<p>Yes. Chinese is a difficult language to learn. And it is a given that a native English speaker would have a much easier time learning another European language.</p>
<p>The original poster did not ask which language is easier to learn. He asked "In light of our country's current international relations, which language would be best (most useful) in the future (20+ years) in business and political terms?</p>
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The original poster did not ask which language is easier to learn. He asked "In light of our country's current international relations, which language would be best (most useful) in the future (20+ years) in business and political terms?
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<p>Yes, but most people asking that question (it comes up reguarly) ask it naively, without understanding the true difficulties involved. Presumably this is someone who has never studied such a difficult language. So assuming naivete is reasonable, since our ultimate goal is to actually help the person, not just to answer the specific question.</p>
<p>This is especially true since it was asked on the Parents forum, which has people who <em>aren't</em> naive about such things. (I'm very proficient in Japanese, passable in Chinese, and have studied Latin at the college level.)</p>
<p>People have pretty much nailed it in this post. Having learned Mandarin (I am a white boy, not Chinese American) as well as a few other languages, I would reiterate/ some things:</p>
<p>1) These languages are all tough to learn; you WILL need a sense of heartfelt interest in the language and culture to keep going and get to the point that you speak the language you choose well enough for it to make a difference. So you what interests you. If you think about learning a language as just a skill to help out and have zero actual interest, I'd actually counsel giving it up right now.
2) In terms of international relations, Chinese, Farsi, Arabic will undoubtedly be important. However, they will be different in different ways. Chinese for business and diplomacy and the latter probably more for diplomacy or intelligence. The key question here: what do you want to do?</p>