I came across a person today. When he realized I studied German, he laughed at me in a mocking way. He said “In case today’s economic situation is in the future, keeping favoring Russia and China, knowing their language will be precious thing.” and continues “Population of the French and German decreases, so less people will be speaking their language.” What he recommends me is learn Russian and Chinese. According to him China, Russia, India and Brazil will be dominant power of the world. Therefore what I am doing now is totally worthless.
The way he mentions the BRIC nations makes me think he probably recently read something about that idea.
I think the question of “Which of these languages will have utility for me in the future?” is a personal and context-specific one. I’ve used French and Russian in about equal amounts, talking to people on the Internet, or reading a couple papers, but not yet in a daily context.
I don’t know so much about Russia or Brazil (Is he just basing this on area? Then what about Canada & Australia?) But it seems reasonable to expect that China (if it does not fall apart politically) and India are going to increase their economic clout. Of course, educated Indians speak English as, more or less, a first (co-equal) language.
Actually, some of the wording in the OP (e.g. “People who recommends”) made me wonder whether or not English is the OP’s first language, and if not, what is. That might make a difference.
To an English speaker, European languages like German or French are easier to learn than Chinese or Russian, because they share the same alphabet and have some linguistic origins in common.
As others have noted, which languages are most useful to be able to speak/read/write/understand will depend on your own particular situation and what you intend to do with them.
But I do think it’s a reasonably good guess that the usefulness of being able to communicate in Chinese or Russian is only going to increase in the foreseeable future.
Brazil, Russia, India, and China are going to be strong commercial powers in the coming decades, so it makes sense that being able to communicate with them will be important.
But, even then, countries like France, Germany, and Japan will still be important trading partners as well.
And Arabic is going to be an important language too.
So, there’s no reason to laugh at anyone for studying any of these languages.
My daughters go school in French immersion. My aunt and uncle who adopted two Chinese daughters asked me pointedly why my daughters were wasting their time studying French because it is declining language and Mandarin is the wave of the future. I held my tongue and said that romance languages are good to study in general because it gives you a general idea of how all of them work and they are much more likely to visit Quebec or France (they already have) than China.
If I could have unleashed my full fury and inner racist on my dear relatives what I would liked to have said is that I don’t give a flying fuck about the Chinese or their culture in generally to the point where I expect my kids to learn their language because some anticipated future events. I an old enough have gone through two waves of this with both the Russians during the Cold War and the Japanese during the 1980’s when each of those were supposed to have taken us over. I take a wait. The U.S. and European culture is still #1 worldwide. I might change my my ideas only for pragmatic reasons if and when I see a shift in the standings.
Flame away but that is what I think.
BTW: The comment in the OP about China AND Russia is really strange. I haven’t heard about Russia taking over for over 20 years. It is basically all China now. Japan is caught in eternal stagnation and Russia just went back to struggling to survive like they always have except for a brief period after WWII through the Cold War.
Tom Lehrer called it in 1965: You too may be a big hero,
Once you’ve learned to count backwards to zero.
“In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I’m learning Chinese,” says Wernher von Braun.
I have heard several sources state that the Russian birthrate has been less than replacement rate for several decades, so Russia’s population is expected to decline just like the rest of Europe. China’s one-child policy will probably reduce their population as well.
If Putin and his cronies stay in power, that will probably hinder Russia’s economy in the long run. [del]Kleptocracies[/del] Oligarchies tend to be inefficient, and mis-allocate important resources.
China has a centrally-planned economy, and in the long run, those also tend to be inefficient. They are currently sqandering money on unneeded housing construction, and their currency manipulations may eventually bite them on the backside.
I’ve said it before, but Mandarin is very, very useful if you live in China and need to order food and tell taxi drivers where to drop you off.
Outside of that, it’s pretty much useless. China has more English speakers than the US, and pretty much every international business is going to be better at English than you are likely to ever be in Mandarin. If for some reason the business you are dealing with doesn’t have skilled English speakers, translators can be hired for a few bucks an hour. I understand where the idea comes from, but learning Mandarin because it’s “the next big thing” just isn’t going to have the payoff people are hoping for.
Learning languages is rewarding, and it’s always good to learn about another culture. But there is no real way to “game” which language is best. It varies too much by industry and circumstance (in my case, for example, French is one of my most valuable skills, and my Mandarin will never get me a job.) The only smart thing to do is follow your interests, learn whatever you are most likely to stick to to fluency, and keep your brain nimble so you can learn new languages if you need to.
I think it depends on what your goals are. If you want to learn a language just because you enjoy it and find it interesting, study whatever you want. If you’re trying to learn a language for practical purposes then yes I do think there are more practical languages to learn than French or German.
I’m not sure what country you’re in, but for most Americans, I think Spanish is the language that makes the most practical sense. Most of the German/French/Russian people you’d meet in America will know some level of English, but there are tons of Mexicans here who don’t speak English. As someone who works in a hospital, I’ve had a number of situations where things would have been a lot easier for me if I were fluent in Spanish.
In the business world, Mandarin is probably going to be the most useful languages in the near future. China has a much better chance of overtaking the USA than Russia does these days.
I also definitely see Arabic being useful, both because of the influx of Arabic immigrants in Europe and the usefulness it would have in any sort of military related career. Unless we do somehow miraculously see peace in the Middle East, I think there will be a desperate need for Arabic translators for a long time to come.
China is largely an insular, closed culture that is opaque to outsiders and society is largely organized along familial ties or political relationships. There is no point for an outsider to learn Chinese because what use would you have for it? Chinese firms do not as a rule hire very much outside the immediete family/circle of their deicsion makers, because that’s just how patronage in an untransparent, nepotistic society works. Why would they hire a foreigner for anything other than teaching English or appearing in films as foreigners? Who would benefit from such a thing?
I’ve never been to Russia but I suspect that’s pretty much how it works there and in most other Asian and/or poor countries too. Contrast this with somewhere like America that is open, pluralistic and meritocratic (for the most part, obviously not perfectly so), a Chinese person who speaks decent English and has other useful skills can actually be hired in an American company and make a decent go of it.
So learning languages like Chinese or Japanese or Russian is to me the height of folly., because those places are all aboslute shit and no one would ever want to actually go there.
Though it might be useful to be fluent in Mandarin, it is probably not wise investment of time and money to try and learn it.
People who studied Mandarin at university level come out more-or-less unable to communicate fluently in all situations. The language is so different from Indo-European languages that it would take an enormous investment to gain useful fluency. On the other hand, as has already been noted, many Chinese people in business speak English and translators are easy to come by. It’s also worth remembering that there is no such thing as a language called “Chinese”: the majority are Mandarin speakers, but you’d not be able to communicate with all Chinese people. Fat lot of good it would do you if you told your company you speak “Chinese” and they sent you to a place where people speak Cantonese.
Learning Portuguese is probably the easiest of the BRIC languages, for someone who speaks (possibly several) Indo-European languages.
Germany is still an important European economy. Though most Germans speak English, speaking German would be very much appreciated there, and would give important cultural understanding. It could certainly be a valuable skill for a company. On top of that, learning any language is always a good thing. It broadens the mind, deepens understanding between cultures and it improves general understanding of language.
I have yet to meet an American who learned Russian in school (and didn’t follow it up with immersion in Russia) who spoke it fluently and correctly, even if with an accent. And all Russians who’d want to do business internationally speak English. So what’s the point?
and continues “Population of the French and German decreases, so less people will be speaking their language.” What he recommends me is learn Russian and Chinese. According to him China, Russia, India and Brazil will be dominant power of the world. Therefore what I am doing now is totally worthless.