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<ol>
<li>The US is not in economic decline.</li>
<li>The US is not the only country which has English as a predominant language.</li>
<li>English is far more prominent in most countries than Japanese. The only exception I can think of would be Japan.</li>
</ol>
<p>Being in the same situation as the OP, I’m wondering which of these languages do most college students take? This is also quite relevant, as for example Spanish is probably high in demand but the number of people in US who speak it is huge. Learning Spanish will not make you stand out, while there are probably less Russian or Japanese speakers. Or I’m wrong?</p>
<p>One person’s opinion- but I think some of this has to do with what you want to do, where you what to live, etc. If you plan to stay in the states, than yes, Spanish is a much needed language at most companies. I run a business, talk to business owners - and we all need bi-lingual employees to serve that growing segment of our country. It does set you apart. </p>
<p>If you want to enter the financial industry in some way - than Madarian is the choice.</p>
<p>Arabic is needed particularly in government sectors, all levels.</p>
<p>Mandarin. If you speak it you’re valuable, and I think it would be wise to learn it with China growing as rapidly as it is on the world’s playing field.</p>
<p>Raikyure - As a native Spanish speaker, I can definitely say there are not enough people who can speak Spanish well enough for a job setting so it is still a big plus.</p>
<p>in all honesty, almost all educated people, regardless of where they live or what their native lang. is, know and have learned english.</p>
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<p>all the high-powered businessmen and officials from china (who have a majority of their businesses in china) speak either very limited english or dont speak it at all. i’d learn mandarin. plus learning a language is more than mere communication, you learn about their culture as well. a chinese/japanese/arab/russian businessman will be more inclined towards your proposal if you speak his language/understand his culture versus someone who doesn’t…all other things being equal.</p>
<p>I think this topic goes back to the question of why a student wants to learn a language. Should I learn it for a future career or should I learn it to further explore a culture?</p>
<p>I’m in it for both as a Mandarin learner now.</p>
<p>^ interesting. at first i did it for culture exposure but now i’m leaning towards the career opportunities it provides.</p>
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<p>You’re right about the culture/inclination part, but honestly, how good will your mandarin be even if you take 4 years of it? I’m sure their English will just be as bad as your mandarin. </p>
<p>Plus, thats right now. The businessmen and officials of today speak little English because they grew up in communist China. The businessmen and officials a few years of now will pretty much all speak English, albeit broken English.</p>
<p>I’m going to audit language courses, I’ve decided. Has anyone audited courses before?</p>
<p>Only one country speaks Japanese: Japan
But Japanese just had an earthquake and now its filled with radiation</p>
<p>Dont think you should learn jap.</p>
<p>Spanish is another good language you should consider studying.</p>
<p>If you want to do business w/the Chinese businessmen it’s an etiquette thing to at least try to speak their language, especially if you’re visiting China. You’ll get a lot further if you speak in their language. We owe so much money to China that such things are important.</p>
<p>And face it, the US is in somewhat of an economic decline, don’t kid yourself.</p>
<p>A poll about this actually appeared on the Wharton SPIKE homepage for MBAs and undergrads. Russian won by a landslide with 720 votes. Mandarin(Chinese) was second with 190 votes. Russian is definitely a bigger need because the Chinese upper class(aka the chinese business class) knows English pretty well.</p>
<p>woooo, I feel confident then, in deciding to study Russian. Not just for utility, but for the access it provides to such an amazing culture… I also know ancient greek and noticed that the alphabet letters sometimes resemble each other. I hope I don’t confuse them! belief, I’d like to audit language courses too, but don’t know if I’ll have time in college or whether I should, since I will be essentially doing three languages (classic- latin and greek, russian) and possible have a second major on top of classics. Italian and Portuguese are very appealing to me… And then there’s the whole thing about actually relearning spanish (I’m hispanic and a fluent speaker, but have no idea about the grammar or even how to really spell some words because I arrived in the U.S. before grade school in El Salvador)</p>
<p>Long story short: I need to learn every romance language. :/</p>
<p>good luck with that^ we can be business partners in the future!</p>
<p>I would suggest either Arabic or Chinese. Mandarin is very applicable seeing as how China will become a super power in the near future, however Mandarin will be very difficult to learn well in just 4 years if you don’t do a lot of study abroad in China, and poorly learned Mandarin won’t really be that much use. I would also think Arabic would be useful if you’re doing military stuff. I’m not sure how difficult it is to learn with respect to Chinese though.</p>
<p>China’s economy is growing fast, within a couple of decades it’s going to be bigger than America’s. I would choose Chinese over Russian. I think that if China is the country of the future, so is the Chinese language.</p>
<p>I think he has probably chosen by now considering a year has passed since he asked the question</p>