Which second language?

[grahame]

There are 2 languages in the States, English and Spanish. All the others are very rare. The entire Continent here is mostly spanish.

I did 2 years of Spanish in my early years and liked it.

Being so close to Mexico, it was somewhat of an advantage.

Wrong. There is German as well (in Pennsylvania, etc. The"Pennsylvania Dutch" are really better described as the Pennsylvania Deutsch), and the US congress only chose English as the official language of the USA by 7 votes (I think) over German. How different might 20th Century history have been if they'd chosen to speak German?

Being able to speak a little German helped greatly when I was cycling across the US, and got stuck in big storm in an Amish area. They were very helpful, especially when I'd used a bit of my german language "skills" to break the ice by asking to camp in theior barn overnight.

 

[feetabix]

I also wish to learn another language with Thai being top of the list.[/quote










Why brockers?......are you lonely?......

 

[Piperdave]

My twopenneth,

Two things to consider here...

1) what are you going to do with it, For travel.. N.Africa is mainly French, South America mainly Portugese, Southern Europe would be Romance languages French/Italian/Spanish. USA Spanish. India, Indonesia Portugese. Business....English, Air Traffic Control...English,. The common language for Festival goers in Europe is English, as this is what they generally learn at school, and like to practice.

2) Don't try to learn something you will not use regularly, you WILL forget it quickly

D

 

[hamster]

I'd disagree with the last post. South America is Portuguese for Brazil, everywhere else is Spanish.

I speak taxi-driver Mandarin, which can be quite helpful, but I can't read Chinese characters beyond food types (useful to know the difference between chicken, snake and grasshopper on a menu :? )

Learn a language of a country you enjoy visiting. That way you'll practice it!

And as somebody else said, who's have thought that learning Afghan languages (Pushtun, Waziri etc) would have been useful 10 years ago...

 

[shovelon]

There are 2 languages in the States, English and Spanish. All the others are very rare. The entire Continent here is mostly spanish.

I did 2 years of Spanish in my early years and liked it.

Being so close to Mexico, it was somewhat of an advantage.

Wrong. There is German as well (in Pennsylvania, etc. The"Pennsylvania Dutch" are really better described as the Pennsylvania Deutsch), and the US congress only chose English as the official language of the USA by 7 votes (I think) over German. How different might 20th Century history have been if they'd chosen to speak German?

Being able to speak a little German helped greatly when I was cycling across the US, and got stuck in big storm in an Amish area. They were very helpful, especially when I'd used a bit of my german language "skills" to break the ice by asking to camp in theior barn overnight.

German?????

We have a German exhange student living with us right now. We have spoken quite a bit about our languages. Hard to say German is the #2 language when you are surrounded by Latinos.

 

[Grannygrinder]

.

Welsh
But seriously, French or Spanish if its for social/holiday reasons.
Definately Chinese if you want to expand your job horizons

 

[matthew71]

I also wish to learn another language with Thai being top of the list.[/quote










Why brockers?......are you lonely?......

am sure "love you long time mr " is the same in any country

 

[cchris2lou]

I would say french or spanish .

 

[capitanfigueras]

Spanish or Italian would be a good choice if you want to learn the other language later on.

German if you want to expand your language skills to harder languages later on as it will provide the best background for understanding grammar/structures etc.

 

[1duck]

Italian is useless outside of italy really...but it does help to learn the other romance languages, that said you may as well learn latin for all the good italian will do you.

French is overrated, i was promised that half the world speaks french by the french teachers in school...they forgot to mention that it was the half you wouldn't want anything to do with (north africa,bits of canada and france)

Chinese is probably the best bet for best value in the short term, although their population is going to crash in a few years when the one baby policy really bites.

Spanish...again its one of those languages everyone promises you the whole world speaks, i would quite fancy it as a safe language because south america is booming. Its also very simple to learn compared to say german in grammar terms.

German this can be one of the easiest to learn for an english speaker who has studied no other languages but who has an excellent grasp of grammar, many of the words are the basis of english anyway so you can kindof wing it.

If you want a really easy language to learn, try dutch...it's basically english with an accent. I remember studying all night with grammar books at uni, only to see the students of dutch complaining about workloads then you look at what they were studying and you can't help but think they were a complete joke.

I'm voting for spanish anyway...just because really its not likely you will use a language for anything other than holidaying no matter how good your intentions.