# What language is most useful?? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138 "2003-07-03T23:13:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sstaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@sstaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sstaurus)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/1 "2003-07-03T23:13:42Z")
I am going to take a language in uni, and I am taking business, therefore does anyone know what language would be the most useful and/or best to take?? I’m deciding between German, Spanish, Italian, etc, maybe even French. Thanks!! ---
**Author:** ![c\_carol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@c\_carol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_carol)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/2 "2003-07-03T23:17:30Z")
I suggest Quenya. Oh, wait, you said _most_ useful. Never mind. (Haven’t we done this thread before?) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Physiognomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@The\_Physiognomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Physiognomist)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/3 "2003-07-03T23:24:13Z")
I’d definately go for Spanish- although up in Toronto, you might still be conducting business with Quebeçois more often then Latin Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/4 "2003-07-04T02:40:58Z")
My recommendation is to select a language you’re interested in. It’d be a tragedy to study Cantonese for four years then visit China and discover you don’t care for Chinese movies, don’t like Chinese food, and can’t stand Chinese people. If you find the idea of reading Homer in the original to be delightful, then you’re better off studying ancient Greek than you are learning Chinese, no matter how useful it may be. That being said, here’s the basic breakdown of the most spoken languages on Earth: 1. Mandarin Chinese, 1,052,000,000 speakers. [1] 2. English, 508,000,000 speakers. [1] 3. Hindi, 487,000,000 speakers. [1] 4. Spanish, 417,000,000 speakers. [1] 5. Russian, 277,000,000 speakers. [1] 6. Bengali, 211,000,000 speakers. [1] 7. Arabic, 235,000,000 speakers (high end estimate). [2] 8. Portuguese, 191,000,000 speakers. [1] 9. Malay-Indonesian, 190,000,000 speakers (high end estimate). [3] 10. German, 150,000,000 speakers (high end estimate). [2] You already know English. Mandarin will be useful if you’re planning a career that has anything to do with China – it’s spoken by 70% of the population. If you’re not interested in China, pass on it, because it’s not used widely outside of that nation. Hindi is like getting two languages for the price of one, since it is very similar to Urdu; they differ mainly in their alphabets. Hindi and Bengali are confined mainly to India and Bangadesh, and if you’re not interested in these areas, don’t bother with them. Spanish probably has the widest span of speakers next to English – it’s spoken throughout the Americas, in Europe, the Carribean, etc. Russian opens the door to Russia and to a limited extent the rest of the former Soviet Union. Arabic is of vast importance to the Middle East and North Africa, but has many different dialects to contend with. Learn Egyptian Arabic if you want to travel through the MENA region, as Egypt produces most of the Arabic-language movies and TV and anyone who wants to watch those will have some understanding of it. Portuguese is confined to Brazil, Portugal, and a couple of African nations; it is to a certain extent mutually intelligible with Spanish. Malay is spoken mainly in Asia, in Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Thailand. German is found in Central Europe, but in my experience most German-speakers already speak English, so unless you’re really into living in Germany it’s probably best to spend time on another language. WAG guesses on easiest for an English-speaker (YMMV): 1. Spanish shares a lot of Latin-based vocabulary, very consistent match between spelling and pronunciation. Only two genders. 2. German is closely related and is easy to pronounce, but also has cases, genders, and adjective endings that English lacks. 3. Portuguese is similar to Spanish in many respects but pronunciation is more difficult IMHO. WAG guesses on hardest for an English-speaker (YMMV): 1. Mandarin Chinese is completely unrelated, has little shared vocabulary, has logographic system of writing, tones, etc. and will be alien to an English speaker. 2. Arabic is also unrelated, a challenge to write and pronounce. 3. Russian has quite complex grammar (three genders, six cases), a different alphabet that is just similar enough to ours as to be frustrating, and little shared vocabulary. [1] [Ethnologue](http://www.ethnologue.com) [2] 1998 World Almanac; “Les Langages de L’Humanite (1995)” by Michel Malherbe; “Atlas of Languages (1996)” by Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, and Maria Polinsky; Universal Almanac 1997; Dorling Kindersley Visual Encyclopedia 1995; and Cambridge Factfinder 1997. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/5 "2003-07-04T06:03:49Z")
How about English? ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vampire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Space\_Vampire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vampire)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/6 "2003-07-04T07:42:39Z")
Business plus Toronto? Seems like Chinese is a good bet. On the other hand, I wouldn’t bet money that you don’t know Chinese already. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_griffin-kentzel/32/14787_2.png) [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/7 "2003-07-04T08:00:52Z")
This thread is better suited for [**In My Humble Opinion**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=12). I’ll move it for you. * * * **Cajun Man** ~ SDMB Moderator ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/8 "2003-07-04T08:26:41Z")
On other factor you need to take into account is immersion opportunities, or lack of. You might decide to opt for Hindi, for a variety of reasons but you might find that short of going to India there is going to be a dearth of Hindi material and speakers. This is a bit less relevent in the Internet age, but still, if you live in Canada and want to speak French, all you need to do to hear French is turn on the tv or radio. This makes a big difference. If you plan to stay in Canada, then French will definitely be the more useful language. However, it comes down to what your interests are; if you can’t stand neither Quebec not France, don’t waste your time. ---
**Author:** ![aggiej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@aggiej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aggiej)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/9 "2003-07-04T10:40:15Z")
i’m here in california. learn espanich before it learns you… ---
**Author:** ![SnoopyFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SnoopyFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnoopyFan)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/10 "2003-07-04T15:19:07Z")
Spanish is the official language of 21 countries. Learn it. Love it. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2003, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/11 "2003-07-04T16:23:37Z")
Two Kerrymen are standing at the side of the road, leaning on 'their bikes. A rental car pulls up, and a lost looking foreigner sticks his head out the window.\* “Parlez vous francaise?” he asks. The Kerrymen look at him blankly. Changing tack, the foreigner tries again… “Sprechen sie deutch?” No reaction. “¿Hablas español?” he inquires, in a last ditch attempt. The Kerrymen still don’t respond, so he rolls up the window and drives away swearing to himself. “D’ye know,” says the one Kerryman to the other as the car dissapears into the distance, “We really should learn a language”. Says the other Kerryman, “Why? Doesn’t seem to have been much use to _him_”. In other words, learn something that _you_ can use. \*I take no responsibility for the bastardisation of french, german, spanish which follows, too lazy to look it up. ---
**Author:** ![Ally424](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/82dd89/32.png) [@Ally424](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ally424)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/12 "2003-07-05T01:33:50Z")
I’m going to take Spanish this fall in University. I took a beginner’s course in highschool, but that was a few years ago now. I got a 98% in it, so I pretty much enjoyed it. Since I know a bit of french, I found spanish was similar to it, and picked it up pretty easily. ---
**Author:** ![green\_bladder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/13 "2003-07-05T08:13:22Z")
Español is the way to go 😉 ---
**Author:** ![sstaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@sstaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sstaurus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/14 "2003-07-06T16:26:55Z")
Thanks everyone for the replies 🙂 I think I have decided on Spanish, since it is quite common in alot of the places I might end up someday. I am interested in German, because that is my background, but I don’t think it will be all that useful. The other one that would be useful would be French, and I’ve taken that all through High School but I’m looking for something different now. Anyway, thanks again, keith. ---
**Author:** ![radar\_ralf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@radar\_ralf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/radar_ralf)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/15 "2003-07-06T19:39:47Z")
Y’know, this has always fascinated me. I wonder if Ameslan (American Sign Language) or a foreign version would be a good thing to know? I would guess, but don’t know for sure, that the sign for “baby” would look the same in any country, no matter what spoken language is used. Why hasn’t sign language become the universal bridge for all languages? I’m sure there is a good reason, I just don’t know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/16 "2003-07-06T19:51:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by radar ralf \* > \*\*Why hasn’t sign language become the universal bridge for all languages? I’m sure there is a good reason, I just don’t know what it is. \*\* Because everyone would have to learn the _same_ sign language. You might as well wonder why everyone doesn’t just speak English. ---
**Author:** ![radar\_ralf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@radar\_ralf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/radar_ralf)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/17 "2003-07-06T19:52:20Z")
okay ---
**Author:** ![trabi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@trabi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trabi)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/18 "2003-07-06T20:44:00Z")
Another angle would be to learn an obscure language. Think about it: assuming you want the second language to give you more clout on the labour market, if you learn Spanish you’re competing with 417,000,000 other people, most of whom have a headstart on you as it is. Learn Bulgarian, for example, and you could immediately be promoted to country sales manager for that part of the world.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-most-useful/186138/19 "2003-07-06T21:01:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Physiognomist \* > \*\*I’d definately go for Spanish- although up in Toronto, you might still be conducting business with Quebeçois more often then Latin Americans. \*\* Not really , everyone in Toronto will speak english to a certain degree. The only ones that will have a harder time are the more recent immigrants but they will speak/understand to a degree. As for french , umm, unless your dealing with the government or some corparation that has its head/branch office in Quebec your not likely to see a lot of it spoken and only written french will be in places where its government mandated. Broadcasting on radio will be english only with the exception of mulicultural progarmming on independent networks and television will have the mandated french stations. Declan