I've dabbled in French, Spanish, German, Mandarin and Russian.
I've come to the conclusion that Spanish is by far the easiest to learn, read, and retain. French is easy enough to speak, but hard to write. German is surprisingly similar to English, which helps, but ultimately the grammar pooches you so writing is out. Mandarin is tricky with the tones, but if you give up on learning any kind of reading, you can pick it up fairly quickly. Russian is fun to read because the alphabet is 50% the same, but it's just impossible to speak.
I think, if you're going to learn 3 languages in your life, they should be English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Those'll get you most places you want to go and help you get rich beyond your wildest dreams.
Although...
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