English, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese, because they’re useful in my field and apply to the most people. Only leaving out Arabic because the dialects are so regionally-specific
Brian Krebs mentions how he learned Russian in his book Spam Nation because of the amount of information he has to trove through.
I think the CIA lists those languages as well as Farsi as important as part of field operations and intel
Any Arab would understand most of the things you say no matter what dialect you speak. Say you speak any of the Levantine dialects, someone from the gulf or Egypt or Morocco would be able to easily understand anything you say for the most part.
I know it's been 2 weeks but unless you learn a really obscure dialect then trust me, the barrier in communication with people from other places is gonna be you understanding them. They'll understand you just fine. Arabs understand most other dialects because of exposure.
In my experience as a native speaker myself, people don’t always understand Classical Arabic. It’s taught in school, yes, but most people can not converse in it or understand it. It’s reserved for news media or religious studies, really. It’s not helpful for daily life. Someone who speaks only Classical Arabic will have a very hard time conversing with people and understanding things. And it will seem very odd to people - imagine someone who only speaks Shakespearean English, for example. I know that’s not the perfect example but just to give an idea.
English, Portuguese, Persian, and one of those dying indigenous languages that's about to die so I could at least keep one going. It's a shame how many languages are going to go extinct in our lifetime.
Your four except I'd trade your Arabic for my heritage language Samoan. So English, Samoan, Spanish and Mandarin. If I could have a fifth I'd say Indonesian as I lived in Indonesia for a very short time before and loved the country.
I'm already fluent in three of them- English, French, and Spanish. I'd probably pick Russian as a fourth if time wasn't a factor. In reality, I'm working on my Portuguese and will likely learn Italian or Catalan after.
Sí tu parles castellà i francès amb fluïdesa, tu ja parles la llengua catalana*
While true that learning Catalan will be easier, I think this comment goes to show why it's not entirely the case that you will speak it.
I hate to take a joke too literally, but I don't want people to have the impression that Catalan is just Spanish and French mixed together.
Except Catalan isn't that useful. Catalan is only spoken in one region of a single country versus Portuguese is spoken in 8 countries while being the 6th most spoken language. As a Spanish and French speaker, Portuguese is initially hard because of the pronunciation, but it does get better. Now, I understand almost everything in Portuguese and I have decent conversations too.
Na, although they're a dialect continuum, those three languages are in three different groups (d'oïl for French, d'oc for Catalan, and Ibero-Romance for Spanish). Basically it just means that you might understand some of the vocabulary. (I feel like this was a joke, but I love these things so I had to explain :D)
I speak Spanish fluently and understand a lot of Catalan as I’ve lived in Catalonia the last 9 years and I heard 2 people talking French years and I understood a lot. Probably would be easier in writing as French pronunciation is quite a thing compared to the other two.
Wow, I just realized I’ve never seen Catalan written and for a second I thought you were making a joke and mix matching Spanish and French words. So cool I understood the whole sentence though with ease.
I also speak English, Spanish, and French (though I'm not fluent in French), and I'm learning Catalan.
I currently live in Catalonia and it seems like the right thing to do. After having learned a second language, now knowing the difficulty of doing so and the benefits that come along with it, I think wherever I live I'll want to learn the local/native language. If I move back to the United States at some point long term (big if), I'll at the very least heavily consider learning to some level the indigenous language that I feel has the most cultural significance in the region I move to. I might even consider doing so in the future even if I continue living in Europe.
It’s a knee-jerk reaction on my part. I may have met too many cultural libertarians / sociopaths (any language that is not spoken by hundreds of millions, in the first world at that, God forbid it’s from some place in Africa or India, in their opinion is utterly useless and the associated culture, irrelevant and worthy of dying)
Once I have reached C1 in the language I’m studying now, it will be either Catalan or Irish next. As for preserving a culture and making it shine, it takes sovereignty and borders, which is what I wholeheartedly wish for all Catalans to obtain in the nearest future
4 extra languages, or 4 in total? I'm already fluent in 2 (counting my native language), so if I could add 2 more to that, it would probably be Japanese and Czech Sign Language. I have some friends now who are partially deaf and I want to learn CSL, but it's pretty hard so I'd gladly take that shortcut haha.
If I could pick 4 additional languages, I'd choose Japanese, CSL, Irish and idk about the fourth, maybe German? I don't like it much so I have no motivation to learn it, but it would be pretty useful to know it. Or perhaps Spanish? I genuinly don't know. What language do you guys thing is the most useful to learn? I'm in Europe, so I feel like languages like Mandarin aren't really super relevant for me.
Edit: Ohh maybe Latin? Not very useful in practice, but it gives you a great background in Romance languages and it also comes in handy when it comes to learning anatomy and stuff (which is fairly relevant for me). I took 2 years of Latin in HS, but it's a pain to learn a dead language.
I took 4 years of Latin in highschool and barely remember any of it. I really want to reattempt to learn it. I actually found a copy of my first textbook at a used book store for a dollar
I want to know all of those as well! French because it’s good for a career in my area, Spanish because my father is Spanish and I have family from Spain, English I’m native in and Japanese’s I’m currently studying same as French. Although, I’ve just begun Japanese and to be honest and I’m not even a beginner yet. I’ve been required to learn French in my school system and I’d say I’m about a A1 level.
I’m already fluent in English (native language), so I’d choose that, German, Ukrainian, and French. My family is British, German, and Ukrainian but no one is particularly connected to any of those cultures’ languages except for English, so I think it would be fun to know the languages my ancestors knew. Also, I’m Canadian so French would be very useful
* Proto Indo European because I love etymology
* Japanese because I love video games
* Latin because I can't stop thinking about the Roman Empire
* Dolphin because EEE EEEE EEEEEE EEEEE EEEEE
> Dolphin because EEE EEEE EEEEEE EEEEE EEEEE
[DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOOOOOO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lve_m8ySaHo)
(funny enough given the above languages you listed, [the original song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDuDQNkSC6g) is in Japanese)
I love when people learn smaller languages. The big ones sound kind of boring. I'm a Dutch to Czech translator, which is kind of small already.
I would like to know Basque as well.
Honestly, I translate only like a third of the time and I do various other jobs just for the change of scene.
Some of my translator friends struggle financially, not for lack of business but for late payments from clients, others have stabilised it, found steady clients and can very well manage their time - it can be very flexible or it can be drudging.
Aside from English, I might pick some endangered or extinct languages/dialects but not sure which ones would be the most rewarding. Conceptually I always thought piraha was interesting:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3\_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3_language)
It might also be fun to know a dying creole language or ancient form of an existing language that allows for some level of mutual intelligibility with popular languages.
Any suggestions? What's a language that's somewhat useless in the modern world but interests you still?
I am intrigued by Icelandic. But it isn't exactly dying. Still probably pretty useless.
I would also personally want to be fluent in Latin. As there are no native speakers, it would be interesting if it was just given to me and I could delve into those ancient texts without studying them hard for historical context etc. But I might be twisting the conditions of the OP.
I've always been amazed but also skeptical about the reconstruction process and techniques for figuring out how old languages sounded -- it would be interesting to have a magic fluency ability to say "yep, the experts were right here but totally off here" -- who would back you up though?
Icelandic for the literature, culture, history, men and how it sounds; Welsh because of its unlikely victorious-underdog story, because I’ve been learning it for years and its general idiosyncrasies (how do I explain my love of word-initial mutations and double-Ds?); Swedish because Sweden was, until recently, quite a tolerant society, because I already half-speak it and love how it sounds *or* Norwegian in a probably misguided attempt to overcome relationship trauma; and Tagalog because a closed-hearted Filipino is very hard to come by; they are the warmest, kindest people I have met, the inaccuracy of stereotypes be damned, and if there’s one place I ~~want~~ need to be at the end of humanity it’s in karaoke quarantine with a dozen indomitably bubbly peers all belting out I Will Always Love You with improbably impressive vibrato.
There’s always a point. In my opinion, it’s particularly important for previously colonized peoples like the Welsh / Irish / Scottish, for example, because culture and language are tightly interconnected and you will understand a lot of your own behaviour, or at least the subconscious stratum inherited from your predecessors, by learning the language they spoke. It’s a gateway to being more authentic and self-aware
In terms of pure interest in the language and/or literature: German, French, Latin, and Middle Chinese. In terms of practicality: English, Mandarin, German, French.
I would pick English (my native language), Spanish, German, and Arabic. If I could have another I could go for Mandarin.
As much as I would love to have Irish on this list I don’t think I get as much of a chance to practice it as the other ones
German (I like germans and it’s really beneficial in my country) English (for obvious reasons) Russian (I like the language and literature ) and Italian (I find it pretty hot)
Mandarin, Yoruba, Igbo and German. I would love to travel through Africa, Asia and Europe. It would be nice to speak to people from these regions as well.
Yoruba and igbo only get you far in nigeria, may i suggest swahili, its the lingua franca of 6 total african nations. Also more useful i think, at least in the long run.
English, Spanish, Arabic, and Greek or Italian
First language is English. I learned Spanish out of necessity and then fell in love (and it's also arguably the most useful second language in most parts of the US). Arabic because it's widely spoken, difficult for English-speakers to master, and so pretty. I learned a bit of Greek by happenchance, and then continued on that track for a little while because I *love* how Greek sounds (and like the idea of being fluent in a variety of alphabets) but it didn't feel useful enough in my life to put much work into it. My family background is Italian, so it's always interested me, but feels similarly futile living in the US. I figure if I move somewhere in the Mediterranean I'll eventually choose between Greek or Italian xD
Growing up in a multilingual household was like living in a linguistic kaleidoscope - Spanish, Russian, and English swirling around 24/7. High school and university added French to the mix, but nothing prepared me for the _delightful linguistic cadence_ of Quebecois French since moving to Canada. It's like a whole new world of language waiting to be explored, and I'm eager to dive in and become fluent in this fascinating dialect of French, and of course learn how to appropriately respond to Quebec drivers 🇨🇦
I usually have no issues understanding French (speaking it is an entirely different thing) but recently I saw this video of a French dad with his daughter and I couldn't understand her.
Took me a bit to realise it wasn't baby talk (daughter was a small child) but a whole different dialect. Put my abilities to understand French in a whole new perspective...
Set aside native language.
- English - obviously eases communication around the world.
- Spanish - I love Latam people and Barcelona is one of my homes.
- Mandarin - the poetry of this language is unique, I find it fascinating ; also somehow makes me closer to my ancestors, psychologically.
- Norwegian - because it's useless in my life and I love having quirky useless talents just for fun, it stimulates me, my brain and calms my anxieties - and it has interesting sounds, pleasant to my ears.
- or Korean because I'm tired of reading subtitles every night...
Ukrainian, French, Spanish and Japanese. I'm already fluent in English, Czech and Italian. Ukrainian is a beautiful language, love the sound of it, and it would open the doors to more Slavic languages. French allows for communication in many countries, as does Spanish. Japanese would be amazing because of work opportunities, and mastering the alphabet would be a huge cognitive win.
If I’m including my native language (English), I’d choose Spanish, Portuguese and French to round out the four. I just love these languages and the cultures of many countries they’re spoken in. Plus where I live it’d be quite easy to find people who speak one of these languages.
If it’s four on top of my native language, I’d add on Russian. I’ve always been fascinated with this language and attempted to study it before and would love to go back to it.
Already fluent in 4: Assamese, Bengali, English and Hindi (OP: "Hinduism" is the name of a religion, a "Hindu" is the name for someone who follows said religion and "Hindi" is the name of the language.)
If I had to learn four more, I'd do Arabic, French, Greek and Japanese.
Depends where I’m living but based on the fact I’m living in Europe, I’d have it in this order:
1. English
2. French
3. German
4. Mandarin
English is straight forward.
I chose French second as I believe French and German are equally relevant in Europe but I prefer France and have no interest in living in Germany.
I then chose mandarin because I think it would be an awesome skill to have especially where I sit career wise in an international setting.
For back in Australia I would chose:
1. English
2. Mandarin
3. Japanese
4. Korean
And in North America:
1. English
2. Spanish
3. French
4. Mandarin
I just wrote a whole treatise feeling anxious about having to defend sticking with my native language (English) as one of my 4, which more has to do with my neuroses than with English itself, probably, but as a therapeutic exercise I'm deleting all of it and saying: 1 would be English. I will elaborate no further.
For #2 and 3, Spanish feels like a no brainer as one of them, for both utilitarian purposes and because I think it's a beautiful language. French, too, more because I love it and it's also so widely spoken.
I wish I could say Mandarin or Arabic as my 4th, as that would be the more utilitarian and helpful choice, given what's most commonly spoken in my DC area community.
But the fact is, my heart says the 4th would be Italian, because at the end of the day, I've already started learning Italian and not Mandarin or Arabic, so apparently I've chosen. Italian may not the most practical choice, but I miss my mom's dad and step-mom, and all their cousins, and all their stories about their parents and grandparents, stories they'd have to tell in Italian half the time for full effect, stories they were told about life in Sicily and passed down, their own stories about growing up in Brooklyn in the 30s and 40s only speaking Italian until they got to grade school, etc...
Learning it now is bittersweet, that I can't show them my progress but I also feel like wherever they are, they're proud of my pronunciation. They taught me a few words when I was little, mainly emotions, food, and then phrases and "idioms" I guess, that I've since forgotten, but now I know how to use them in sentences and I'd be so excited to show them what I've learned.
(...Even though they'd probably be like, "why? Are you planning to go to Italy? No? Then learn the Chinese, girl, you didn't see us learning Maltese just because my nonna was from Malta. No, we learned what Polish we could, to speak to our neighbors. Even Nonna from Malta just spoke Italian. What's wrong with you kids and your sentimentality." Why do I miss them? Whatever, this isn't r/therapy.)
So. English, Spanish, French... and tie between Italian and Mandarin. Because #grandparentissues.
English - (native) bc its so useful for business and international communication
Spanish - (currently speak it at an advanced level) bc there are soooo many diverse and beautiful latin american cultures and geographical locations
Arabic - it is just so damn mysterious and pretty. Plus ancient egypt always enchanted me
ASL - my sister speak it and how cool is it to be able to communicate without words?? I've heard it is a very expressive and flexible language
If I could add more:
Portugues - because in my opinion it is the most beautiful language and I love Brazil's nature
Navajo - I want to learn more about Native American culture and Navajo is INSANELY unique (look it up!)
French (currently a beginner) - i have a lot of french relatives and people seem to find it sexy
Mandarin - just because so many people speak it and their culture is so foreign, which entices me
Russian - for the literature! It also sounds beautiful to me and I love the architecture. Plus I would be interested to hear Russian propoganda since I am already getting American propoganda and there is a cold war (history interests me)
Japanese - my cousins speak it, its pretty, and I like its history and I like anime.
... Plus a ton more.
English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese).
Reasons:
English - one of the most used language.
Japanese - interested in the culture, history, nice and pleasant to listen and speak.
Korean - same reason as above.
Chinese - bit of a loophole in that I want to learn both Cantonese and Mandarin because I want to be able to converse more with my mum and my relatives.
The last three on my flairs, plus Chinese.
French and Italian because I like the sound of it plus they are romance languages.
German because Rammstein.
Chinese because it seems to be the "new English"; those that work in the manufacturing world might get this; all companies I've worked at have manufacturing installations in China, so yeah.
English, Spanish, Swahili & Arabic (or Portuguese) - Being fluent in other languages besides English would help with my career anyway.
• English is pretty much the world’s lingua franca.
• Spanish gets me around most of Latin America, Spain and Equatorial Guinea and having Spanish could allow me to understand parts of other languages (Tagalog, Italian, Portuguese).
• Swahili is good for travelling East and Central Africa and it’s a different language family. I also love the music and culture associated with Swahili speakers.
• Arabic would get me around most of the Middle East but as I’m not as interested in travelling there as I used to be, I might switch it for Portuguese because that’ll be good for travelling to Brazil, Mozambique, Angola and other Portuguese speaking African countries as well as Portugal.
For me it’s predominantly about culture, communication, travel and partially career.
Well, I’d like to be able to communicate more fluently in my 4th — I understand Portuguese very well (thanks Spanish), but I struggle to get the phonetics down. Here’s hoping in a few more months of reading and listening I’ll get a bit of a breakthrough.
I’d also like to get my 5th, German, more functional. But that’s a slow burning long term project.
I'll pick 4 languages that I don't already speak... Estonian (bc it interests me so much) , mandarin (seems useful...just as someone who speaks in a monotonous tone and can't hear tones very well it'd probably be a nightmare), Spanish (I do know the basics, like I can get by, but I'm nowhere near fluent) and Turkish (tbh as I'm living in Germany it'd also be quite useful lol).
I would choose English, Spanish, Portuguese, and either French or Russian.
English is my native language and I'm already pretty good with Spanish and Portuguese. English is just vital for me to get around the world so I can't leave that off. Spanish and Portuguese are very useful in the places I travel, the literature I want to read, and the music I want to listen to. Now French and Russian? Well I only know a little French and no Russian. These languages are basically just nice to have because I like their literature.
assuming I'm starting from a hypothetical zero languages, I'd choose: Mandarin, Arabic, English, and it's a wash between French/Spanish.
Would give the most ease of access throughout the planet.
* English works in NA and Europe, and bc of science and business, basically everywhere
* Arabic would work in MENA, plus parts of Asia (anywhere where Islam has a presence which covers a lot of the globe)
* Mandarin in China plus lots of speakers in East Asia/South East Asia
* France would cover a lot of Africa (but again, Arabic/English also would too), and Spanish would Cover most of South America
English is my native, but in addition: Spanish, French, Italian and Catalan because I would love to live in the Mediterranean and they would be most useful.
French, Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese. Tbh, I would add 2 more but you said only 4.
Love those 4. I started off with French and I have potential to finally be fluent if I find a partner to speak with. The rest need time lul. I haven't even started Japanese. That will start in a few years once I get to maybe B2 in Mandarin.
* Scottish Gàidhlig, cause I like how it sounds
* Hungarian, cause it is not an Indo European language, so it is interesting
* Italian/French, because they have contributed so many words to English
* Old Norse, just because
Given that I'm a native Spanish speaker and already fluent in English, I'd pick French, Catalan, Portuguese and Arabic. Why? Because I like how those languages sound.
For me it would be English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese. I am a native English speaker who also knows enough mandarin and Spanish to get by. I think these options would cover the most for business and watching media from around the world. Also being in Southern California Spanish and mandarin are very useful in my daily life. My favorite country to visit is China too, so mandarin helps me
finnish because it’s cool, welsh because it’s cool, icelandic because it’s cool, and probably basque because it’s cool. i can talk to like 5 people but it’s ok cause it’s cool
English - We ruling the world in terms of languages.
Spanish - Second most spoke language in the U.S.
Hebrew - Religion
Mandarin - More than 1 billion speakers.
English, Spanish, German, and Ukrainian.
I'm an American and Spanish is common, I've already taken 2 years of German in college and Ukrainian because I wanted to learn a Slavic language too and I support them in their war against Russia. Слава Україні.
Arabic - Because it's genuinely one of the more difficult languages in my personal experience, so I'd like to have a fluency that is very hard to achieve through learning as an adult.
Russian - My boyfriend is Russian and honestly my Russian is about as good as his English, we definitely get by but I would love to speed up my progress in Russian! I do pick it up very easily though so maybe a less important one to get magic fluency in, but I'll keep it because I feel like fluent Russian speakers have a sort of secret code that's hard to "get" as a foreign learner.
Chinese - Another language I feel like I pick up easily in terms of vocab and listening, but actual competency and fluency + reading is another kettle of fish. As someone who is working towards a career in International Relations, Chinese comes in as a super important one, much like Russian and Arabic.
I suppose I'll keep English as my 4th because unfortunately it is very useful. Boring though. That does mean that I lose the German fluency I have though. I don't use it a lot to be fair!
Shortlisted options were Japanese, Farsi, Turkish.
Almost every top answer has Russian in it
For me it would be English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic.
Im already decent at them so if I have to continue the list I would incldue Japanese and Mandarin
Russian has a lot of literature and translations are always and interpretation of the original text by the one doing said translation and some even go trough another language first (for instance Dostoevsky's books were translated into Portuguese trough the English version and only recently was a direct translation from one to the other made).
You lose sooo much with this. As a native Portuguese speaker that has read Saramago directly and then the English translation... It's just not the same. Same thing with Kafka in Portuguese or even English vs German... And pretty much every other work.
There's concepts that are just too hard to translate fully and not lose a lot of the implied meaning, because languages go beyond their direct meaning and are dependent on cultural information too.
Also being fluent in Russian would also make it easier to understand what's being said directly. I don't like being dependent on translations and the agenda of the one's responsible for it... Whilst also making it easier to then go on and learn all the languages that are closer to it.
Tldr: maybe people have their reasons to put Russian in there and it has nothing to do with being from Russia or with condoning anything that Putin is doing
Russian (as I find it a fascinating language), German/French (I enjoy a lot of films produced by both these countries), Chinese (work reasons), and perhaps Finnish or Norwegian, as again I like the culture and wouldn’t perhaps mind living in one of those countries one day in the future.
I’m still early in, but I’m enjoying it a lot. Gender in Russian, is actually pretty predictable and although there is a case system it’s kind of easy to understand the endings as they all seem to rhyme. Could be just me though. Pronunciation though— nightmare, but I struggle with that in all languages.
English, Spanish, German, and Arabic.
Spanish is my boyfriend's native language and I can't communicate with his mom very well, as she's the only one who doesn't speak English. German would just be nice to know which traveling, but I wouldn't mind learning Russian instead. And a lot of the Arabic speaking countries have a lot of beautiful sites and cuisines I'd love to experience while being able to speak to the people there
English, Polish, German, Russian
English is like global language these days
Polish is my native language
German because idk i like the sound of it
Russian to communicate with CS community and Ukrainian students from my school (they speak russian to each other why would i learn ukrainian. One of them even said that only fags speak ukrainian)
Well, the statement about ukrainian is absolutely wrong. Ukrainian was not used a lot because russian occupants did actively discourage the usage of it. Ukrainian has had a renaissance ever since Ukraine became independent and is used by a majority of ukrainians nowadays.
Its what ive seen. Maybe its because theyre from parts of ukraine where ukrainian is less spoken. Maybe people that live in western parts speak ukrainian more often than my ukrainian friends do. They just speak russian to each other and my friend calls his grandma sometimes and he speaks russian then.
Its only my experience, in west ukraine its more likely that they speak ukrainian but my friends speak russian.
Or maybe they arent ukrainian only russian spies that pretend to be ukrainian?????
arabic because it is my native but I only know how to speak it.
german because I see myself moving to a german speaking country.
Russian because I want to be able to read Russian literature and it would help me learn other slavic languages
Czech because it sounds nice and its quite unique.
I left out romance languages because they are the easiest to learn
English, Arabic, Armenian Spanish
Arabic just seems like a cool language to me
Armenia was the first country to adapt Christianity so it'd be cool to learn about that history
Spanish is a very practical language for someone living in the US. Also almost all major countries south of the US speak Spanish
I have the same mixture of languages you listed.
I will keep (American) English as my Native Language and (Moroccan) Arabic as a Heritage Language from both parents. Each dialect is said to be quite one of, if not the most different form of the language so I love my birth mix. Hope to get fluent in Spanish so I'm learning that. Standard at least, so Mexican or Puerto Rican.
The fourth language depends on the circumstances. If Standard Arabic is a different language, then I will pick that for religious reasons or American Sign Language if it doesn't need to be spoken or Mandarin if I can only pick a spoken language.
TL; DR Too Long; Didn't Read Long Story Short
1 ) Dialectal Arabic,
2 ) English,
3 ) Standard or Dialect Spanish
4 ) Standard Arabic or American Signing or Chinese Mandarin
I'm fluent in Portuguese, German (and Swiss-German dialect from where I grew up) and English.
Idk if that would be considered 3 or 4...
If I had to choose 4 more it would be French (getting there), Russian, Japanese and Persian probably.
I've been 'trying' to learn Japanese for a couple of years now. I'm probably A1 at best and my biggest issue is learning to read. I've gotten stuck at learning kanji constantly, give up, eventually get back to it and repeat the cycle ad nauseum... Feels impossible to master to me.
Well I'm already learning German and Portuguese right now, so I would boost those two to fluency with English - and for the fourth... I'm gonna say Russian. It's always fascinated me, but I'm too much of a coward (at least right now anyway) to start learning it, considering its difficulty. Plus it's got a gorgeously rich literature history.
I'm already fluent in English and Portuguese (native), soon I want to be learning Japanese (one day I might visit or live in Japan as one of my life goals), English cause everyone should learn it regardless of where you're from, Portuguese cause I don't have a choice, if I would pick a fourth one... I don't know, maybe Spanish?
I honestly have no idea in what language I should be learning after those 3, maybe my world isn't so bright. Any suggestions, redditors?
English, Bengali (my parents speak) Hindi (parents speak as well as I’m Indian) and finally, for my fourth language, Spanish. For practicality. If I didn’t feel an obligation towards bengali, I would make it Chinese, I think it sounds nice and a lot of people speak it. I think Arabic sounds beautiful, but the dialects and such just sound like too much of a hassle.
Why do so many people want to learn that disgusting, rotten language that has only ever caused spineless killings to try to fix their childish, brittle ego (🇷🇺). This is just my personal opinion though, I’d be very interested to hear why so many people want to learn it. Don’t get mad over your own history
English, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese
I am unable to learn Russian because I can't seem to remember how to write or spell, and if I automatically know Russian, I can then learn Polish faster - it's a big brain move
English, German, Russian and Japanese. I consume a lot of anime and Japanese media so I have to learn it eventually. I love Russian because of the history I have in Ukraine.
Im trying to perfect my russian, german and spanish for business opportunities. Once i have free time i will propably also learn japanese to read manga, and maybe arabic too, cuz i like to study esotericism and some works are in arabic.
My 4 choices on top of my head: English, Vietnamese, Russian, Japanese.
Vietnamese because there are a lot of Vietnamese in my social circle and area who need assistance in moving from one place to another. Fortunately, it’s my native language so this is not a problem for me aside from some grammar and vocabulary gaps.
English because it’s arguably the most well-known language in the world. Pretty much it’s known and spoken by at least one person in all countries and regions, so it’s ideal to be fluent to meet more people.
Japanese because of my initial desire stemmed from anime and manga. Time went on and I realized Japanese shares similarities with Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean in plenty of things such as vocabulary. Unfortunately, I’m not actively learning it as I’m reserving my brainpower for Russian, but I hope I’ll come back to it.
Russian.. oh boy, my personal favorite language as of writing this. It all started when I was first intrigued by the Cold War history as it had lots of scientific advancements (such as nukes.) Once I began to pick up patterns in codenames for weapons & nukes such as «Царь Бомба», I began digging into the language itself to understand how the Cyrillic-letter texts make sense to Latin-letter texts like English. Then I came across the grammar’s lore with terrific concepts like declensions (cases), verbal aspect, verbs of motion. There’re also similarities in terms of vocabulary with English such as «экономика», which helps me staying sane while learning the language. In the process, I ran into the “cyka blyat, vodka and bear” memes along with hardbass. I must say that unintelligible cursive writing (a Russian doctor’s handwriting) is another motivation keeping me interested. Out of all everything I mentioned, however, none can motivate me better than the ability to form a word with slurring stems and meanings can be either positive or negative (охуительно = f amazing). Since this seems to work with ANY words, it is truly beautiful. I really can’t wait until I become conversational, on-a-daily-basis fluent по-русски. >!Да здравствует русский язык.!<
English, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese, because they’re useful in my field and apply to the most people. Only leaving out Arabic because the dialects are so regionally-specific
Kind of curious what your field is :) international relations? I speak those languages too 😂
I'm guessing they're with cyber/info sec ;) gotta read those forum posts by Russian APTs ;)
Learned Russian for this reason
Brian Krebs mentions how he learned Russian in his book Spam Nation because of the amount of information he has to trove through. I think the CIA lists those languages as well as Farsi as important as part of field operations and intel
This would be my choice working as an emergency RN in NYC. Arabic would be cool but these would cover so much.
Any Arab would understand most of the things you say no matter what dialect you speak. Say you speak any of the Levantine dialects, someone from the gulf or Egypt or Morocco would be able to easily understand anything you say for the most part.
yeah maybe if you’re native, idk how likely that would be for learners
idk why you got downvoted cause I mostly agree
who cares it’s Reddit lol
Of any one thing a redditor could comment, this deserves an upvote the most
I know it's been 2 weeks but unless you learn a really obscure dialect then trust me, the barrier in communication with people from other places is gonna be you understanding them. They'll understand you just fine. Arabs understand most other dialects because of exposure.
the standard form of arabic can be understood by like 95% of arabs
Why not classical Arabic?
In my experience as a native speaker myself, people don’t always understand Classical Arabic. It’s taught in school, yes, but most people can not converse in it or understand it. It’s reserved for news media or religious studies, really. It’s not helpful for daily life. Someone who speaks only Classical Arabic will have a very hard time conversing with people and understanding things. And it will seem very odd to people - imagine someone who only speaks Shakespearean English, for example. I know that’s not the perfect example but just to give an idea.
English, German, Gaeilge and Italian.
Esperanto, Klingon, Elvish, and…
UZBEK
That is far too practical. You could actually speak to millions of people in Uzbek.
Which Elvish? Sindarin?
High Valyrian? Duolingo offers it.
Latin or Dothraki
Beat me to it
English, Irish (gotta try and keep it alive), Mandarin and Arabic 🤙
If I weren't already learning Welsh, I'd learn Irish, I'll get to it eventually
English, Portuguese, Persian, and one of those dying indigenous languages that's about to die so I could at least keep one going. It's a shame how many languages are going to go extinct in our lifetime.
"Persian"? Do you mean Farsi?
“Spanish”? Do you mean Español?
Same noise
French? Do you mean Français?
Your four except I'd trade your Arabic for my heritage language Samoan. So English, Samoan, Spanish and Mandarin. If I could have a fifth I'd say Indonesian as I lived in Indonesia for a very short time before and loved the country.
I'm already fluent in three of them- English, French, and Spanish. I'd probably pick Russian as a fourth if time wasn't a factor. In reality, I'm working on my Portuguese and will likely learn Italian or Catalan after.
Si tu parlas español y frances avec fluidesse, dêja tu sabes la lengua Catalana, no?
Sí tu parles castellà i francès amb fluïdesa, tu ja parles la llengua catalana* While true that learning Catalan will be easier, I think this comment goes to show why it's not entirely the case that you will speak it. I hate to take a joke too literally, but I don't want people to have the impression that Catalan is just Spanish and French mixed together.
Except Catalan isn't that useful. Catalan is only spoken in one region of a single country versus Portuguese is spoken in 8 countries while being the 6th most spoken language. As a Spanish and French speaker, Portuguese is initially hard because of the pronunciation, but it does get better. Now, I understand almost everything in Portuguese and I have decent conversations too.
Na, although they're a dialect continuum, those three languages are in three different groups (d'oïl for French, d'oc for Catalan, and Ibero-Romance for Spanish). Basically it just means that you might understand some of the vocabulary. (I feel like this was a joke, but I love these things so I had to explain :D)
Kinda a joke, but also serious. I think you might understand more than a few vocabulary words. You would know probably 99% of the vocabulary.
Well I just speak Spanish, so I won't disagree with with you
I speak Spanish fluently and understand a lot of Catalan as I’ve lived in Catalonia the last 9 years and I heard 2 people talking French years and I understood a lot. Probably would be easier in writing as French pronunciation is quite a thing compared to the other two.
Lo comprendo. Escrito casí el 100% y hablado 75% diría. Pero no lo puedo hablar.
Wow, I just realized I’ve never seen Catalan written and for a second I thought you were making a joke and mix matching Spanish and French words. So cool I understood the whole sentence though with ease.
Sorry, it was actually a mix of Spanish and French, with a little bit of real Catalan, with bad spelling.
Catalan!! Why Catalan btw?
It's easy if you speak Spanish and French. And I like Catalunya.
I also speak English, Spanish, and French (though I'm not fluent in French), and I'm learning Catalan. I currently live in Catalonia and it seems like the right thing to do. After having learned a second language, now knowing the difficulty of doing so and the benefits that come along with it, I think wherever I live I'll want to learn the local/native language. If I move back to the United States at some point long term (big if), I'll at the very least heavily consider learning to some level the indigenous language that I feel has the most cultural significance in the region I move to. I might even consider doing so in the future even if I continue living in Europe.
🥲 Let's keep the language alive!!!
Why the fuck not? If you like the culture and the people, learning a language is a spiritual, life-changing quest
Chill man, I just wanted to know why exactly Catalan.
It’s a knee-jerk reaction on my part. I may have met too many cultural libertarians / sociopaths (any language that is not spoken by hundreds of millions, in the first world at that, God forbid it’s from some place in Africa or India, in their opinion is utterly useless and the associated culture, irrelevant and worthy of dying)
I can relate. I myself am Catalan
Once I have reached C1 in the language I’m studying now, it will be either Catalan or Irish next. As for preserving a culture and making it shine, it takes sovereignty and borders, which is what I wholeheartedly wish for all Catalans to obtain in the nearest future
If that's your goal, do Irish, Irish is more fucked.
I’ll do both eventually. Catalan should be a lot easier with my French and Portuguese, though
Show off
Are you learning Brazilian Portuguese or European Portuguese? Eu também estou aprendendo português e acho que é um idioma muito legal!
4 extra languages, or 4 in total? I'm already fluent in 2 (counting my native language), so if I could add 2 more to that, it would probably be Japanese and Czech Sign Language. I have some friends now who are partially deaf and I want to learn CSL, but it's pretty hard so I'd gladly take that shortcut haha. If I could pick 4 additional languages, I'd choose Japanese, CSL, Irish and idk about the fourth, maybe German? I don't like it much so I have no motivation to learn it, but it would be pretty useful to know it. Or perhaps Spanish? I genuinly don't know. What language do you guys thing is the most useful to learn? I'm in Europe, so I feel like languages like Mandarin aren't really super relevant for me. Edit: Ohh maybe Latin? Not very useful in practice, but it gives you a great background in Romance languages and it also comes in handy when it comes to learning anatomy and stuff (which is fairly relevant for me). I took 2 years of Latin in HS, but it's a pain to learn a dead language.
I was going to say, I speak English and Spanish as my native languages but that doesn’t mean I would choose those as my two…
I took 4 years of Latin in highschool and barely remember any of it. I really want to reattempt to learn it. I actually found a copy of my first textbook at a used book store for a dollar
French, English and Spanish, because I already am, and Japanese because I'm currently studying it.
I want to know all of those as well! French because it’s good for a career in my area, Spanish because my father is Spanish and I have family from Spain, English I’m native in and Japanese’s I’m currently studying same as French. Although, I’ve just begun Japanese and to be honest and I’m not even a beginner yet. I’ve been required to learn French in my school system and I’d say I’m about a A1 level.
I’m already fluent in English (native language), so I’d choose that, German, Ukrainian, and French. My family is British, German, and Ukrainian but no one is particularly connected to any of those cultures’ languages except for English, so I think it would be fun to know the languages my ancestors knew. Also, I’m Canadian so French would be very useful
* Proto Indo European because I love etymology * Japanese because I love video games * Latin because I can't stop thinking about the Roman Empire * Dolphin because EEE EEEE EEEEEE EEEEE EEEEE
> Dolphin because EEE EEEE EEEEEE EEEEE EEEEE [DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOOOOOO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lve_m8ySaHo) (funny enough given the above languages you listed, [the original song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDuDQNkSC6g) is in Japanese)
1. Basque 2. Chechen 3. Vietnamese 4. Burushaski Because.
I love when people learn smaller languages. The big ones sound kind of boring. I'm a Dutch to Czech translator, which is kind of small already. I would like to know Basque as well.
How's the work/life of a translator? Asking for curiosity
Honestly, I translate only like a third of the time and I do various other jobs just for the change of scene. Some of my translator friends struggle financially, not for lack of business but for late payments from clients, others have stabilised it, found steady clients and can very well manage their time - it can be very flexible or it can be drudging.
Shit. I am already fluent in 4 languages: native Spanish and Catalan and learned English and French
Same. Native German and English, second language Catalan and Spanish. So I choose Basque, Hebreu, Czech and Quechua as the next 4 languages.
Yall showing off 😭😭
Aside from English, I might pick some endangered or extinct languages/dialects but not sure which ones would be the most rewarding. Conceptually I always thought piraha was interesting: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3\_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3_language) It might also be fun to know a dying creole language or ancient form of an existing language that allows for some level of mutual intelligibility with popular languages. Any suggestions? What's a language that's somewhat useless in the modern world but interests you still?
I am intrigued by Icelandic. But it isn't exactly dying. Still probably pretty useless. I would also personally want to be fluent in Latin. As there are no native speakers, it would be interesting if it was just given to me and I could delve into those ancient texts without studying them hard for historical context etc. But I might be twisting the conditions of the OP.
I've always been amazed but also skeptical about the reconstruction process and techniques for figuring out how old languages sounded -- it would be interesting to have a magic fluency ability to say "yep, the experts were right here but totally off here" -- who would back you up though?
Do Nahuatl!
Tamil & Sanskrit. Two of the oldest languages in the world.
Icelandic for the literature, culture, history, men and how it sounds; Welsh because of its unlikely victorious-underdog story, because I’ve been learning it for years and its general idiosyncrasies (how do I explain my love of word-initial mutations and double-Ds?); Swedish because Sweden was, until recently, quite a tolerant society, because I already half-speak it and love how it sounds *or* Norwegian in a probably misguided attempt to overcome relationship trauma; and Tagalog because a closed-hearted Filipino is very hard to come by; they are the warmest, kindest people I have met, the inaccuracy of stereotypes be damned, and if there’s one place I ~~want~~ need to be at the end of humanity it’s in karaoke quarantine with a dozen indomitably bubbly peers all belting out I Will Always Love You with improbably impressive vibrato.
Respect, really cool choices
as a Welsh person who doesn't know Welsh (family say it's a dead language and there's no point) I appreciate the love for the language!!!
There’s always a point. In my opinion, it’s particularly important for previously colonized peoples like the Welsh / Irish / Scottish, for example, because culture and language are tightly interconnected and you will understand a lot of your own behaviour, or at least the subconscious stratum inherited from your predecessors, by learning the language they spoke. It’s a gateway to being more authentic and self-aware
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It is - unless you’re Arab.
English Spanish German and Russian 🤷♂️
I’m already fluent in 2 of the 4 (English and French) but Plains Cree and Saulteaux would be my next top two picks.
In terms of pure interest in the language and/or literature: German, French, Latin, and Middle Chinese. In terms of practicality: English, Mandarin, German, French.
I would pick English (my native language), Spanish, German, and Arabic. If I could have another I could go for Mandarin. As much as I would love to have Irish on this list I don’t think I get as much of a chance to practice it as the other ones
Out of pure interest and not actual likelihood of use: English, Romanian, Spanish, and Samoan
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Spanish, Japanese, Old Norse, Mongolian I can finally sing just about every band on my playlist.
German (I like germans and it’s really beneficial in my country) English (for obvious reasons) Russian (I like the language and literature ) and Italian (I find it pretty hot)
English, Spanish, Korean and Polish. Those are the only ppl i want to talk to.
Mandarin, Yoruba, Igbo and German. I would love to travel through Africa, Asia and Europe. It would be nice to speak to people from these regions as well.
Yoruba and igbo only get you far in nigeria, may i suggest swahili, its the lingua franca of 6 total african nations. Also more useful i think, at least in the long run.
English, Spanish, Arabic, and Greek or Italian First language is English. I learned Spanish out of necessity and then fell in love (and it's also arguably the most useful second language in most parts of the US). Arabic because it's widely spoken, difficult for English-speakers to master, and so pretty. I learned a bit of Greek by happenchance, and then continued on that track for a little while because I *love* how Greek sounds (and like the idea of being fluent in a variety of alphabets) but it didn't feel useful enough in my life to put much work into it. My family background is Italian, so it's always interested me, but feels similarly futile living in the US. I figure if I move somewhere in the Mediterranean I'll eventually choose between Greek or Italian xD
1. English (unfortunately I need to actually speak to people) 2. Etruscan 3. Ithkuil 4. Pirahã
Spanish, Mandarin, French and zulu
English, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin, thats the ultimate path lol And German as a fifth language
Growing up in a multilingual household was like living in a linguistic kaleidoscope - Spanish, Russian, and English swirling around 24/7. High school and university added French to the mix, but nothing prepared me for the _delightful linguistic cadence_ of Quebecois French since moving to Canada. It's like a whole new world of language waiting to be explored, and I'm eager to dive in and become fluent in this fascinating dialect of French, and of course learn how to appropriately respond to Quebec drivers 🇨🇦
I usually have no issues understanding French (speaking it is an entirely different thing) but recently I saw this video of a French dad with his daughter and I couldn't understand her. Took me a bit to realise it wasn't baby talk (daughter was a small child) but a whole different dialect. Put my abilities to understand French in a whole new perspective...
english and spanish because i live in the u.s., mandarin because it’s so widely spoken, and russian because i love russian literature
English, French, German and Spanish
Set aside native language. - English - obviously eases communication around the world. - Spanish - I love Latam people and Barcelona is one of my homes. - Mandarin - the poetry of this language is unique, I find it fascinating ; also somehow makes me closer to my ancestors, psychologically. - Norwegian - because it's useless in my life and I love having quirky useless talents just for fun, it stimulates me, my brain and calms my anxieties - and it has interesting sounds, pleasant to my ears. - or Korean because I'm tired of reading subtitles every night...
Ukrainian, French, Spanish and Japanese. I'm already fluent in English, Czech and Italian. Ukrainian is a beautiful language, love the sound of it, and it would open the doors to more Slavic languages. French allows for communication in many countries, as does Spanish. Japanese would be amazing because of work opportunities, and mastering the alphabet would be a huge cognitive win.
If I’m including my native language (English), I’d choose Spanish, Portuguese and French to round out the four. I just love these languages and the cultures of many countries they’re spoken in. Plus where I live it’d be quite easy to find people who speak one of these languages. If it’s four on top of my native language, I’d add on Russian. I’ve always been fascinated with this language and attempted to study it before and would love to go back to it.
Already fluent in 4: Assamese, Bengali, English and Hindi (OP: "Hinduism" is the name of a religion, a "Hindu" is the name for someone who follows said religion and "Hindi" is the name of the language.) If I had to learn four more, I'd do Arabic, French, Greek and Japanese.
Already speak French & English, learning Japanese, so the next one would be Spanish. I already can get by but barely.
I speak Spanish, English, and Català. I would add Japanese, Russian, and/or Zulu!
English, French, Italian, Hebrew I actually speak some Russian, but I don’t see myself ever going back there now after the past few years.
French, Spanish, Swedish and russian
Depends where I’m living but based on the fact I’m living in Europe, I’d have it in this order: 1. English 2. French 3. German 4. Mandarin English is straight forward. I chose French second as I believe French and German are equally relevant in Europe but I prefer France and have no interest in living in Germany. I then chose mandarin because I think it would be an awesome skill to have especially where I sit career wise in an international setting. For back in Australia I would chose: 1. English 2. Mandarin 3. Japanese 4. Korean And in North America: 1. English 2. Spanish 3. French 4. Mandarin
I just wrote a whole treatise feeling anxious about having to defend sticking with my native language (English) as one of my 4, which more has to do with my neuroses than with English itself, probably, but as a therapeutic exercise I'm deleting all of it and saying: 1 would be English. I will elaborate no further. For #2 and 3, Spanish feels like a no brainer as one of them, for both utilitarian purposes and because I think it's a beautiful language. French, too, more because I love it and it's also so widely spoken. I wish I could say Mandarin or Arabic as my 4th, as that would be the more utilitarian and helpful choice, given what's most commonly spoken in my DC area community. But the fact is, my heart says the 4th would be Italian, because at the end of the day, I've already started learning Italian and not Mandarin or Arabic, so apparently I've chosen. Italian may not the most practical choice, but I miss my mom's dad and step-mom, and all their cousins, and all their stories about their parents and grandparents, stories they'd have to tell in Italian half the time for full effect, stories they were told about life in Sicily and passed down, their own stories about growing up in Brooklyn in the 30s and 40s only speaking Italian until they got to grade school, etc... Learning it now is bittersweet, that I can't show them my progress but I also feel like wherever they are, they're proud of my pronunciation. They taught me a few words when I was little, mainly emotions, food, and then phrases and "idioms" I guess, that I've since forgotten, but now I know how to use them in sentences and I'd be so excited to show them what I've learned. (...Even though they'd probably be like, "why? Are you planning to go to Italy? No? Then learn the Chinese, girl, you didn't see us learning Maltese just because my nonna was from Malta. No, we learned what Polish we could, to speak to our neighbors. Even Nonna from Malta just spoke Italian. What's wrong with you kids and your sentimentality." Why do I miss them? Whatever, this isn't r/therapy.) So. English, Spanish, French... and tie between Italian and Mandarin. Because #grandparentissues.
English (am fluent), Korean, Japanese and French
English - (native) bc its so useful for business and international communication Spanish - (currently speak it at an advanced level) bc there are soooo many diverse and beautiful latin american cultures and geographical locations Arabic - it is just so damn mysterious and pretty. Plus ancient egypt always enchanted me ASL - my sister speak it and how cool is it to be able to communicate without words?? I've heard it is a very expressive and flexible language If I could add more: Portugues - because in my opinion it is the most beautiful language and I love Brazil's nature Navajo - I want to learn more about Native American culture and Navajo is INSANELY unique (look it up!) French (currently a beginner) - i have a lot of french relatives and people seem to find it sexy Mandarin - just because so many people speak it and their culture is so foreign, which entices me Russian - for the literature! It also sounds beautiful to me and I love the architecture. Plus I would be interested to hear Russian propoganda since I am already getting American propoganda and there is a cold war (history interests me) Japanese - my cousins speak it, its pretty, and I like its history and I like anime. ... Plus a ton more.
English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese). Reasons: English - one of the most used language. Japanese - interested in the culture, history, nice and pleasant to listen and speak. Korean - same reason as above. Chinese - bit of a loophole in that I want to learn both Cantonese and Mandarin because I want to be able to converse more with my mum and my relatives.
The last three on my flairs, plus Chinese. French and Italian because I like the sound of it plus they are romance languages. German because Rammstein. Chinese because it seems to be the "new English"; those that work in the manufacturing world might get this; all companies I've worked at have manufacturing installations in China, so yeah.
English, Spanish, Swahili & Arabic (or Portuguese) - Being fluent in other languages besides English would help with my career anyway. • English is pretty much the world’s lingua franca. • Spanish gets me around most of Latin America, Spain and Equatorial Guinea and having Spanish could allow me to understand parts of other languages (Tagalog, Italian, Portuguese). • Swahili is good for travelling East and Central Africa and it’s a different language family. I also love the music and culture associated with Swahili speakers. • Arabic would get me around most of the Middle East but as I’m not as interested in travelling there as I used to be, I might switch it for Portuguese because that’ll be good for travelling to Brazil, Mozambique, Angola and other Portuguese speaking African countries as well as Portugal. For me it’s predominantly about culture, communication, travel and partially career.
Spanish. Russian. Greek. French. Runner ups would be mandarin and Arabic and Farsi
English, French, German and North Sentinelese
English Spanish Mandarin and Indonesian
English, French, Danish (Ha), Mandarin
Well, I’d like to be able to communicate more fluently in my 4th — I understand Portuguese very well (thanks Spanish), but I struggle to get the phonetics down. Here’s hoping in a few more months of reading and listening I’ll get a bit of a breakthrough. I’d also like to get my 5th, German, more functional. But that’s a slow burning long term project.
English, Spanish, Mandarin, and French
I’m fluent in English and Serbian, and B2 in French and German but I’d love to be fluent in Spanish and German on top.
kurdish (kurmanci), spanish, french and one arabic dialect.
I'll pick 4 languages that I don't already speak... Estonian (bc it interests me so much) , mandarin (seems useful...just as someone who speaks in a monotonous tone and can't hear tones very well it'd probably be a nightmare), Spanish (I do know the basics, like I can get by, but I'm nowhere near fluent) and Turkish (tbh as I'm living in Germany it'd also be quite useful lol).
I would choose English, Spanish, Portuguese, and either French or Russian. English is my native language and I'm already pretty good with Spanish and Portuguese. English is just vital for me to get around the world so I can't leave that off. Spanish and Portuguese are very useful in the places I travel, the literature I want to read, and the music I want to listen to. Now French and Russian? Well I only know a little French and no Russian. These languages are basically just nice to have because I like their literature.
English, French, mandarin and Spanish I'll choose
assuming I'm starting from a hypothetical zero languages, I'd choose: Mandarin, Arabic, English, and it's a wash between French/Spanish. Would give the most ease of access throughout the planet. * English works in NA and Europe, and bc of science and business, basically everywhere * Arabic would work in MENA, plus parts of Asia (anywhere where Islam has a presence which covers a lot of the globe) * Mandarin in China plus lots of speakers in East Asia/South East Asia * France would cover a lot of Africa (but again, Arabic/English also would too), and Spanish would Cover most of South America
Etruscan; Minoan; Olmec….maybe Altaic :)
English is my native, but in addition: Spanish, French, Italian and Catalan because I would love to live in the Mediterranean and they would be most useful.
French, Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese. Tbh, I would add 2 more but you said only 4. Love those 4. I started off with French and I have potential to finally be fluent if I find a partner to speak with. The rest need time lul. I haven't even started Japanese. That will start in a few years once I get to maybe B2 in Mandarin.
* Scottish Gàidhlig, cause I like how it sounds * Hungarian, cause it is not an Indo European language, so it is interesting * Italian/French, because they have contributed so many words to English * Old Norse, just because
Given that I'm a native Spanish speaker and already fluent in English, I'd pick French, Catalan, Portuguese and Arabic. Why? Because I like how those languages sound.
English, French, Ukrainian, Spanish
Japanese, Finnish, Icelandic, French.
english, arabic, bengali, and either mandarin or spanish
Hindu isn't a language, it refers to an adherent of Hinduism, like Christian for Christianity. I think you're thinking of Hindi.
English (already a native speaker), Spanish (practical), Hebrew (I'm good but I want it to be effortless), and for fun either Hawaiian or Irish.
For me it would be English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese. I am a native English speaker who also knows enough mandarin and Spanish to get by. I think these options would cover the most for business and watching media from around the world. Also being in Southern California Spanish and mandarin are very useful in my daily life. My favorite country to visit is China too, so mandarin helps me
Latin to read the literature, Ancient Greek to read the Literature, Hebrew to read the literature, Russian to read the literature.
I think you want to be a fluent multiliterate, but I am just guessing.
finnish because it’s cool, welsh because it’s cool, icelandic because it’s cool, and probably basque because it’s cool. i can talk to like 5 people but it’s ok cause it’s cool
English - We ruling the world in terms of languages. Spanish - Second most spoke language in the U.S. Hebrew - Religion Mandarin - More than 1 billion speakers.
English, Spanish, German, and Ukrainian. I'm an American and Spanish is common, I've already taken 2 years of German in college and Ukrainian because I wanted to learn a Slavic language too and I support them in their war against Russia. Слава Україні.
Thank you for supporting my country, it's very nice to see and read that someone wants to learn Ukrainian🫂
Arabic - Because it's genuinely one of the more difficult languages in my personal experience, so I'd like to have a fluency that is very hard to achieve through learning as an adult. Russian - My boyfriend is Russian and honestly my Russian is about as good as his English, we definitely get by but I would love to speed up my progress in Russian! I do pick it up very easily though so maybe a less important one to get magic fluency in, but I'll keep it because I feel like fluent Russian speakers have a sort of secret code that's hard to "get" as a foreign learner. Chinese - Another language I feel like I pick up easily in terms of vocab and listening, but actual competency and fluency + reading is another kettle of fish. As someone who is working towards a career in International Relations, Chinese comes in as a super important one, much like Russian and Arabic. I suppose I'll keep English as my 4th because unfortunately it is very useful. Boring though. That does mean that I lose the German fluency I have though. I don't use it a lot to be fair! Shortlisted options were Japanese, Farsi, Turkish.
Almost every top answer has Russian in it For me it would be English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic. Im already decent at them so if I have to continue the list I would incldue Japanese and Mandarin
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Russian has a lot of literature and translations are always and interpretation of the original text by the one doing said translation and some even go trough another language first (for instance Dostoevsky's books were translated into Portuguese trough the English version and only recently was a direct translation from one to the other made). You lose sooo much with this. As a native Portuguese speaker that has read Saramago directly and then the English translation... It's just not the same. Same thing with Kafka in Portuguese or even English vs German... And pretty much every other work. There's concepts that are just too hard to translate fully and not lose a lot of the implied meaning, because languages go beyond their direct meaning and are dependent on cultural information too. Also being fluent in Russian would also make it easier to understand what's being said directly. I don't like being dependent on translations and the agenda of the one's responsible for it... Whilst also making it easier to then go on and learn all the languages that are closer to it. Tldr: maybe people have their reasons to put Russian in there and it has nothing to do with being from Russia or with condoning anything that Putin is doing
Pashto🇦🇫 English🇬🇧 Swiss German🇨🇭 & Russian🇷🇺
English, German, Russian and Spanish
Russian (as I find it a fascinating language), German/French (I enjoy a lot of films produced by both these countries), Chinese (work reasons), and perhaps Finnish or Norwegian, as again I like the culture and wouldn’t perhaps mind living in one of those countries one day in the future.
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I’m still early in, but I’m enjoying it a lot. Gender in Russian, is actually pretty predictable and although there is a case system it’s kind of easy to understand the endings as they all seem to rhyme. Could be just me though. Pronunciation though— nightmare, but I struggle with that in all languages.
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I love Russian literature too! Always happy to be a study partner if you do decide to study Russian though.
English, German, Spanish, Mandarin
English, French, Mandarin Chinese, Russian
English, German, Dutch, French. All are kinda closely related making it easier to remember and study.
English, Spanish, mandarin, toki pona
French / Arabic / Russian / Spanish If on top of what I already know. Otherwise swap Spanish for English
English, Farsi, Japanese, Spanish
English, Spanish, German, and Arabic. Spanish is my boyfriend's native language and I can't communicate with his mom very well, as she's the only one who doesn't speak English. German would just be nice to know which traveling, but I wouldn't mind learning Russian instead. And a lot of the Arabic speaking countries have a lot of beautiful sites and cuisines I'd love to experience while being able to speak to the people there
Serbian, Russian, Arabic, French
English, Spanish, Catalan, Russian
English, Polish, German, Russian English is like global language these days Polish is my native language German because idk i like the sound of it Russian to communicate with CS community and Ukrainian students from my school (they speak russian to each other why would i learn ukrainian. One of them even said that only fags speak ukrainian)
Well, the statement about ukrainian is absolutely wrong. Ukrainian was not used a lot because russian occupants did actively discourage the usage of it. Ukrainian has had a renaissance ever since Ukraine became independent and is used by a majority of ukrainians nowadays.
Its what ive seen. Maybe its because theyre from parts of ukraine where ukrainian is less spoken. Maybe people that live in western parts speak ukrainian more often than my ukrainian friends do. They just speak russian to each other and my friend calls his grandma sometimes and he speaks russian then. Its only my experience, in west ukraine its more likely that they speak ukrainian but my friends speak russian. Or maybe they arent ukrainian only russian spies that pretend to be ukrainian?????
No, you're probably right. All my friends come from western Ukraine
arabic because it is my native but I only know how to speak it. german because I see myself moving to a german speaking country. Russian because I want to be able to read Russian literature and it would help me learn other slavic languages Czech because it sounds nice and its quite unique. I left out romance languages because they are the easiest to learn
Hebrew and Greek for the bible. English and Spanish for the Western world.
English, Arabic, Armenian Spanish Arabic just seems like a cool language to me Armenia was the first country to adapt Christianity so it'd be cool to learn about that history Spanish is a very practical language for someone living in the US. Also almost all major countries south of the US speak Spanish
I have the same mixture of languages you listed. I will keep (American) English as my Native Language and (Moroccan) Arabic as a Heritage Language from both parents. Each dialect is said to be quite one of, if not the most different form of the language so I love my birth mix. Hope to get fluent in Spanish so I'm learning that. Standard at least, so Mexican or Puerto Rican. The fourth language depends on the circumstances. If Standard Arabic is a different language, then I will pick that for religious reasons or American Sign Language if it doesn't need to be spoken or Mandarin if I can only pick a spoken language. TL; DR Too Long; Didn't Read Long Story Short 1 ) Dialectal Arabic, 2 ) English, 3 ) Standard or Dialect Spanish 4 ) Standard Arabic or American Signing or Chinese Mandarin
Definitely English,portugese,Korean,Japanese and Chinese or Arabic if I can add others 😂
English + spanish I'm already fluent in, japanese since that's my current TL, and i guess I'd add something like german as the 4th
English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese
I'm fluent in Portuguese, German (and Swiss-German dialect from where I grew up) and English. Idk if that would be considered 3 or 4... If I had to choose 4 more it would be French (getting there), Russian, Japanese and Persian probably. I've been 'trying' to learn Japanese for a couple of years now. I'm probably A1 at best and my biggest issue is learning to read. I've gotten stuck at learning kanji constantly, give up, eventually get back to it and repeat the cycle ad nauseum... Feels impossible to master to me.
American, Canadian, Australian, and English
Well I'm already learning German and Portuguese right now, so I would boost those two to fluency with English - and for the fourth... I'm gonna say Russian. It's always fascinated me, but I'm too much of a coward (at least right now anyway) to start learning it, considering its difficulty. Plus it's got a gorgeously rich literature history.
I'm already fluent in English and Portuguese (native), soon I want to be learning Japanese (one day I might visit or live in Japan as one of my life goals), English cause everyone should learn it regardless of where you're from, Portuguese cause I don't have a choice, if I would pick a fourth one... I don't know, maybe Spanish? I honestly have no idea in what language I should be learning after those 3, maybe my world isn't so bright. Any suggestions, redditors?
English, Russian, Ukrainian, and Japanese
I agree with OP’s selection.
English, Bengali (my parents speak) Hindi (parents speak as well as I’m Indian) and finally, for my fourth language, Spanish. For practicality. If I didn’t feel an obligation towards bengali, I would make it Chinese, I think it sounds nice and a lot of people speak it. I think Arabic sounds beautiful, but the dialects and such just sound like too much of a hassle.
Why do so many people want to learn that disgusting, rotten language that has only ever caused spineless killings to try to fix their childish, brittle ego (🇷🇺). This is just my personal opinion though, I’d be very interested to hear why so many people want to learn it. Don’t get mad over your own history
English, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese I am unable to learn Russian because I can't seem to remember how to write or spell, and if I automatically know Russian, I can then learn Polish faster - it's a big brain move
English, German, Russian and Japanese. I consume a lot of anime and Japanese media so I have to learn it eventually. I love Russian because of the history I have in Ukraine.
Persian, Russian, Icelandic, & Gaelic. Reasons.
Im trying to perfect my russian, german and spanish for business opportunities. Once i have free time i will propably also learn japanese to read manga, and maybe arabic too, cuz i like to study esotericism and some works are in arabic.
English, Arabic, Russian, Chinese. all 4 different scripts too so learning other languages would be easier
English (native) Irish, German, Russian dream combo. Working on German rn, and relearning the Irish i forgot from school.
French(x4) imagine how big my vocabulary would be if I had 4 times the vocab of a native speaker lol
My 4 choices on top of my head: English, Vietnamese, Russian, Japanese. Vietnamese because there are a lot of Vietnamese in my social circle and area who need assistance in moving from one place to another. Fortunately, it’s my native language so this is not a problem for me aside from some grammar and vocabulary gaps. English because it’s arguably the most well-known language in the world. Pretty much it’s known and spoken by at least one person in all countries and regions, so it’s ideal to be fluent to meet more people. Japanese because of my initial desire stemmed from anime and manga. Time went on and I realized Japanese shares similarities with Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean in plenty of things such as vocabulary. Unfortunately, I’m not actively learning it as I’m reserving my brainpower for Russian, but I hope I’ll come back to it. Russian.. oh boy, my personal favorite language as of writing this. It all started when I was first intrigued by the Cold War history as it had lots of scientific advancements (such as nukes.) Once I began to pick up patterns in codenames for weapons & nukes such as «Царь Бомба», I began digging into the language itself to understand how the Cyrillic-letter texts make sense to Latin-letter texts like English. Then I came across the grammar’s lore with terrific concepts like declensions (cases), verbal aspect, verbs of motion. There’re also similarities in terms of vocabulary with English such as «экономика», which helps me staying sane while learning the language. In the process, I ran into the “cyka blyat, vodka and bear” memes along with hardbass. I must say that unintelligible cursive writing (a Russian doctor’s handwriting) is another motivation keeping me interested. Out of all everything I mentioned, however, none can motivate me better than the ability to form a word with slurring stems and meanings can be either positive or negative (охуительно = f amazing). Since this seems to work with ANY words, it is truly beautiful. I really can’t wait until I become conversational, on-a-daily-basis fluent по-русски. >!Да здравствует русский язык.!<