Given the opportunity to study either Hindi, Tajik, or Russian, which would be the best to choose in terms of usefulness for international/foreign relations type work? Thanks for any help received 
It depends on which country/region interests you.
Are you interested in India? Then study Hindi. With Hindi, you also have the basis for Urdu if Pakistan interests you.
Are you interested in Central Asia (including Iran and Afghanistan)? Then study Tajik. It is less likely to be useful, though, unless your career involves local field work.
Are you interested in Russia? Then study Russian.
Also… you might just consider Spanish. Spoken by an entire continent, and then some.
Which continent would that be? Not South America, because the inhabitants of Brazil, Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana might beg to differ.
To the OP, choose whichever language aligns with your interests.
You’re being pedantic, @skieurope.
Educated Indians speak English, which is one of India’s official languages. Pretty much all international business is conducted in English.
Thanks for the tips so far. I would honestly love to study any of the three languages but am having trouble picking which one to go with! I guess in terms of usefulness it comes down to Hindi and Russian as of now
I’ve had the privileged opportunity to sit in on meetings with TCS in Hyderabad, Reliance in Mumbai, and local startups in Delhi. All business was done in English, even for the small, local startups.
If I had to choose between any, I’d personally choose Spanish. If I had to choose between the 3, I’d pick Russian, because once you really know Russian, it’s also manageable to pick up Polish, Ukrainian, and other CEE languages.
Definition of pedantic, at least the definition I think you are referring to:
Now let’s see. The population of South America (which is the only continent you could possibly have meant when you said an entire continent spoke Spanish) is about 386,000,000 while the population of Brazil is about 191,000,000 or very close to half. So without even counting the smaller non-Spanish speaking countries, I think we passed “minute details” by quite some measure.
Instead of criticizing other members incorrectly, maybe it would be better to just say you made a mistake.
@VanillaBean22 - Studying a language is about more than the utility of using that language later. Do you have a particular interest or fascination with one of those cultures and/or their literature so that you might want to read novels in the original language? That latter is what made my son decide to major in Russian, and it worked out well for him. He is now a lawyer involved in immigration issues. The Russian specialty actually got about 80% of his law school paid for under a Dept. of Educ. program that wants to make sure we have US citizens that are conversant in key languages. It is called FLAS, and you might want to look into it. I believe there are some funds available at the undergraduate level as well.
“Educated Indians speak English, which is one of India’s official languages. Pretty much all international business is conducted in English.”
That’s true to a degree, but many educated Indians do not speak English or do not speak it well. In any case, learning the language of a country can provides a level of cultural understanding that is difficult to attain through other means. In addition, much local print and broadcast media is only accessible in Hindi or one of the other native languages. For fieldwork or interacting with locals other than educated government officials or certain levels of business leaders, Hindi is important. The US government categorizes Hindi as a critical language.
That said, many students post on CC asking what language would be “the best to choose in terms of usefulness for international/foreign relations type work.” The answer depends on how “best” and “useful” are defined. Also, it’ll always come back to what country/region most interests you.
I studied French in middle and high school. Now that I live in Texas part-time, it would’ve been much more useful for me to have studied Spanish. Even within the US, Spanish is a very widely-used language.
You really need to decide why you want to learn a language and what practical use you will have for it. I am bilingual in Spanish and know quite a bit of French but that did not help me at all for an internship in Germany. Figure out which people you will be interacting with and in what sort of setting you will meet them in (casual, business, scientific, etc.) and grow from there.
@fallenchemist thanks for the insight on cultural fascination vs practical application. I will consider that as I continue sorting through what language to focus on.
As for spanish, I just finished AP Spanish at my high school. I will of course be furthering my knowledge on the subject but at the moment would like to look into other languages.
I’d like to ask why you chose these specific languages? As far as I know, English, Mandarin and Spanish may be more helpful for international.foreign relations type of work.
@HumphyDumpy I did some research and saw that those languages are pretty useful in terms of “most spoken languages in the world.”
In terms of EM&S, I’ve been studying Spanish since elementary school and will continue to do so and I speak/write/etc mandarin at home. I won’t be ditching either but would like to branch out more.
@fallenchemist I agree that one should study the language that most turns you on. That, @vanillabean22, is the most solid advice. Besides, once you are in the process - particularly in a foreign country - you tend to discover things you never suspected were there, which can change your direction fundamentally. So it is good to go with your gut, take a language because you are attracted to or curious the culture at some deep emotional level instead of pursuing some idea of utility in some future imagined career.
Is that so, If that’s the case then I may recommend Russian @VanillaBean22
Since you simply want to learn more, from the choices, I think Russian is the best one to learn
I may be biased since I’m currently studying Russian, but I’d say go for that over Hindi. Someone else mentioned that it’s easier to pick up other languages, it’ll open plenty of doors for you (especially in the government sector, if that’s a route you end up going), and with the current wars in the Middle East, I’d say it’s good to know just for that alone… But again, go with what you’re just inherently more interested in learning.