Which Language should one learn?

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Kirsten Winkler
So many Languages to learn...

So many Languages to learn...

This is a very popular question I get from people who know that I am a language teacher. Today I took a final decision for myself and I would also like to share my priority list of languages for the next decade with you.

The list is based on facts as well as on assumptions but I think it could be useful for language learners as well as language teachers. It should be seen as a priority list for business, I don’t say one should abandon classic languages as French, Italian or German but as we all have only a certain amount of time you have to take decisions, I guess. But basically any language you add to your skill set is a gain, no question about that.

First you might like to know what language I am learning next and why. It will be Portugese. And now you also know why I took my decision today. With Rio de Janeiro winning Olympic city of 2016 the two most important events in sports of the world will take place in Brasil in the next decade. It starts with the Football World Cup in 2014 and then goes on with the Summer Olympics in 2016.
Brasil is becoming more and more the counter weight to the United States in America and is one of the future global players along with Russia, India and China. So learning Portugese will open new possibilities of making business for me. Besides that I already have a couple of language students in Brasil and it is one of my goals in life to spend at least a couple of years over there.

And here is my priority list of languages to be learned and why.

1. English
English will remain the number one language. Not because of the United States which will have a hard time to keep their top position as leading power of the globe. There are a couple of reasons.
Number one: English is one of the official languages in India. With the rise of India as future world power, English remains important.
Number two: English is learned by millions of people around the globe right now. Especially in China, the other rising power of the future. So in the next decade more and more English speaking people will take leading positions in business, science and politics in these countries.
Number three: despite the problems the USA have today you can already see a move towards a new green and sustainable economy. The USA might loose ground on being the world police but they will surely become a leader in green energy and science.
Number four: maybe the most important one. The internet speaks English and software is coded in English. To change this it would again take decades and is simply not worth it.
Therefore you can say that English will be more and more detached from its native countries and become a true world language. The same what we have seen with other languages through history.

Where to learn English:
LanguagesOutThere.com – Learn English on the Street or everywhere on the internet
LanguageLab.com – Learn English on Second Life
Livemocha.com – Active English Course by Pearson
italki.com – SpeakENG Course by Pearson

2. Portuguese
As mentioned above Brasil is becoming an important player on the American continent. There are lots of opportunities for business down there.

Where to learn Portuguese:
Livemocha.com – over 200 hours of Brazilian Portuguese

3. Spanish
What? Not Chinese? Well, not yet. With Spanish you will basically cover the rest of South and Middle America. If you add your English skills you can travel from Alaska to Fireland and speak with everyone you meet in between. The rise of Brasil will also have a positive effect on countries like Argentina or Chile. And Spanish is quite close to Portugese (or the other way round) so it won’t take that much effort to add Spanish to your skill set.

Where to learn Spanish:
eduFire.com – various Spanish classes
Myngle.com – AVE course by Instituto Cervantes
Busuu.com – various Spanish lessons and Premium content
Babbel.com – Spanish Get Started Course
Lenguajero.com – Spanish English language exchange

4. Chinese
I think only children have a real chance here. Although I did not try it yet I can imagine it to be quite tricky to learn. Nevertheless I would suggest to learn at least a couple of phrases perfectly. As you know it is always seen with pleasure if a business partner shows interest in the foreign culture.

Where to learn Chinese:
Livemocha.com – over 200 hours of Mandarin Chinese
italki.com – Chinese language partners, tutors and teachers
eduFire.com – various Mandarin Chinese Classes
ChinesePod.com – Learn Chinese with Podcasts

As always, let me hear your thoughts and if you have other resources, add them in the comments.

Related Posts:

  1. Two Social Services for Urban Expats who want to learn a Language
  2. Babbel launches Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese – Offers Language Flex
  3. Languages Out There and Vivox turn Facebook into a global Language Exchange
  4. First Look At… – lenguajero.com
  5. In the Spotlight: Myngle.com – Learn any Language Online

About Kirsten Winkler

Education 2.0 Blogger at KirstenWinkler.com, Interviewer at EDUKWEST.com, Consultant at WinklerMedia.com.
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  • languagelearner
    I suggest you learn how to write the language's name first before starting to learn it - Portuguese, not 'portugese' [sic].
  • Thank you for the great comment :)
  • HilaryChapman
    I'm surprised nmot to see Esaperanto here. Esperanto is a relatively young language, of course. Have you learned it?
  • I agree Spanish it's one of the most important language to learn. I recommend spanishpod.com the best online service. Fun , short, and useful lessons.
  • Interesting topic. I guess everyone has their own wishlist. Mine is as below:

    Spanish
    French
    Kannada or Tamil [South Indian Languages]
  • Thanks :). French seems to be popular. Just for fun or business reasons? Isn't there a part of India where French is spoken?
  • Romance, Language of city of Fashion and a global power.

    I know Portuguese is spoken in Goa a lot by natives. French is popular in Pondicherry - a beautiful beach town in the South.
  • Jamal
    About Chinese, there is an outstanding service http://www.100e.com based in China and having a very impressive technical platform!
  • chinamike
    Yes, Jamal but they only accept credit cards for payment, it seems you must submit a credit card number to register, and they have no place on their homepage to contact anybody in the company with questions. Very, very user UNfriendly. I never understand why companies create such huge barriers to potential customers.
  • My preferred method of choosing a language has been that language's economic importance, based on the percentage of world GDP represented by that language. My full thoughts are here.

    That would put Russian (#9) next on my list, which in fact is the only language I started studying in earnest but never worked up to some level of proficiency. However, now that I'm living in Japan I think Korean (#12) might make more sense because I'd be more likely to use it.
  • Interesting approach for setting your priorities. I like the idea.
  • In essence, when you learn to speak Spanish online with Rocket Spanish turns a dull task into an enormous amount of fun. There is no question that you will learn faster when you enjoy the format the information is presented in.
  • chinamike
    Lists like this are always hard to argue with one way or the other. But given the relative importance of Asia to the world's economy and the relative lesser importance of South America (except as an exporter of commodities, absorber of greenhouse gases, and football powerhouse) I would place China, the soon to be leader of Asia, ahead of either Spanish or Portugese.

    I probably wouldn't have put two languages that together share a relatively less important continent in 2nd and 3rd places, especially as one can move between these two sister languages fairly quickly.

    I would put Spanish, with its huge speaker population, widespread global use, and relative ease of learning at number 2. I would drop Portugese below French at number 5. At number three I would put Chinese with the reminder that learning this language can take as long as learning two other languages. Learning Chinese looks like a good bet for the future as China is predicted to become the number 1 economy in 20 years and the number 2 economy any day now. It also gives one a strong cultural toehold in Asia.

    I agree, when you declare that no one will unseat English. Too many people and institutions have invested in this language in countries all over the world for this to change any time soon while native speaker countries lose their power to exclusively claim English as their own.

    In the end though, no generalizations can do justice to the complex decisions that go into learning another language. In fact, apart from English, which should probably be on everyone's list, the next language you learn should be guided by where you are, where you might end up, and why you want to learn a third language.
  • So you still have French on your list. Why? Cultural reasons?
  • sandrine83
    List of countries where French is an official language (+ population) :

    World 356,955,387
    1. Democratic Republic of the Congo Africa 66,514,506
    2. France Europe 65,057,790
    3. Canada North America 33,212,696
    4. Madagascar Africa 20,042,551
    5. Cameroon Africa 18,467,692
    6. Côte d'Ivoire Africa 18,373,060
    7. Burkina Faso Africa 15,264,735
    8. Niger Africa 13,272,679
    9. Senegal Africa 12,853,259
    10. Mali Africa 12,324,029
    11. Belgium Europe 10,403,951
    12. Guinea Africa 10,211,437
    13. Chad Africa 10,111,337
    14. Haiti North America 8,924,553
    15. Burundi Africa 8,691,005
    16. Benin Africa 8,294,941
    17. Switzerland Europe 7,581,520
    18. Togo Africa 5,858,673
    19. Central African Republic Africa 4,434,873
    20. Republic of the Congo Africa 3,903,318
    21. Gabon Africa 1,485,832
    22. Comoros Africa 731,775
    23. Equatorial Guinea Africa 616,459
    24. Djibouti Africa 506,221
    25. Luxembourg Europe 486,006
    26. Vanuatu Oceania 215,446
    27. Seychelles Africa 82,247
    28. Monaco Europe 32,796

    List of countries where French is commonly used but not official (+ population) :

    1. Morocco Africa 34,343,219
    2. Algeria Africa 33,769,669
    3. Tunisia Africa 10,383,577
    4. Rwanda Africa 10,186,063
    5. Lebanon Asia 4,088,941
    6. Mauritania Africa 3,364,940
    7. Mauritius Africa 1,274,189
    8. Andorra Europe 72,413

    French is also one of the official languages of the United Nations.

    Something tells me you are from the USA. If you are, start with Spanish, which is not a foreign language anymore in your country. Then, I would definitely learn Chinese and French as my third and fourth languages.



  • Really? Well, I am from Germany but I live in France for about 4 years now :). I see myself more as "world citizen".

    This list was more from an economic point of view. Of course, French is still a lingua franca but looking at the future economic powerhouses on the globe I would personally decide like I wrote in my post.

    And thank you for the list of French speaking countries.
  • sandrine83
    I like the idea of being a world citizen too! :-) I am French but I studied in the US and in Canada (where I now live). I also lived in Ecuador for 2 years and my husband (who is Ecuadorian) and I are planning on moving to China for at least a year or two... We really hope we'll be able to learn at least the basics! Wish us good luck!
  • sandrine83
    Oh, and I thought you were from the US because you said :

    "With Spanish you will basically cover the rest of South and Middle America. If you add your English skills you can travel from Alaska to Fireland and speak with everyone you meet in between."

    I had the feeling you were an American who wanted to explore the entire continent. Sorry, my mistake. :-)
    Plus there is a small mistake since in Quebec 8 million people speak French. They would be quite mad you said that. hehe!

  • Oui, oui. Les Quebecois :)

    Living in China must be really exciting. I envy you already. Are you planing to work there? Or just enjoying your stay.
  • I've been working really hard at Spanish for the past year. The other language that I'm most interested in is Arabic. My partner is interested in learning French next. Maybe we'll head to Morocco and Tunisia :)
  • I started with Arabic, Egytian Colloquial, last year. Really tough because it is so different from European languages. But very interesting.
  • Jamal
    You did well starting with Egyptian, in some months you can start talking, which is not possible with classical or even with other dialects from other countries such as darija, (morocco).
  • Marta
    Well, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you in this point. I consider learning fus'ha arabic much more apropriate than any kind of dialect, as you can be understood everywhere you go to, and you can understand as well written language and the news.
    After all, you can always learn dialects in a more informal way while being in contact with arabic native speakers. They all tend to be very kind and helpful, and appreciate the effort of learning their language!
  • I was thinking about learning spanish. But after reading your post and Rio being the 2016 olympic city and the soccer world cup 2014 in Brasil, I think I should change my mind and decide to start with portugese first. I've never been to Brasil, but was always interested in a trip down to Rio.
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