become fluent in a language other than english

what language to study?

and why?

it would be easy to say spanish, since it is becoming increasingly prominent across the us, but to be honest, most of the spanish speakers i run in to through work, are trying to learn english, and want to practice in english as much as possible.

and it would be easy to say french, since i did quite well in it while in school, and actually had opportunities to use it in quebec (though i wasnt kidding anyone, as it is different up there.) however, it’s been a good 15 years or more since i’ve used it. i can read it fairly well, and even understand it, but i’d sound like an idiot if i tried to respond in it.

but in thinking about the global economy and even just in thinking about people, wouldn’t it really, honestly, make more sense to learn one of the chinese languages? or an indian language? or an african language?

it just seems like wanting to learn italian because ‘i like the way it sounds’ is a little shallow.

it seems any languages i’ve ever studied (the big three when i was in school, spanish, french, and latin) i never had too many occasions to use, so they are lost to me. these days, if i were learning a new language, i’d be online constantly, trying to perfect it, but alas, no internet when i was in school.

there’s a good argument to be made that my english could be improved, as well…