The Twelve Most Useful Second Languages for English Speakers

Which are the most useful second languages when you already speak the most useful language in almost any field of human endeavor? Personal impact is the key. Here are the twelve most useful languages according to three major criteria: demographics, personal impact and business opportunity.
Comments on article "The Twelve Most Useful Second Languages for English Speakers"
Name Views and CommentsDate
Dominic In my analysis, I gave considerable weight (40 percent) to Personal Impact. I think that we often look at raw statistics (like demographics) and material considerations (like Economics) but neglect to consider the personal rewards in language learning. I have learned several languages for my own idiosyncratic reasons, but I feel that learning French has been the most valuable for me in understanding the vocabulary of the English language, the cultural roots of Anglo-American society and a large number of historic and cultural references that previously went right over my head. It's not a matter of the population of France or its GNP, but what its language can mean for our own edification. 6/25/2009
James I do corporate language teaching for some companies in a large Midwestern industrial city. The last I checked with the agencies that send me to the companies, the languages most requested by employers in that area were:

1. German and Spanish, neck and neck
2. Japanese
3. Portuguese
4. Chinese

With the downturn in the economy, most of the requests are temporarily for Portuguese and Chinese.

French wasn't even on most companies' radar (Brazil is now a larger economic power than France), Arabic was learned mainly by people involved in social services and the justice system, and Russian was usually requested by American men who'd brought over Russian brides. The large corporations generally didn't ask for those languages.		 6/5/2009
Michelle I have always studied French as a hobby but never considered it to be useful in any way. I guess I was a little mistaken! 4/24/2009
Brian I agree on some aspects of this page; however, I disagree with the fact that Mandarin Chinese is not listed as the most useful language to learn. There is no doubt that the most-spoken language in the world of a powerful and important country should not be listed higher. 4/17/2009
Darrell This was very helpful, I am a navite-english speaker, and a francophone. I wanted to see which languages would be most helpful in communicatiing with others, and you criteria were exactly what i was looking for. Thank you. 1/18/2009
Mike How about a difficultly rating and time investment for the english language speaker. 12/28/2008
mark delaforce An excellent article! well researched, well done. The benefits of learning another language are many and one that many first language speakers of english never experience. This article helps decide which would be perhaps the best ones to focus on. I have the language bug, and was wondering which languages would be the most useful languages to learn. your article was exactly what i was looking for. 9/5/2008
gcn i don't agree with the criteria here at all. how can mandarin be placed so low when china is clearly the fastest growing economy in the world. And btw in Taiwan basically everyone under 50 speaks mandarin so it is the main language. 4/14/2008
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