<p>that's so true</p>
<p>then again SVO, copulas, topic prominence, perfectives, modial particles, number words, muti-verb construction...</p>
<p>ok it's not true</p>
<p>Out of all the language scripts, I think Arabic is the nicest or most eloquent looking. Especially Arabic calligraphy, that outweighs any other script! <a href="http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l126/Shaharazed/haqq-36.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l126/Shaharazed/haqq-36.jpg</a></p>
<p>i think every one of the world's major writing systems are ugly...except georgian...now THAT is awesome</p>
<p>გამარჯობათ</p>
<p>I just graduated college and probably the biggest regret I have is not taking a foreign language. I took Spanish through middle school and high school, but I wanted to take Italian in college.</p>
<p>Georgian font: Image:Garejawriting.jpg</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>Arabic font: blue+mosque+arabic.jpg</a> (image)</p>
<p>they're both cool, but I'd still say Arabic looks cooler ;)</p>
<p>Try latin. Its useful in so many fields, and you'll start noticing connections in most romantic languages.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Learn chinese
Chinese has no grammar at all.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Right, but instead of grammar, Chinese comes with tens of thousands of symbols you have to memorize! Oh, and the likelihood that you'll never have perfect pronunciation, no matter how hard you try (seriously there are just sound sounds that you won't be able to imitate past the age of 8). Not suggesting not taking Chinese, just playing Devil's advocate.</p>
<p>Latin is dead. I took it for a while and I realized I am <em>NOT</em> going to spend my precious time learning a stupid language that today is only useful in the Vatican! Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, et cetera are all much more invaluable languages. Think about it, who would you prefer on a resume, fluent in Spanish or Latin? Um.</p>
<p>Chinese is an awesome language, don't even deny it.
See, you people are so short sighted, and certainly lacks traditional Chinese wisdom which I so greatly appreciate. </p>
<p>Think about it and think it smart.
Learning Chinese quadruple your chance of getting laid. There are 600 million getting-laid opportunity available as soon as you are fluent.
Learning Italian only increase your chance of getting laid by the smallest percentage, which is both insignificant and trivial, laregly due to the number of English speakers in Italy.
Learning Arabic, hell, you get no laid. Cuz they only marry muslim people, damn it! </p>
<p>They say play Devil's Advocate
Hell, I say play Pascal's Wager.</p>
<p>=P</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Well, I remember walking out of a disco in Asia at about 2AM and I was accosted by a prostitute who said, "I speak English too." I remember wondering why I would care, were I to actually partonize a prostitute, that she spoke English. I don't think Chinese "getting laid" opportunities only come with fluency. I don't even think they come with learning the language. Anyway, I like latinas; I'd learn Spanish or Portuguese....</p>
<p>Now back to the topic at hand: to the OP, let us know what you decide. You've gotten enough input.</p>
<p>If you're going to live in the U.S., you should learn Spanish. Here in Texas, there are tons of job opportunities for people who speak English and Spanish, and the Hispanic population is only going to grow.</p>
<p>Hey everyone, thank you soooo much for all of the input. I have read it all very carefully over the past few days and have made a decision!!!</p>
<p>My first decision was to rule out Chinese. Although I find it interesting, I do not think I have the drive to devote that much time and energy to a language, as learning another language is not one of my primary goals at the moment.</p>
<p>So that narrowed it down to Italian and Spanish. Someone brought up the great point that as they are related, I can always go back to one or the other and not have an amazingly difficult time relearning. SOOO I have decided to go with Italian because it is something I really am super interested in. Then I can study abroad in Italy!! And then... hope to find some other use for it.</p>
<p>The funniest point I think came from my mother. She was talking about how in at least the fields I am looking at going into, the only time you would really need a foreign language is if you were going to get stationed in another country. Whatever language you speak determines where you would be moved to. She said that when she was starting out at a company she used to work at, she hid the fact that she spoke German and played up her Danish skills because she didn't want to be stationed in Germany!</p>
<p>Sorry that was sort of long... and thanks again to everyone who contributed advice!!</p>
<p>Good thing about the Romance languages is that they're all inter-related, and once you pick up one of them, it shouldn't be too difficult to learn the others.</p>