English is obviously an extremely useful language globally, but since you’re already reading this, I’ll assume that you have already managed to master it. So if you want to learn a language, what are the best ones to learn? I’ll assume that you are looking for more than just a phrasebook level knowledge, so here are my suggestions.
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Approximately 300 million people around the world speak Spanish as their native language. If you learn it, you can communicate with most of Latin America, as well as Spain itself. By no means all Spanish speakers know English – I’ve met many who don’t – so it is a good choice, especially if you want to travel or work in one of these countries.
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With the political significance of Arab-speaking countries, Arabic could be a very useful choice for certain careers. If you have the ability to tackle a completely different alphabet, then learning Arabic could take you a long way.
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China is opening up as a market to the West, so a knowledge of the language could be invaluable for businesses. Like Arabic, it would not be an easy language to learn, but could be a very valuable asset to your career.
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I’ve heard of people who are convinced that Brazilians speak Spanish … erm, no. They speak Portuguese. There are some quite substantial differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese, but if you can get to grips with those, you will be able to communicate with approximately 170 million people (no, not all at the same time …). Combine that with Spanish, and you can communicate with all of Latin America and the Iberian peninsula.
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Sadly, French seems to be losing its importance as far as education in UK schools is concerned. Globally, however, it is still extremely important. It is an official language in 29 countries, and is commonly used, although not official, in several others.
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Another emerging market – just think of how many Russian billionaires you hear about! Cyrillic is not a difficult alphabet to learn, so why not try some Russian classes?
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When I was at school in the 80s, the language choices were German or French. I had assumed that German had lost its importance as a world language, but far from it. German is the native language of approximately 95 million people, and is one of the three official languages of the European Commission.
Languages are extremely important – how else can we communicate with each other? It is by no means true that everyone speaks English – some find it difficult to learn – so we need to learn other tongues. Such knowledge is important for business and diplomatic reasons, but also for travel, practicality (if you live abroad) and the intellectual challenge. I can also assure you that it is very gratifying as your knowledge and ability to communicate improves!
Top Photo Credit: Colleen.