Need help selecting a 2nd language to learn.

[KukriKhan]

Was that what Dubya was doing?

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

[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.

[rasoforos]

Greek of course!

i) Remarkably easy to learn http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Greek-.../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'



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

[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

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.

[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...

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.