Post: #1

A little thought exercise for all the travelers.

If you could instantly be fully fluent in 5 languages (i.e. speak like a native) which ones would you choose?

Since we're all communicating in English, that one is included, so list your other 4 and explain why and how you'd use it (i.e. game, business, culture, exclusivity, etc.)

This thread idea came to mind when reviewing this wiki page about how many countries each language covers, interesting read even if it is inaccurate (i.e. I'm sure you could get by on Russian in a lot more countries than they have listed).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mos...countries)

And of course, another factor to consider is the total number of speakers you could connect with:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lan...f_speakers


For myself, I know for sure my first 3 would be English, French and Spanish, then most likely Russian, but I'm undecided on the last one.

Post: #2

Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese.

Russian+Spanish for women.

Japanese+Chinese for business potential.

Post: #3

In order of priority:

1) English
2) Mandarin
3) Spanish
4) Japanese
5) Russian

Post: #4

I think English plus four is more than most of us can realistically achieve, but if you insist:

Japanese
Chinese
German
Hungarian

Post: #5

(03-18-2014 01:41 AM)RawGod Wrote:  I think English plus four is more than most of us can realistically achieve, but if you insist:

Well I think there's already a bunch of guys on this board who speak 4-5 languages pretty well, if not entirely fluently.

Also, this is for fun too, that's why I said "instantly" in my first post, kind of like the Matrix:

Post: #6

Although things like Arabic and Mandarin are useful, I have zero desire to speak them.

In no particular order: Italian, Japanese, Russian, German.

Post: #7

^ Interesting, I don't see Italian or German come up much, why those ones?

Post: #8

1) English for obvious reasons
2) German because I love the way it sounds, interested in German culture and German women. Also its useful in my industry. (I already know German pretty well).
3) Russian because I am keen to travel a lot further east than I usually do.
4) Polish because I am about to move there and it will just make life easier.
5) Arabic because I am very anti-islamic and it would help me study the culture a lot more.

Post: #9

Chinese and Russian are my top two language priorities right now. With Chinese, you get access to the largest country in the world by population, a country where very few people speak english, but a country where you have a big exotic factor as a westerner.

After visiting the Dominican Republic and Colombia, my desire to learn Spanish has waned a bit. I'm still interested in hitting Mexico and Argentina though, but overall Latin America is taking a third position after Europe and Asia.

I really do have a big thing for asian girls and blonde girls, plus I enjoyed visiting those countries.

After Chinese, Japanese and maybe Thai would be the other two big ones for East Asia. Korea is getting a lot off negative buzz in terms of how it is to be a foreigner there dating women.

Fluency in Russian gives you access to half of the women of northern Europe, and they don't speak much English. Pretty much a no brainer there.

As for Europe, after Russian, maybe french, maybe German. French people speak less English, but overall I'm more attracted to paler skinned women, so perhaps German. I would potentially be interested in learning another slavic language after Russian, but a larger and larger percentage of these people are speaking English. Serbo-Croatian, Polish, and Czech are somewhat interesting to me.

Most important group 1. Chinese and Russian

Secondary importance 2. Japanese, Thai (or German).

Post: #10

I'd have to go with:

1) English
2) Spanish
3) Russian
4) French
5) Mandarin

Post: #11

1) English
2) Spanish
3) Japanese
4) Russian
5) Cantonese

Post: #12

1) English (I feel extremely fortunate to have grown up speaking English)
2) Mandarin
3) Spanish
4) Russian
5) Arabic

...6) French
...7) Portuguese

That's it. Everything else is superfluous. These are the languages of tomorrow. In that order, roughly.

In that order because anyone in the world can roughly get by with JUST English.

Mandarin opens up a wealth of possibilities for business - there are hundreds of millions of small-time businesspeople in Chinese who speak no English. Speak Mandarin and you can make serious $$ by living in China. (Overseas you can get by with English but knowing Mandarin really helps in business. Plus there are loads of naive Chinese girls who love a Westerner who speaks their language.)

Spanish is great for gaming. There are some beautiful, wonderful girls in Colombia, Chile, the DR, and elsewhere. Latin American economies are growing and there are tens of millions of Spanish-speaking people in the United States.

Russian is useful because it's the common language of a dozen or more countries, whose people (especially older people) don't speak English that well - Russian is really useful if traveling in that region.

Arabic is useful because it's spoken in lots of countries.

French because it's one of the languages of diplomacy and international development work.

Portuguese - Brazil's economy is growing.

... I don't include Hindi. Because a lot of Hindi speakers feel comfortable speaking English and just expect that they'll speak English with a foreigner. Same with German. Same with Japanese - it doesn't really help unless you're actually living in Japan, as Japanese businesspeople who go overseas will be the ones who know English. No sane Japanese businessperson expects anyone to know his language anymore.

Post: #13

1) English - mandatory
2) Mandarin - most spoken language in East Asia
3) Japanese - because Japanese girls are my favorite kind of girls. But most of them are inaccessible without Japanese fluency.
4) Spanish - for trip to South America
5) French - for exotic factor.

Post: #14

English
Mandarin
Spanish
Arabic
tie: Russian/Vietnamese/Japanese

Post: #15

English, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and Russian

Croatian too

Post: #16

English
+Russian
+Romanian (not practical but I think it sounds cool and the girls are hot)
+Spanish
+tie: French/Portuguese

I never appreciated being a native English speaker until I started teaching here in Russia and saw the huge number of people of all ages spending their hard-earned coin and time on learning English...merely to get a better job or communicate when traveling for holiday.

Post: #17

English
Spanish
Mandarin
Arabic
French

Post: #18

English
Spanish
French
German
Japanese

Post: #19

English
Spanish
German
Russian
Japanese

Post: #20

English
Spanish
Mandarim
German
Russian

Post: #21

(03-18-2014 09:13 AM)the_ox Wrote:  English
Spanish
Mandarim
German
Russian

This

Post: #22

(03-18-2014 04:01 AM)spalex Wrote:  1) English for obvious reasons
2) German because I love the way it sounds, interested in German culture and German women. Also its useful in my industry. (I already know German pretty well).
3) Russian because I am keen to travel a lot further east than I usually do.
4) Polish because I am about to move there and it will just make life easier.
5) Arabic because I am very anti-islamic and it would help me study the culture a lot more.

spalex: not all Islamic countries speak Arabic. Persians or Iranians speak farsi and it is not arabic. But they are muslims
I am not into religions of any kind but it s always helpful understanding their views no matter how colliding they are to our western views.
Just labeling something as Anti puts you in the opposite side of life and things, I d say instead you are pro learning and studying.

Too bad you are leaving Norway. Hope you enjoy Poland a lot more.

Post: #23

Russian, Spanish, French... Portuguese

Post: #24

Russian- huge country of around 160 million spread over several time zones and also could help you in Ukraine/Baltics. So huge potential for business/travel

Chinese (Mandarin)- Over 1 billion speakers so huge business opportunities with but also an interesting country with a rich history, also the girls like white guys (ive been told)

Spanish - Loads of countries speak this language with a lot of countries I wouldn't mind visiting i.e. South America, also might be needed in the US soon if you want to get on with the locals haha.

Portugese- Mainly for Brazil as its going to be a major economic power in the future and also a great tourist hotspot

Post: #25

"As many languages you know, as many times you are a human being"

1) English - The whole world speaks it
2) Mandarin - The whole world will speak it one day, largest economy in the making.
3) French(Quebecois) - The most beautiful language EVER, plus well needed in Canada if you do business here.
4) Spanish(Latin America and half of the US)
5) Russian - Gorgeous women, China's big brother