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I studied French and am glad I did. Though Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic are touted as the most "useful for business in emerging markets," French is still spoken on every continent and an official language of nearly 30 countries. I found it very useful (along with German) while working in Europe.
French is a U.N. Language as well as an official language of some of the U.S.'s biggest trading partners: Canada, France, Switzerland. It is also spoken in emerging markets in Africa and the Caribbean. Many Arabic speakers are also fluent in French (e.g. Moroccans, Algerians).
I find French a very useful language for international business. It has the added benefit of being spoken at, IMO, some of the most beautiful/coolest vacation destinations in the world: the French Riviera, the Swiss/French Alps, the Brussels Square, Quebec City, Caribbean beaches, Moroccan souks.... So there is plenty of incentive to study your language skills.
If you want to work in counseling, education, and other people activities, spanish is the way to go, and try not to do a complete academic spanish since its not the spanish that most Hispanics actually speak.
But if you are in the sciences, then you may need to choose a language where much of the rest of the world uses. For example, if you are in certain branches of physics, you may find that your best language for you is German.
I studied both Spanish and French in high school. Everyone told me how useful Spanish would be, but French actually turned out to be more useful for me even though there are plenty of Hispanic people in my area. Spanish is helpful if you are planning to go into healthcare. There are Haitians in my area as well and once I got used to their accent I was able to communicate with them.
I took German and French back in HS. That didn't do me any good at all living here in Denver. I still kick myself for not diligently learning Spanish. Huge mistake! What's really aggravating is that my son doesn't take it seriously at all, but he's on his 4th year of Spanish and doesn't remember hardly anything. However, he loves "anime" (Japanese comics I guess) and he tells me what things are in Japanese all the time! When he hears it on TV he tells me what they are talking about, but he can't speak it.
I worked with a Russian lady who could speak her native language, plus she was fluent in Spanish and French. But she was always messing up her English. It made working with her fun and interesting. Her emails were hilarious and she didn't even know it.
To complete my bachelors I need 2 years of a language.
I initially was hesitant, but have become intrigued about learning a new language as time has passed by.
The safe play is Spanish. It's a universal language in the sense that it isn't broken into regional dialects like an arabic language.
It is useful in the US, and with the changing demos it will become even more valuable.
Also swimming in the back of my head is arabic, just because I see the value in a government type of position, and its a language not many are fluent in.
if you just need 2 years of a language to graduate, you can just choose the language of your choice.
if you're going to want to use the 2 years of learning a language, it will depend on what you want to do. if you're going to stay in the US, spanish is a language is spoken by many people. if you're going to be stay outside the US, an asian language like chinese or arabic (like you listed).
I've been trying to learn Spanish for years. It's the second most commonly spoken language in the world. As such, there are native speakers who get by without learning another language. That is, there are a lot of people who only speak Spanish. Almost everyone else speaks English and their native tongue.
In terms of being able to communicate with the most amount of people possible, Spanish & English are the languages to know. Though I think we should all be learning Mandarin Chinese since we're going to end up working for them.
-Spanish because it's like a second language in the US.
-French because I want to visit, and if I were rich I'd want to have a place there, but I need to know the language first.
-Russian so I can understand the Russian gymnasts (one of my favorite sports) interviews, and updates of them on Russian TV/internet/magazines etc.
-Romanian (same reason as Russian); plus it's just a beautiful language to me.
-Mandarin (same reason as Russian/Romanian); plus knowing this language would make me feel extra genius
-Japanese because Japan is cool.
Add to the fact that being fluent in multiple languages will grant international career opportunities. Hellz yea!
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