What is a good second language to know?

[Plurralbles]

I chose French.

I live in the US so Spanish makes a lot more sense but... screw it. I can go to Canada instead of the South West.

Chinese is hard and I just can't stand the language. It's pretty ugly.

Go with French.

OH and... even if you're reading this, just gotta' put it out there, English is a great second language to know. XD

 

[dmase]

Spanish is the most applicable if your goona stay in the americas south of canada. Its rather easy to learn tho. I'd take a japanese or chinese language if you ever wanna go abroad, i would like visit the asias at some point in my life.

 

[crudus]

Italian or Greek(ancient or otherwise). Those are just my personal favorites.

 

[Blue Musician]

For me, Arabic and Russian, maybe German and French.
I already know English and Spanish BTW...

 

[Screamarie]

You could always try Esperanto. Takes about 150 hours to learn, all the grammar can fit on a notecard, and there are Esperanto houses in every continent(people who host other esperanto speakers) and I've been told that you can travel the world uses these houses and never pay for a hotel.

 

[Naheal]

You're moving to Cali. A few suggestions:

Spanish. Specifically, the Mexican dialect of Spanish. Most of the immigrants there are Mexican and Spanish will be incredibly useful.

Japanese, Korean, or Mandarin. The other major immigrant is some form of Asian. Knowing one of these three languages would be useful.

Beyond that, go with what sounds good.

 

[superbatranger]

I'd go with Spanish or Mandarin. If I'm not mistaken, most employers will love if you also speak Spanish or Mandarin.

 

[Romidude]

French is easy, I've been in French schools for all of my life, Russian is a fun language to speak, but the gramatical structure is strange. I would not suggest Arabic thought, when I went to the Middle-East to visit relatives, I had to pick up some. Aside from it being complicated, there is a different version for each country, rendering it useless in a way.

Knowing Four languages is fun.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I'm learning French, damn near a necessity in Canada if you want to be marketable. I'd like to learn Latin and/or Russian, though.

 

[Hader]

Latin, if you plan on doing more romance languages.

Mandarin, or Arabic, have more immediate practical applications though.

 

[loc978]

Mandarin. Probably the second trade language of the future.

 

[GodofCider]

A good second language to know? Depends on where you live I suppose; and what you intend on doing in at least the short term future. Personally, given my present location, French is the most useful secondary language to me; with Spanish making a close third.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

Mandarin or Cantonese if you really want something to be functional and useful for the next 20 years.

French if you want to woo le femmes.

German or Russian if you enjoy yelling in a glutteral manner.

Spanish, since you're talking about being in Cali, would be useful because of the number of latinos who have moved there.

 

[awesomeClaw]

Swedish.

...

Okay, German then. I myself have just started on German in my school.
It´s actually pretty easy. Ofcourse, it is rather similar to swedish...

 

[Manicotti]

I agree that it depends where in the Midwest you're moving, but I've lived in Wisconsin or Illinois my whole life and Spanish is extremely useful to know. If you can learn Spanish, you can pick up French, since they have a lot of the same roots (which also dominate English).

ASL - American Sign Language - is a good idea, but it's a far more situational thing and will probably be harder to learn. I don't know.

Picking up Mandarin or Japanese is also a really good idea pending your traveling and business interests.

Personally, I'd go with C++. Or maybe Python.

 

[starwarsgeek]

Most useful would probably be spanish, maybe sign language or Mandarin as a third.

 

[Nouw]

Spanish and Mandirin is the most practical. Somehow it's 'cool' to learn Japanese >.>

 

[sharkinz]

Mandarin probably.

 

[crazypsyko666]

Depending on where you're moving in California, you may want to learn either Spanish, Redneck, or every variation of asian languages ever.

 

[katsabas]

Greek and Romanian. Cause I speak those and they are awesome.