<p>I'm going to the University of South Carolina this fall and I'm going to be major in International Business and Finance and I'm required to minor in a foreign language also.</p>
<p>I'm quite torn between what I want to learn. I've considered learning Chinese but I'm not entirely sure if I want to study abroad or conduct business in an Asian nation. I've also considered either minoring in both French and German and then I would be able to do business in a large portion of Europe.</p>
<p>French, German, Spanish and Italian are the big ones for Europe. I tried learning German but it was too hard for me. I speak Spanish and some Catalan, so French would be easier for me, but my recommendation is that you would learn either French or German, depending on which would be easier for you. English shares a lot of words with both languages.</p>
<p>Which culture do you like better? Which do you want to know better? Learning another language is never a bad choice, but you’ll have an easier time if there is more of an incentive than “business” reasons. Between German and French, influence-wise French is more widespread, but if you like Goethe more than Voltaire, it’ll be better for you to pick German.</p>
<p>Chinese (I’m guessing Mandarin) is really hard to learn if the only thing you want to do is conduct business. The best way to learn a language is through immersion, and while it’s not always possible to do that, to really learn a language you have to at least want to be immersed in a culture using that language.</p>