<p>I was just curious, what is the source of these statistics? For English speakers, I believe that German is the easiest language to learn. I took German in high school and spent a year in Germany as an Au Pair, and am currently taking French. In my experience, speaking German feels very natural once you understand how various sounds in the German language evolved to become different sounds in the English language. The grammar can be challenging, and sometimes very sloppy, but once you are exposed to the language it is easy to pick up.</p>
<p>No, it’s definitely not german, cause generally it is considered harder than spanish, portuegese, and italian. French might be harder for some english speakers than german cause of pronunciation but generally is not.</p>
<p>Well, my mom’s chinese and my dad’s german, so in my youth they taught me how to read and write fluently in those languages. I can understand basically anything in the language (I’ve visited both Germany and China, so I have firsthand experience) and can write quite decently too.</p>
<p>WOW!!!so jealous!!! i wish i could speak 3 languages fluently. i am taking spanish course next term as my teacher told me it would be so useful, much more than french. i have no idea whether she is right or not.
but in my opinion, the more languages you can speak, the more benefit you’ll usually get.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think people should be taking languages because there are a lot of job opportunities. Take languages because you love the language itself, or the culture and people. You won’t go far if you’re only taking a language because you’re compelled to. But I guess going far isn’t something most people want. They just want conversational ability, not the level of reading great literature.</p>
<p>I’m an economics major and everyone wonders why I’m taking Italian instead of German or Chinese or Spanish. I’m not into music, art history, fashion or cuisine. But I love Italian and Italian literature. I get fired up whenever I see the language. There’s much beauty in it and I think that’s compelling enough for me to explore the language for… the rest of my life I guess.</p>
<p>As someone who has learned a few languages (Chinese, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish), I can tell you that what you are saying about having interest is important, very important. But I can also tell you that you will spend a lot of time learning a language that you are very unlikely to remember for long, if you don’t choose something that will be useful. Take, for instance, German. I learned it in college and lived in Germany for awhile. I got to a pretty good level of proficiency – i.e., near fluency. (And by the way, most of the world has a much more stringent definition for what fluent means than we do; we tend to think if one can say a few phrases one can speak a language and this is absurd). But most Germans that one deals with in business speak good English, and Germany is not a powerhouse economy in comparison to others at least in terms of world markets and having a lot of foreigners in the mix. Did I waste the time I spent learning German? Sometimes I think I did. Or take Chinese, the language that I spent the most time learning, both living in Asia and learning in class (mostly in Asia). I never use it now, except maybe in Chinese restaurants and dry cleaners (seriously). In this case, it’s because I realized I didn’t want to spend my life in China; I don’t like the culture enough. The moral there may be along the lines of what you said about making sure you like something before you go for it. But really the ideal is both. The world is littered with women (and men) who learned a little Italian in college because of its beauty and then they never used it afterwards. That’s fine if you know what you are getting into.</p>
<p>Personally, as an American, I think by far the most useful language to learn apart from English is Spanish. It’s accessible and can be beautiful (depending on the accent in my opinion).</p>
<p>I read a psychology study a while ago that says the things you learn will always be at the back of your mind. Although you’ve forgotten most of your German and Chinese, all you need now is a bit of recollection and you’ll get the fluency back. I don’t know how far this is true though, but it seems to work whenever I read something academic that I’ve not taken in years.</p>
<p>I learned Latin. On the one hand, it was great for understanding all the latinate side of English – good for vocabulary memorization. On the other hand, it’s a dead language, so has very limited usefulness.</p>
<p>I consider Spanish, Russian, Arabic, French and obviously, English the most useful. (Basically ALL the Un official languages…)</p>
<p>I took Spanish in school and disliked it. But, I’m still at a reasonable level of understanding despite a year since I last took it. And I still loved watching telenovelas because they’re so hilarious. </p>
<p>Arabic is a given. The ME has such a huge role today in the world with oil king. And, also, the federal agencies are dying for Arabic-speaking people to work in the ME. It’s extremely valuable NOW.</p>
<p>Russian because there’s SO many regions in the world–and people in former USSR countries. It’s just really valuable. I know it’s a fairly difficult language and I might not ever truly know it. But, I think it is very important to know today.</p>
<p>English…must I explain?</p>
<p>I’m actually teaching myself French for fun because it’s spoken all over the world, in Europe, Africa…name it. And, it’s spoken in the City of Love…and just sounds so beautiful.</p>
<p>After weighing six factors (number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries where used, number of major fields using the language internationally, economic power of countries using the languages, and socio-literary prestige), Weber compiled the following list of the world’s ten most influential languages:
(number of points given in parentheses)</p>
<p>English (37)
French (23)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
Arabic (14)
Chinese (13)
German (12)
Japanese (10)
Portuguese (10)
Hindi/Urdu (9)</p>
<p>All depends on what you want to do for a Major. If its Buisness on a home level, they say spanish is most usefull. If its industrial design, they say german is most usefull [if its automotive design]. Japanese is usefull for Game development and animation major’s. Well i dunno if all of these are nessesarily true, but since i’m doing a combination of: Animation, Game development, and industrial design. German and japanese would be most usefull for myself. I already take german.
Just don’t go in over your head.</p>
<p>Don’t underestimate German. It’s really useful (especially in Europe). Plus, you can study a lot of original, unabridged texts and research papers. Philosophy and Egyptology spring to mind right now.</p>
<p>If you’re going into humanitarian aid, I would say Swahili because it can take you throughout Africa. Also, either Arabic or Russian or both. My parents taught me Arabic when I was younger. It has helped me so much, and I highly recommend learning it. And I would also look into French or Spanish. (I would recommend Spanish, because I know French and nothing useful has come from it, except that one time I went to Paris. Also I have a cousin who majored in Spanish and she is currently interning for a non-profit organization that helps fight poverty in Mexico)</p>