking country, it would help immensely. Plus, you will be the mack daddy, speaking French to your female classmates at parties in college.... just drop Voulez vouz cocher avec moi, ce soir? and a couple of other choice phrases and you'll be in there like swimwear.

Another possiblity would be Indian. A lot of IT work & software engineering is headed over there.

[Sarmatian]

If you don't want to learn Spanish, which would be the best possible choice for an American imho, go for French or German. Chinese would good also, but it's very hard for us westerners.

Italian is a bad choice as it is a language only spoken in Italy and very rarely as a second language (compared to French or German, for example).

[Fragony]

I'd do Spanish, comes in handy in America as well, and speaking Spanish is just that more suave then speaking French.

[Husar]

Wow, it took 15 posts for someone to come up with german.
For the people who tried to unite the world twice we are really underappreciated. :sweatdrop:
I'm also sure that Germany is the place where you can find people who speak neither proper english nor spanish, the bakery across the street sells "Donat"s after all...haven't checked their spanish though.

Well, and then there is ancient greek, I think my latin teacher knew that. :sweatdrop:

The Dutch mostly speak german as well by the way, as do the Spanish, at least the ones on Mallorca. ~D

Concerning mandarin, don't most Chinese, especially those in business, know english?

Spanish and italian both have some latin roots, of the two I would choose spanish, mainly because it's spoken in a lot more countries.

But in the end I think there are more ways than learning a language to prove that you're not an ignorant American, for example I could send you my own self-made inofficial "not an ignorant American"-paper badge for just 500EUR plus package and shipping. :2thumbsup:

Or you could just travel the world as you plan to, or just inform yourself about the world outside America.

And last but not least, I hear there are people who have nightmares from trying to learn french. ~;p

[lars573]

I'd say the other two of international tirnity, Spainish and French. English, French, and Spainish will get you by in many nations on earth. Arabic and Chinese may also be benefitial.

[Sarmatian]

Wow, it took 15 posts for someone to come up with german.


German is not so important in the Americas. It's a "European" language. For someone who lives in Europe German should be the second choice, after English.

[Fisherking]

If you are learning it in school then go for Spanish. That is free…

If you just can’t suck it up and endure then go for French. But take something while you are young. Get your mind thinking in different languages.

If you move to Germany, which is likely in your chosen field, then you will have to learn German. You will get 6 to 9 months of it required. Trust me I took it…

Chinese! Forget it. While Chinese read the same language they speak something totally different. Often they communicate in English or writing. The same holds true in India, may languages but most know English.

Spanish covers most of the New World. French covers maybe half of Africa. After that it is provably German as next most spoken. Never underestimate the power of German Tourism.

[Fragony]

German is not so important in the Americas. It's a "European" language. For someone who lives in Europe German should be the second choice, after English.

But it's a beautiful language to learn, german is my favorite language I wish I was better at it, it's so civilized. Some words are perfection 'Mein liebe'...(Is there a better way to say WELL HELLO) 'Entschuldigung'....(Is there a more polite way to apoligize?)

ace. :2thumbsup:

[Pannonian]

But it's a beautiful language to learn, german is my favorite language I wish I was better at it, it's so civilized. Some words are perfection 'Mein liebe'...(Is there a better way to say WELL HELLO) 'Entschuldigung'....(Is there a more polite way to apoligize?)

ace. :2thumbsup:
Isn't it "Bitte"?

[Fragony]

Isn't it "Bitte"?

No, as in english, a bread please. please = Bitte

[Pannonian]

No, as in english, a bread please. please = Bitte
Isn't it used in a "Pardon me" sense as well?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

No, as in english, a bread please. please = Bitte

I believe that the usage to which Pannonian is referring is to use "bitte" as a short form for "please excuse me." Not sure if this is more or less polite than the form you note. German specialists, what say you?

[Fragony]

I believe that the usage to which Pannonian is referring is to use "bitte" as a short form for "please excuse me." Not sure if this is more or less polite than the form you note. German specialists, what say you?

Well yes, but an apoligy and 'excuse me' are two different things, that is no different in english, excuse me/sorry

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Well yes, but an apoligy and 'excuse me' are two different things, that is no different in english, excuse me/sorry

In US English, there is quite a bit of conflation between the two usages. For example, "Excuse me" is often used in place of "I apologize for having bumped into you, please excuse the unintended offense." The long form contains both a classic apology as well as a request for expiation, but we usually use the shorter form to make that apology.

We do use the phrase "please excuse me from X" when trying to get out of school assignments and the like, but this rarely carries any note of apology.

Apologies are most often begun with the phrase "I'm sorry..." even though that is an expression of personal feelings without any automatic concommitant apology. I can say "I am sorry I wrecked your car" to most people and they will construe it AS an apology, when I :devilish: might actually only mean that I'm sorry it happened.

....Ah the connotative joys of communicative interaction. Without it, as Habermas notes, we would be unable to construct a functioning society. Even with the best intentions, however, we are still often in a differend condition, as Lyotard would note.

[Devastatin Dave]

Make up your own and force people to learn it.

[Pannonian]

Make up your own and force people to learn it.
Was that what Dubya was doing?

[KukriKhan]

Was that what Dubya was doing?

I guess; and he's never saying: "Es tut mir Leid".

[Augustus Lucifer]

It depends on why you're learning a language.

Leisure

French - It's no secret that in America, French is considered the premier romance language. Having access to a French vocabulary could help you to woo that person you've been eying from the bushes(I kid, I kid).

German - German to the general population is pretty much the anti-thesis to French, a more burly/rough language. Overall there isn't a hugely prevalent German speaking German-American demographic, nor a lot of jobs that will open up, so it's a leisure language for Americans.

Academia

Latin - If you're going into history, most of the European languages have some root in Latin, and many Latin phrases are becoming an increasingly sophisticated form of expression since they have gone more and more out of use.

Chinese - An understanding of Chinese opens up the historical records of the other side of the world. Japanese can also be much more easily learned for one with an understanding of Chinese, since the Japanese 'kanji' is Chinese characters, and the 'hiragana' shorthand chinese characters, it is the spoken version that differs.

Job

Chinese / Japanese - A lot of American industry is moving to China or is already there, and a lot of it also exists in Japan. If you're looking to enter the field of business, the next best language to English will probably be Chinese for the future, followed by Japanese.

Arabic - It's no secret that we don't exactly have an abundance of people here in America who know about the people we're fighting, much less can understand them. Middle East relations will be tense for many years to come, so the need for interpreters in the government and in private functions will remain high.

Spanish - By and large the largest demographic of non-native English speakers on the West Coast of the US is Hispanic people. It could help you get a job managing places where workers speak Spanish, and may also have its casual conversation usages.

Other - Dutch, Italian, and Russian are probably the big three others you could learn for various applications. The next tier would be Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Finnish, etc.), Balkan languages (Romanian, Greek, etc.), or other East Asian languages (Korean, Vietnamese, etc.). The last tier of Afrikaan and other African languages, or other less widely used ones, won't serve you particularly well unless you have an eclectic job path.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Whatever will we do without Dubya's malapropisms? I cannot think of another President in the past century with as much flare for ruining the language. Does anyone know if he was equally adept in Spanish?

[Major Robert Dump]

Forget semantics and what sounds nice. Go for the money. If you plan on working in the US then Spanish is the obvious choice.

There is a huge demand for arabic speaking westerners in the new frontier of the middle east, however there is a new dialect every few hundred miles and, unlike Spanish, some speaking errors in those languages could very well get you killed. Not to mention the danger of just being a westerner over there to begin with.

If you are in the IT field, Korean would be a big plus because IT is pretty much the cornerstone of South Korean industry right now.

[Papewaio]

If its revelent I plan to be a computer networker (high school right now) and they tend to travel around alot. I really want to do this just to prove to myself that I have discipline and im not the average ignorant american.

English. Most of Europe has English speakers particularly in business.
Chinese. Most of Asia bar Japan has Chinese speakers and they are often the business men too. Very hard to learn for a non-native speaker to become business fluent.
Spanish. This will cover a lot of South America and some parts of Africa.

If you can speak all those you will be able to communicate with probably 80% plus of humanity as a first or second language.

But if you want to work in Japan or France you will have to probably learn the local language...same for a lot of former Empire countries.

[Sarmatian]

Job

Chinese / Japanese - A lot of American industry is moving to China or is already there, and a lot of it also exists in Japan. If you're looking to enter the field of business, the next best language to English will probably be Chinese for the future, followed by Japanese.

Arabic - It's no secret that we don't exactly have an abundance of people here in America who know about the people we're fighting, much less can understand them. Middle East relations will be tense for many years to come, so the need for interpreters in the government and in private functions will remain high.

Spanish - By and large the largest demographic of non-native English speakers on the West Coast of the US is Hispanic people. It could help you get a job managing places where workers speak Spanish, and may also have its casual conversation usages.

Other - Dutch, Italian, and Russian are probably the big three others you could learn for various applications. The next tier would be Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Finnish, etc.), Balkan languages (Romanian, Greek, etc.), or other East Asian languages (Korean, Vietnamese, etc.). The last tier of Afrikaan and other African languages, or other less widely used ones, won't serve you particularly well unless you have an eclectic job path.

Serbian would be better choice than Greek. Greek is spoken by around 11 million people, Serbian by more than 20 million.

Actually, from a business point of view, learning those small eastern European languages could open up some opportunities. As more and more western companies start to appear here, they always send some of their people, for the know-how, training purposes, communication etc... Although there aren't many of those opportunities, virtually nobody in the west speaks those languages so there's almost no competition for the job. Of course, you'd have to be willing to travel and work abroad. So, languages like Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Serbian, Romanian could offer some unique job opportunities.

[Husar]

Just to clear that up a bit (or possibly confuse everybody even more ~D ):

Entschuldigen Sie mich - excuse me
Entschuldigung - sorry
Es tut mir Leid - I'm sorry (this can also have your evil meaning in german, Seamus)

and to flesh it out a bit:

Bitte entschuldigen Sie mich für die heutige Sportstunde.
Please excuse me for today's sport lesson.

Entschuldigung, ich wollte Ihnen nicht auf die Füsse treten.
Sorry, I didn't want to step on your feet.

Es tut mir Leid, ich wollte deinen Hasen nicht erschiessen.
I'm sorry, I didn't want to shoot your bunny.

Ich liebe dich.
I love you.

Ich hab dich lieb.
I love you.

Ich hab dich ganz doll lieb.
I love you a lot.

Ich spreche Deutsch.
I speak german.

Du bist ein Schatz.
You're a treasure.

Worüber denkst Du nach?
What are you sinking about? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR0lWICH3rY)

Well, that's it for today.

[CountArach]

Es tut mir Leid, ich wollte deinen Hasen nicht erschiessen.
I'm sorry, I didn't want to shoot your bunny.
:laugh4:

Finally, someone who understands my needs.

[rasoforos]

Greek of course!

i) Remarkably easy to learn http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Greek-Years-Linguistically-Challenged/dp/9608639514

ii) It will help you understand proper english (Speech by Xenophon Zolotas: International Bank for Reconstruction and Developmen):

Kyrie, it is Zeus' anathema on our epoch for the dynamism of our economies and the heresy of our economic methods and policies that we should agonize the Scylla of numismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia. It is not my idiosyncrasy to be ironic or sarcastic, but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize numismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies have to be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between political, strategic and philanthropic scopes. Political magic has always been anti-economic. In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopsonies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological. But this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists. Numismatic symmetry should not hyper-antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and numismatic archons is basic. Parallel to this, we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and numismatic policies panethnically. These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political and economic barometer are halcyonic. The history of our didymus organizations in this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies. Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism on one or two themes, with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and numismatic policies, although I have some logomachy with them. I apologize for having tyrannized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue, I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous autochtons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you, Kyrie, and the stenographers.


iii) Your coolness factor will be greatly increased because you can utter a knowledgeable 'ooooh it all makes sense now...' when Dr. House says 'Rhabdomyolysis' or 'Neuromyotonia' or 'Idiopathic' :2thumbsup:



Seriously now, don't try to learn Greek...

[rasoforos]

Serbian would be better choice than Greek. Greek is spoken by around 11 million people, Serbian by more than 20 million.



Sorry my friend but this is wrong. 12 Million in Greece and Cyprus and about 5 million as a second language...

[Fisherking]

I hate to burst too many bubbles here.

I am a native American, living in Europe.

When you live in America every other language is a leisure language.

Spanish helps you most if you never leave the country.

If you are going into government, the military, or something a bit more adventurous Arabic is fine.

If it is business, education, science, or technology then the next choice is German.

It is the most widely spoken language in Europe and next to English is your best bet almost anywhere, believe it or not.

German is spoken primarily in Germany Austria and Switzerland together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg as the first language. Also in the east of Belgium and southern Denmark.

It is spoken by large minorities in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia) Canada,( Yes even Canada), Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil and in Argentina. It is still spoken on the street in the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine.

If someone doesn’t speak English (and trust me, there are a lot of people who don’t ) chances are best that they will speak German. Ask anyone out side the US or UK and see if what I am telling you is true.

[InsaneApache]

As an American you could always learn to speak English.

[Mooks]

Wow, I didnt think there was going to be this many posts. Thank you for all the feedback, even if I dont acknowledge it, I am reading every single post.

Im leaning towards german/spanish now.

I know a tad bit of spanish from my classes in school, which I chose to discontinue. I ended them because iv spoke with people who took 3-4 years of spanish at high school, and cant speak a word of it beyond "Ola!". Iv never met someone that actually learned the language at school, they just did tons and tons of worksheets. Though right now its seems the most practical for a american. I may have to get over my psychological abuse as a child :sweatdrop:

German because of its the 2nd most practical language. And it sounds pretty good. That and its right in the middle of europe, literally. Probaly better chance of europeans understanding english/german then english/spanish right?


As an American you could always learn to speak English.

ya, funny.

[Sarmatian]

Sorry my friend but this is wrong. 12 Million in Greece and Cyprus and about 5 million as a second language...

Well, I counted only native speakers and yeah, I forgot about Cyprus :book:

Where do they speak Greek as a second language?

[InsaneApache]

Where do they speak Greek as a second language?

My dads kitchen.

[Fragony]

German because of its the 2nd most practical language. And it sounds pretty good. That and its right in the middle of europe, literally. Probaly better chance of europeans understanding english/german then english/spanish right?.

You pretty much have europe covered with english, just get a travel guide for specifics. All young Germans can speak english. The Scandinavians as well, better at it then us dutch actually. Most French can speak it but they are French so you may have to de-French them by learning some basic french. You don't need any European language really it is just fun to speak them, it is cool to say you speak more then 5 languages without lying.

[rasoforos]

All young Germans can speak english.

And, following a fine franco-german tradition they will refuse to acknowledge that they really do... <--- maybe the only thing I hated in Germany.

By the way. How do you say in German 'If my steak has any blood inside or is pink in the middle I am gonna shove it up your ...' ? <--- They never got my steak right...

[Fisherking]

My wife is a Musical Artists’ Agent.

She speaks or reads more languages than I can remember.

This last weekend she had to make special arrangements for one of her clients with a major hotel in Strasburg, France. She started the conversation in French, tried English, and ended up concluding the conversation in German.

I am not saying this is typical. But while most students in Europe study English in school, not all can or will speak it. Most students in the US have studied Spanish, few can speak it. Europe as a whole seems to do a bit better job with English though.

Some times I think there must be something about native English speakers that inhibit them from learning other languages.

In larger Cities it is usually not a problem, but hop off a train at most stops along the way and you find a whole different world.

[TevashSzat]

Regarding learning Chinese as a second language:

I highly discourage trying to learn Chinese if your first language is a Latin based one.

There are just so many differences between Chinese and Latin based language that it would be nigh impossible for anyone to learn to speak it very well if they just take classes. I know alot of people who are just taking classes and I cringe everytime they speak because their pronounciation is just horrendous (lack of the accents in English is to blame.....)

You'd need to study by yourself and probably go to China or regularly converse with native Chinese speakers to even be decent. Writing, IMO, is much harder than speaking/listening/reading because syntax in Chinese is very different and there is alot of old Chinese proverbs that good writers use which you won't be able to learn very easily.

Long story short, Chinese, while a practical language to learn, is extremely hard to. I would discourage people from trying to learn it unless they are truly willing to dedicate ALOT of time to the language.

[Husar]

And, following a fine franco-german tradition they will refuse to acknowledge that they really do... <--- maybe the only thing I hated in Germany.

?

Never heard of that, except if they're lying to me as well, but some of them are really bad so they might be afraid or unable to properly communicate. Myself, well it helps if you ask but if you just start talking english to me I will usually respond in english as well. Some people at work just seem to mumble around in english, in that case I just reply in german. ~D

[asilv]

C++ :yes:

[Fragony]

By the way. How do you say in German 'If my steak has any blood inside or is pink in the middle I am gonna shove it up your ...' ?

No won't do.That is bec ause non-pink steak just isn't right, medium is somewhat acceptable, welldone is animal abuse at it's worst, if I had to be butchered I would take comfort in being incredibly tasty. A proper steak is bloody and barely alive. I could translate it for you but I am not going to do so since some things just shouldn't be. It's dead. Get over it. It will never do the moo again.

[Jolt]

1st choice: Portuguese. Think of it like a much cooler Spanish. It is the language which enables its speakers to pronounce every sound of every language in the world (And Portuguese is the only known language who has a compatibility with every spoken language). It loosens your tongue. Futhermore, Portuguese is the most close language you find with Spanish. If you understand Portuguese. You surely understand Spanish. The other way around isn't true however.

2nd Choice: Spanish. But you don't want that. You prefer Portuguese.

3rd Choice: Chinese/Arabic. Extremely important. Chinese are becoming increasingly powerful and knowing their language puts you in a gigantically favorable position to gain a job in a company which has or is considering establishing their business on the world largest market. Arab is also most important due to petrodollars and all the business which has thereafter grown from it (Which has been basically everything)

4th Choice: French/German. These are losing importance, but can still be very valuable in the business world.

5th Choice: Interlingua (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlingua), because if you don't want to learn Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian, just learn one language which imcorporates them all! Interlingua was created so that Romance speakers all understand the language. It basically merges all Latin-Based languages. I understand it perfectly, and I can't speak it, nor have I ever learned it.

6th Choice: 1337speak, j00 |\|33|) 2 134r|\| |)15 2 |20013!!!111!1eleven!1

[rasoforos]

?

Never heard of that, except if they're lying to me as well, but some of them are really bad so they might be afraid or unable to properly communicate. Myself, well it helps if you ask but if you just start talking english to me I will usually respond in english as well. Some people at work just seem to mumble around in english, in that case I just reply in german. ~D

It was something I heard but I also actually experience last year in Dusseldorf...

We were visiting the Euroshop (it is a major trade fair for retail shops). Now, there is 100.000 people in Dusseldorf for it but 'Can you take us to the trade fair please' or 'Can you take us to Euroshop please' did not really do the trick with the taxi drivers... Just saying 'messe' did... ...I do not buy it that the didnt know what we were trying to say.

...the only taxi driver I had a decent conversation with was this Turkish chap who could speak really really good Greek he claimed he learnt at his favorite Greek cafe. Go figure...

[rasoforos]

It will never do the moo again.

It did the moo when I knifed it. Then it gave me a PETA pamphlet and crawled away...

[Husar]

By the way. How do you say in German 'If my steak has any blood inside or is pink in the middle I am gonna shove it up your ...' ? <--- They never got my steak right...

"Wenn mein Steak noch Blut enthält oder in der Mitte rosa ist, dann schiebe ich es Ihnen in den..."

Concerning the taxi drivers, maybe they really didn't know what fair means, but of course I cannot really know it, don't see why they would not want to take you there though.

[rasoforos]

Eh they got us there. We just had to say Messe :)

It's just that it was a bit of a struggle to communicate with people. English somehow did not seem to get very far.


But the food was great and the beer was not bad at all and we had a great time. :medievalcheers:

Considering that Lidl and Aldi are some of my best associates perhaps it is time I learn how to speak German...

[Strike For The South]

Learn what you want. The "need" for spanish is way overblown anyway.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Spanish, German or French.

You don't need to study Spanish and Italian or vice versa. Learning one becomes piece of cake after learning the other, I'm told.

That is, considering the career purposes. Mandarin Chinese gets an option in that regard too.

For pleasure I'd go Greek, Persian or Finnish.
.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.

iii) Your coolness factor will be greatly increased because you can utter a knowledgeable 'ooooh it all makes sense now...' when Dr. House says 'Rhabdomyolysis' or 'Neuromyotonia' or 'Idiopathic'
Dr. House rocks! :2thumbsup:

Seriously now, don't try to learn Greek...
Been there, done that. I'll resume it as soon as my teacher returns from Greece. Also I'm attending Classical Greek + Latin at the uni for the next year. :book2:
.

[Fisherking]

.

For pleasure I'd go Greek, Persian or Finnish.
.


Four pleasure? For the simple joy of speaking? Finnish? :dizzy2:

Now I have nothing against the Finns…but learning the language is not a pleasant experience.:no:

If you are going to take that approach then the oldest spoken language in Europe might be a good choice.

That would be Irish (Gaelic). Practically no one will understand you, not even the ones who speak it most likely…especially if you learn the northern dialect…

But hay! When you go to Ireland you get a whole other TV channel you can understand. :yes:

And lets face it, a trip to Ireland is a much more likely and pleasant sounding than Finland.

And Finns are not known for being exactly the friendliest or happiest people on the face of the earth…

[LittleGrizzly]

I hear they're stepping up efforts to 'bring back' Gaelic in Ireland and Scotland... so the langauge seems to be on the up... would much rather we taught kids french, german or some other useful langauge...

[InsaneApache]

For the novelty you could learn Cornish. Only about 180 people speak it! Talk about a clique. :wink:

[Fragony]

.
Spanish, German or French.

You don't need to study Spanish and Italian or vice versa. Learning one becomes piece of cake after learning the other, I'm told.

That is, considering the career purposes. Mandarin Chinese gets an option in that regard too.

For pleasure I'd go Greek, Persian or Finnish.
.

I find English and French much easier I don't have to think when using them. German on the other hand.. it's a very complex language and the similarities with the dutch language makes it all the more difficult.

[Subotan]

German. German is a really logical language, similar to English, loads of people speak it, and Germans are really nice. Although I also plan to learn Japanese after university, and I've already got under way learning the various kana. If you're thinking about Japanese, I suggest you apply for the JET Programme, where you spend 1-5 years in Japan teaching English to Japanese kids. It's paid for by Japanese tax payers, You need no prior knowledge of Japanese, and you'll pick a lot up on the way. All you need is a commitent and a bachelor's degree.