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).

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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.

[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.
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.

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

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.

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.

[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.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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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!

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.
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[Fisherking]

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For pleasure I'd go Greek, Persian or Finnish.
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Four pleasure? For the simple joy of speaking? Finnish?

Now I have nothing against the Finns…but learning the language is not a pleasant experience.

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.

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.

[Fragony]

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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.