<p>Colombia is at the northern most tip of South America. Equador, Peru and Brazil neighbor it from the South, Venezuela from the East and Panama from the North. Colombia’s coasts are on the Pacific and on the Caribbean. Colombia’s official language is Spanish.</p>
<p>French prononciation is definitely difficult.</p>
<p>Why are you just picking between French and Spanish? There are many other languages out there. Of course, it all really depends on what you want to do. Spanish is the lingua franca of Central and South America, if you have an interest in those regions, it’s a very good one to learn. Unless you have an interest in those regions, though, Spanish is a low value language, it’s not an important language for international business or diplomacy, and it doesn’t open much history to you.</p>
<p>French was, once upon a time, the principal language of global business and diplomacy, but has since been eclipsed by English. That said, it retains an important status as a working language of the UN, etc. and an official language of 29 countries (and an important language in several others). In every region of the world other than the Americas, you’ll find more French speakers than English speakers, and many of the countries where French is spoken are richer and more involved in business and diplomacy than the Spanish-speaking nations. French also opens a lot of avenues for historical study that Spanish does not, as it was long the language of diplomacy.</p>
<p>That said, I’d encourage you to think about some other languages as well. If your primary field of interest is global business, think about German - Germany is one of the world’s dominant commercial powers and many German firms are incredibly important in international business. You might also want to think about Japan - Japan is again an important economy, and given that you already speak Mandarin, picking up Japanese would allow you to market yourself as able to do East Asia generally (of course Korean would be helpful to in this respect, but one step at a time). Finally, it might be worth learning Hindi - China and India are the world’s most important growing economic powers (and largest nations) so being able to do both is great - of course Hindi isn’t spoken everywhere in India (and is less dominant than Mandarin in China) and English is more common in India, making Hindi less essential but it’s still probably the 5th most spoken language in the world. You can also walk Bollywood without subtitles :).</p>
<p>If your interest is in international security, then the essential languages to think about are Arabic, Farsi, Russian, and Urdu. All of these are also “critical needs” languages, which mean that if you can speak them (and are an American citizen) you received preference in hiring for the State Department, CIA, FBI, and other agencies focused on international affairs.</p>
<p>On the whole, frankly I would advise against either Spanish or French. People who can speak English and Spanish or French are a dime a dozen. People who can bring less common languages like Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Urdu (and many others including Korean, Turkish, Indonesian, etc.) to the table are much more valuable to potential employers. Academically, these languages are more challenging, but they also open the doors to research you might not otherwise be able to do.</p>
<p>Potatoes, in Europe, I think French is the main language to focus on, even if Germany currently has the largest economy ($3.2 trillion vs France’s $2.7 trillion). The main reason for this is demographic. Germany, Italy and Spain have aging and shrinking populations. France’s population, on the other hand, is growing, thanks particularly to the French themselves. France’s population in 2000 was 58 million, same as England’s. Italy’s population was close to 60 million. Germany’s population back then stood at $85 million. In 2010, France’s population hit 63 million, England’s population (also growing) hit 62 million, but Germany’s and Italy’s populations shrunk to 83 million and 58 million resptectively. If the trend of the past 20 years persists, by 2030 or 2040, France and Germany will each have populations of 75 million, but France’s GPD will be larger than Germany’s thanks to a younger and more active workforce. </p>
<p>Furthermore, speaking English, French and Mandarin is an excellent combination, whether in business or diplomacy. Of course, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese or Russian would also be interesting, but to be honest with you, Arabic, Hindi and Russian would present a very big challenge given their entirely different roots and alphabets. At least French and English have some commonalities.</p>
<p>Realistically speaking, I think French and German are Amy’s best options.</p>
<p>Oh, I remember that my high school teacher told us about Colombia. Thanks.</p>
<p>Thank you giving me so lots of advice. In my college, it only provides German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean for us to choose. I am not interested in Japanese, and Korean, and in my country, If someone wants to learn Japanese, and Korean, they can just go to cram school to learn those two language, especially Japanese; so I don’t take Japanese, and Korean into consideration.</p>
<p>I will also take French and German into consideration. During those days, I will try to know a little bit of those languages to help me making the decision. :)</p>