<p>@londondad: i think the OP was asking what language he should take to fulfill the Harvard requirement</p>
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<p>Okay, thanks. I just wanted to make sure that you had no plans to apply to Harvard :-)</p>
<p>Don’t forget that French is spoken in parts of West Africa and Haiti (though you’ll hear more Creole there.)</p>
<p>I speak French and German and as an architect who frequently works with recent immigrants I really, really wish I spoke Spanish. (It’s not the common wisdom, but I thought German was easier, partly though because I learned it after I learned to speak French fluently through a gap year.) I’ve studied Italian and Chinese, but never achieved fluency. Italian was easy, Chinese impossible for my non-musical ear.</p>
<p>My son is learning Arabic on the theory that it’s a language spoken by relatively few Americans. He finds it difficult and also says that it’s also a problem that different versions of Arabic are spoken in each country and the “Media Arabic” you learn in school is never spoken in the streets.</p>
<p>Mandarin is definitely one of your best choices-- just make sure you’re ready to work hard and find a good teacher. Some more information here on our blog, contributed by a Middlebury College professor. </p>
<p>[Blog</a> | Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy | Language immersion program on college campuses](<a href=“http://mmla.middlebury.edu/blog]Blog”>http://mmla.middlebury.edu/blog)</p>
<p>Portuguese is very underrated. There are well over 200 million native speakers. It is the sixth most spoken native language. You can have better access to Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique etc. </p>
<p>French is very overrated. France isn’t a big player in Europe, that’s a thing of the past. Guys, if you want to be big in Europe you have to learn German. Germany is Europe’s motor, some of the biggest companies in the world are German (Siemens, BMW, Mercedes, Bosch etc.) and they are the most important nation in Europe.</p>
<p>The Crim this week said Somali was rated in the Cue Guide as “easy”. Lots of folks think that Spanish is easy, but, according to the freshman scuttlebutt–so says my S-- a whole lot of the “beginning Spanish” students actually know the language (some are native speakers) and are taking it for a gut and real beginners will get killed on the curve.</p>
<p>I think I may have already replied to this topic, I forget. </p>
<p>The “best” foreign language to learn depends on your goals…what you want out of the language. If you want to increase your hiring value, you’re not going to do it by learning Spanish since there are tons of Spanish speakers in America. If you want to be able to speak to as many people as possible in the globe, Spanish would be better for that. If you’re thinking about a grad school program in which a lot of secondary material is in French, go for French. </p>
<p>Also consider time investment. Arabic and Mandarin take an incredible amount of time to achieve fluency. Think 5, 6 years. Persian is in high demand for government jobs but takes far less time for an English speaker to learn than Arabic. Also consider that Persian programs are rare but Arabic programs aren’t, meaning your hiring value is increased.</p>
<p>Most importantly, consider the subjectives. Do you like the culture(s) of the regions in which the language is spoken? Could you see yourself studying abroad there, travelling there, working or living there? Do you like the way the language sounds? Do you have a good “gut” feeling about it? These things will help you stay motivated, which is very very very important in acquiring an additional language.</p>
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<p>how can people say french is overrated, most of central and western africa speak it and france of course, bloomberg ranked it the second best foreign language for business behind chinese and followed by arabic</p>
<p>It is a lot of work so do one that you will love–not just for the utility of it. My S is going Attic Greek. The class is fast but he loves it.</p>
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<p>Since you don’t want to take Spanish I would say Italian or German would be good… I have a friend who knows these two languages and says they are pretty easy but I don’t have any personal experience with these two languages so not very sure how easy they are but I am sure they are definitely better then Chinese.</p>
<p>Co</p>
<p>Please use old threads for information only, do not post and revive them. </p>
<p>Steck, if you click on the member name, you will be given an option to see the posting history, the OP has not been active since 2008.</p>