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.