What Language Should I Take?

yawn
Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:35:10 +0000

Lol, deja vu.

I actually made a chart about which languages would be the most practical:

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…the first four columns have to do with these languages’ Wikipedias. In other words, their intellectual depth, as well as their prominence in terms of global Internet usage. The other three columns are self-explanatory.

In all columns, the higher up, the better.

The calculations at the end average their overall scores. The highest are the best, and the lowest are the worst. Keep in mind that this is skewed by non-economic/financial factors (i.e., intellectuality). If you’re concerned solely with GDP (and thus global prominence), just stick to the two relevant columns.

Of course, Japanese and Chinese are much harder for a native English speaker than the European languages. And if you’re more interested in Africa, your current language of French would make more sense, and, of course, go with Spanish if you’re more interested in South America.

As for your particular case of the medical field, Latin also might be useful. I didn’t include it in the chart, because it doesn’t really apply to the criteria, but it’s still a possibility that you might want to consider.