| If you are looking for certain economic gain now rather than 10+ years down the road (as MIGHT be the case with Mandarin), then the languages that would make a great deal of sense would be Japanese or German. After the US, Japan and Germany currently have the second and third biggest economies and very few native English speakers that speak their languages (however, in my experience, most Germans can speak excellent English).
Aside from these, with the continued immigration from Spanish speaking countries, Spanish would make a lot of sense. Spanish is WORLDS easier than Japanese, and a smaller percentage of the Spanish speaking community speaks English than Germans do.
For humanitarian issues, French would be a good choice as numerous countries in Africa speak it as a first or second language. |