Sachmoney

I'm taking Spanish right now. I really love it. I can understand romance languages pretty well because I took six years of Latin (the joy). I think its quite useful because the Hispanic population in America is only going to grow and we may become a dual language society (I really don't think we will). Communication is an important part of business. My theory is that by speaking the language and knowing the culture, one can show that they can relate to people and make deal more easily. I am dying to take Hindi...I already speak another, less spoken Indian language in addition to English. I'd like to learn Portuguese too, but for selfish reasons ;-)

wolfpack12

Can you understand punjabi?

Sachmoney

Here I go talking about myself again...

Spanish-Hispanic population
Chinese [Mandarin]-Growing Power
Hindi-Growing Power (English is the official language, but to understand the culture...)
German-...they make the best cars!
Italian-Pick up women?
French-See Italian
Russian-May be more useful in like 20 years
Japanese-They make a lot of electronics and they make a lot of cars

Spanish and Chinese are the two important ones in my opinion.

Sachmoney

No...not Punjabi.

Narcissa

Makes me feel special

tetrishead

The problem with picking languages for anything other than enjoyment is that you're trying to predict the future. Most people will never interact with China in a business setting, nor will they even interact with Europeans--making Spanish arguably the most pragmatic language possible to learn.

If you're interested in Europe, and you somehow foresee yourself working in consulting or working in Europe, then German is the most useful--over French, which is easier to pick up. Russian is great if you want to speak the language of a country we'll probably end up in another pseudo-war with. Here's the thing with languages: you don't magically remember everything. If there's a language you like, if there's a culture you like, if there's a language you can see yourself interacting with--you need to study that language. Studying German or Chinese or whatever for potential business interaction 10 years down the road is wasting time, because you're going to need to relearn German or Chinese or whatever 10 years down the road. You won't remember a language you learn in your junior year in college, just like no one remembers the French they learned in high school.

Sachmoney

I totally agree with tetrishead.

a2npersuas2n

if u really want to you can pick up ANY language by living in that country for a year or more...so I don't think that's a huge issue

Language pros and cons:
Chinese - China is prolly gonna become economic superpower and pretty much all major businesses are moving parts to China. However, don't think that learning Chinese will give you an upper hand in dealings with China since there are soooo many chinese ppl in america that can speak fluently and flawlessly in english and chinese and that pursue high degrees of education
Spanish - there are a lot less spanish speakers that pursue high level of education (not trying to be racist) so spanish may give you an upper hand in business...but then again the hispanic world is not growing as fast as China/India
French/Italian - these are just kickass languages that sound sexy as hell and make you look smart cuz you can speak it but i dont really see that big of an advantage since like everyone in france and italy learns english anyway
Russian/german - um i actually have no idea i think these languages would be useful in business since they arent that wide spoken here but once again german and russian kids learn english so you would be nothing special

So basically if you're looking to to gain an upperhand in business i really dont think learning a language would do that. Maybe it would facilitate business dealings with foreign countries but even that is kinda unlikely bcuz its incredibly hard for non-chinese ppl to be successful in china if they are not super successfull already in the U.S.

If you really want to learn a language learn it for fun and to impress ppl and to maybe gain respect in that foreign country but other than that i dont think it will suddenly open many doors for you (you can always get a translator too)

a2npersuas2n

ok if my above post doesnt sound very coherent it CUZ IM TIRED

VectorWega

If you want to stay in the US, then spanish is the most useful foreign language...although it's not really a foreign language anymore.